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AEDC | 2022 - 2023 ANNUAL REPORT
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AEDC’s manufacturing projects reuse existing infrastructure,
protect the environment, create employment opportunities that
are accessible to Allentown residents and generate inbound
wealth into the community, a community with a long history of
hard work and deep relationship with manufacturing.
Pursuing manufacturing projects, on brownfields and in urban
areas runs counter to virtually every land use pattern and
economic trend since World War II. To change 75 years of
outcomes left by that legacy requires AEDC to be the first to
jump into the vacuum. Once engaged, AEDC, often through
sheer force of will, moves the project forward while we identify
other partners to toil with us to return economic activity to
these sites. Without AEDC’s involvement, who knows what
would fill the vacuum.
This report highlights a recent success in all three of AEDC’s
programs with more work in progress.
Nature can be very resilient; plants grow rapidly anywhere
open soil exists in the absence of human activity. Aristotle is
credited with observing this phenomenon when he stated that
“nature abhors a vacuum.” Unlike a carefully cultivated garden,
what sprouts organically may not be what we would have
planted deliberately.
Brownfields are previously developed sites that have become
vacant or dormant and are challenging to redevelop due to real
or perceived environmental impacts. Brownfields often mimic
what Aristotle observed about vacuums. Litter, dumping,
weeds, graffiti, vandalism and other activities gravitate to
vacant or abandoned properties. For decades the United
States economy has moved away from manufacturing,
resulting in brownfields scattering the landscape, particularly in
urban areas.
Since 1979, AEDC’s Urban Sites program has worked to
create projects where there were no projects. Our efforts
directly combat the “vacuum” effect and seek instead to
replace vacant and underutilized properties with productive
uses that support employment and generate economic activity.
In so doing we often work to protect and support
manufacturing uses that continue to be underrepresented in
contemporary municipal zoning ordinances.