Strategic and Economic Development Plans
Services: Strategic Plans | Disaster Response and Recovery Plans | Investment Frameworks | Implementation Plans | Economic Development Plans
HGA’s work in preparing strategic plans ranges from disaster recovery, to economic development, to Housing Authority planning. Each type of work involves extensive research, outreach, and plan development centered on creating grounded and realistic solutions catered to each individual client.
HGA has experience developing strategic plans to guide policies, investment, and response to major events. Strategic plans have included post-Superstorm Sandy recovery and most recently addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. HGA is working on creative solutions that enable municipalities to respond, adapt, and thrive in the face of adversity. Our plans offer communities immediate actions as well as long-term goals and projects related to relevant focus areas.
HGA prepared numerous Strategic Recovery Reports after Superstorm Sandy ravaged the east coast. These reports helped municipalities organize their recovery efforts and identify further funding sources for additional planning-related recovery efforts.
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, our firm began working with municipalities to establish land use initiatives in response to the quickly changing environment. COVID-19 created a sudden and dramatic shift in our day-to-day lives. The pandemic changed the way retail and commercial spaces are designed and ultimately experienced by their users. Given how recently these new trends have emerged, the new normal of commercial spaces is continuing to evolve. There has been a measurable increase in work-from-home or hybrid policies as well as the demands for additional open space in urban areas. As municipalities work to adapt, flexibility will be key to thriving in this new way of life.
HGA has also been involved in the development of several economic development plans focused on reinvigorating economic activity in commercial throughout the state. Recent trends that have impacted towns includes the continued increase of e-commerce as a percentage of retail sales as well a the COVID-19 pandemic. While the social distancing concerns that kept patrons away from brick and mortar stores during the height of the pandemic have receded, the trends associated with online shopping remain consistent. Our economic development plans focus on town-specific issues in the context of regional trends and work toward recommendations geared to revitalize and modernize our state’s retail areas and corridors.