Broome

Chenango

Cortland

Delaware

Otsego

Schoharie

Tioga

Tompkins

regional

Mission

Our Vision

Southern Tier 8 Regional Board is a vibrant, multi-facet planning and development agency proudly serving eight counties in the Southern Tier region of Upstate New York. Our focus is to sustain and grow our region’s economy by assessing current challenges, developing forward-thinking ideas, adapting practical solutions, and creating opportunities for the future.

Our Approach

Our approach to leading the region in economic development and community well-being, is to continually adapt and evolve our process to stay current and innovative with our activity. We do this by aligning dynamic partnerships, providing technical assistance and grant writing, supporting program administration, and developing geospatial and data analysis. Collaboration with each county’s planning departments and economic developers is paramount to the success of our activity. We believe that by working together, we can identify the needs of each county with clarity and vision. This leads to our ability to effectively prioritize federal funding requests and leverage private sector investment for thoughtful consideration of ARC & EDA investments and distribution throughout the region. Our hands-on approach includes providing technical assistance to our 8 county governments, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations to promote the most impactful projects to grow the economy and community well-being in the Southern Tier 8 region.

Our History

Southern Tier East Regional Planning Development Board was established in 1968 as a special purpose local government unit under Articles 5G and 12B of New York State’s General Municipal Law. It operates under joint resolution of the legislative bodies of our member counties: Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Tioga and Tompkins. In 2016, a "doing business as" was filed as Southern Tier 8 Regional Board.

View our 5 year plan 2018-2022:

Administrative Assistant & office manager

Jen Gregory

Executive Director

Sophia Pappas

Sustainability Coordinator Trainee
Economic Development Specialist

Ashley Seyfried

Sustainability Coordinator

Board of Directors

Broome County

Greg Baldwin County Legislator
Joseph Mihalko County Clerk
Beth Lucas Director of Planning & Economic Development

Chenango County

Robert Jeffrey Chair & Board of Supervisors, City of Norwich Wards 4,5,6
Shane Butler Director of Planning & Airport Adminstrator
Erik Scrivener Community Development Director of Norwich

Cortland County

Beau Harbin Vice-Chair & County Legislator (LD 2)
Scott Steve Mayor of Cortland, County Representative
Trisha Hiemstra Director of Planning

Delaware County

Allen Hinckley Supervisor, Town of Roxbury
Shelly Johnson-Bennett Director of Planning
Sean Penchoff Economic Development Specialist

Otsego County

Michelle Catan County Representative-District 4
Jody Zakrevsky CEO, Otsego Now
Tammie Harris Director of Planning & Solid Waste

Schoharie County

Alicia Terry Board of Supervisors, Town of Gilboa
Shane Nickle Senior Planner/Lead Supervisor Schoharie County Office of Community Development Services
Julie Pacatte Executive Director Schoharie Economic Enterprise Corp, SEEC

Tioga County

Barbara Roberts County Legislator, District 3
Elaine Jardine Director of Planning
Brittany Woodburn Deputy Director of Economic Development & Planning

Tompkins County

Gregory Mezey County Legislator
Katie Borgella Commissioner of Planning and Sustainability
Heather McDaniel CEcD, AICP, EDFP President of Ithaca Area Economic Development
ROI

Regional

Southern Tier 8 Regional Board represents eight counties as the 6th largest Local Development District for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and five counties as an Economic Development District under the US Economic Development Administration (EDA). Federal partners, ARC and EDA offer investments to leverage private sector dollars that increase job opportunities, raise per capita income, promote infrastructure improvements and strengthen the capacity of our people to compete in global economies. County participation and investments make these programs possible, with an average annual return of $5,500 per $1 of local investment.