In the Spring of 2010 twenty regional leaders formed a group to assume control over Economic Planning for the 10 municipality Housatonic Valley Region (Brookfield, Danbury, New Milford, Ridgefield, New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, Bethel, Sherman & Bridgewater).

The group became the  Western Connecticut Economic Development Alliance (WCEDA) and the area covered renamed Western Connecticut Region. After creating the organization and raising funds, Garnet Consulting and CERC were retained to develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) for the Region.

That CEDS was completed in December of 2013 and it is being reviewed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) for their approval.

The CEDS is a resource that contains:

• Demographic Analysis
• Fiscal & Economic Analysis
• Industry Segmentation
• Cluster Synergies
• Infrastructure
• Economic Development Strengths, weaknesses, Issues and Opportunities Assessment
• Visioning & Action Planning
• Regional Objectives/Initiatives
• Action Agenda, and Regional Projects.

For existing businesses in the Region or Companies considering relocation to western Connecticut, CEDS is a valuable source of data and insight for making decisions.

WCEDA is now in progress of implementation of the CEDS in terms of organization, communication, consultation, outreach and the many other economic development tasks that define an effective economic development organization.

The CEDS Executive Summary, the Main Report, and Appendices are also available at WESTCOG’s website: https://westcog.org/