Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)

The Capital Region consists of the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady. The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) has served as the EDA designated Economic Development District since 1984 for the Capital Region counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady. One primary requirement that EDA has consistently required is the preparation and continual maintenance of a five-year CEDS for the region.

Prior to the formal adoption by CDRPC, the 2023-2027 Draft Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) has been released for a 30-day public comment period beginning on April 26, 2023 and will be open until May 26, 2023. If you would like to provide any comment on the current draft CEDS, please email Kate Maynard at kate.maynard@cdrpc.org.

2023-2027 CEDS

In today’s competitive global market, it is necessary for the Capital Region to have a long-term economic development strategy that can serve as a road map to progress and prosperity. The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) does just that.  It is a locally-based, regionally-driven economic development planning process and document that successfully engages a range of partners, including community leaders and residents, Economic Development Districts (EDDs), the private sector, educational institutions, and other stakeholders in planning for the region’s future.

The 2023-2027 CEDS was developed with collaborative intent to inclusively build off and incorporate planning and implementation efforts in the Capital Region, and not duplicate specific and related efforts. This work included significant input and direction from our CEDS strategic committee members, stakeholder interviews, and results from a CEDS survey sent out in late 2022.

Based on guidelines from EDA, this strategy provides a concise, visual document with specific strategic actions that reflect current and emerging priorities within the region. While we report some data in the document, we recognize that data is always changing and this information is only a snapshot while we continue to maintain up-to-date data on our website and capitalregionindicators.org. It aligns our federal priorities with those of the state’s Regional Economic Development Council, and other significant NYS initiatives and programming where feasible. The new CEDS also considers the need for resiliency in our economic development program.

A 30-day public comment period began on April 24, 2023 and will be open until May 24, 2023. If you would like to provide any comment on the current draft CEDS, please email Kate Maynard at kate.maynard@cdrpc.org.