GGBA Explores Creation of "Green Business District" in Germantown

John Elliott Churchville, Chairman/CEO of Liberation Fellowship Community Development Corporation and Interim President of The Greater Germantown Business Association, Inc. (GGBA) announced today that the GGBA has engaged in a process to join with other small historic communities (The Germantown Avenue Business Corridor is a National Historic Landmark) around the state to form the Network of Urban Ecology Communities (NUEC). “Our strategic partners in this endeavor are the School of Architecture of Philadelphia University, along with Lafayette College, and Easton University in Easton, PA,” Churchville said

Churchville noted that “These academic institutions are in the early stages of developing an Institute for the Network that will coordinate the in-depth studies of Network communities to provide the baseline data necessary for planning and carrying out forward-looking ecological projects that will serve as national models of urban ecological community development.”

Initial participants in the Network will include Germantown (through the GGBA), East Falls, the West Ward Urban Ecology Project of Easton, PA, the five Upper Schuylkill Historic Main Street towns, Ridgeway, and the Uptown section of Harrisburg, PA. “The objectives of the Network are to join efforts in creating ‘green collar jobs,’ unique Green Businesses as models for economic development, and the development of urban housing rehabilitation and weatherization projects that integrate Green building and historic rehabilitation standards that are both practical and affordable to low and moderate income homeowners within the ambit of the Network,” Churchville noted.

Indicating a strategic shift in the GGBA’s focus, Churchville added: “The GGBA’s specific focus for the immediate future will be on investigating the feasibility and creation of a ‘Green Business District’ along Germantown Avenue near the Town Hall Project. This will involve visiting selected national Green business chains and encouraging them to locate stores in Germantown, recruiting Philadelphia area Green businesses to relocate to Germantown, and helping existing Germantown businesses to take the necessary steps to ‘Go Green’ in incremental, affordable steps in order to benefit from the growing national economic trend that is shifting to Green products and services.”