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Reading is one of two cities in Pennsylvania recently approved for a City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) designation. The other city is Erie. Reading has created a CRIZ Authority to help manage this effort. The CRIZ program allows cities to designate up to 130 acres of properties as part of the improvement zone. The program enables the city to reinvest state and local taxes collected within the zone into economic development projects within the zone boundaries, paving the way for a stronger and more vibrant community. Similar to a tax incremental financing program (TIF), it is structured to protect the existing tax base while providing funding derived from tax revenues from new economic development within the zone.
Reading has designated 128.8 acres as the Reading CRIZ zone. These include properties in the area near Canal Street, the Penn Street Corridor and the corridor along Washington Street. It also includes three other properties in the city that have been targets for redevelopment: the Dana Property, the Glidden Property and the Penn Optical Property.
The CRIZ program had been dormant for nearly a decade, before Erie and Reading received the designation. Previously, the cities of Lancaster, Bethlehem and Tamaqua were designated as CRIZ communities. In 2023, nearly $15 million was returned to these communities.
