Non-Residential Construction Report

Summary

Each year, the Chester County Planning Commission analyzes data available from the Chester County Assessment Department to understand the features of non-residential development added annually, as well as long-term trends. This information provides valuable insight to guide planning decisions and to implement the Live Goal of the Landscapes3 Comprehensive Plan. Non-residential projects include Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Institutional projects.

This report presents data at both the county and municipal level. The sales price of non-residential projects is reported in terms of the median value, which is the middle figure of all sales. The average price is not used, because an extremely high or low price for but a few sales can misrepresent true housing value. This report includes an evaluation of projects added each year dating back ten years. It also addresses the different types of projects: Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional.

Figure 1 — New Non-Residential Projects for Chester County (Number and Square Feet) 2016-2025

As Figure 1 shows, the number of projects in 2025 was typical of the last ten years. The total square footage was low relative to the last ten years. However, square footage fluctuates, and this recent data could be an extreme version of that.

Methodology

For projects built prior to 2019, a list of proposed additions and new non-residential projects was generated from the Chester County Planning Commission's permit data for projects proposed from 2010-2019. The data included year proposed, location, description, non-residential type (agricultural, commercial, industrial, or institutional), and square feet. Assessment data was then used to determine the construction year for the permit data. Projects were assumed completed when significant changes in assessment value were recorded. Historical Google aerial imagery was then used to confirm completion of projects with assessment change and identify additional completed projects. Approximate years were assigned for built projects when the exact construction year was unavailable on aerial imagery. All other projects were assumed to remain incomplete.

For 2019 through 2020 new non-residential building data, an annual permit data list was generated for projects proposed in the previous year and added to the list of outstanding projects. The identified projects were then sent to municipalities for review. Finally, site visits were completed to ascertain status of any projects that did not receive municipal review.

For 2021 and 2022 followed the prior years' process, with an addition of utilizing Nearmap imagery to determine completed projects. Because the latest available imagery was from October 2021, any projects which were partially built in the imagery were reviewed by site visits in February 2022. For 2023 and 2024 Nearmap imagery was used. Projects were considered completed when a building was built and functional. For projects with multiple buildings constructed over multiple years, project duplicates were created, counting the project as multiple separate projects, with square feet being included in the year they were built.

For projects over 10,000 square feet prior to 2021, aerial imagery was cross referenced with the approved building plans to obtain updated building square feet added. For 2021 through 2023 projects, any changes for all projects from original plans were noted and square footage was adjusted using measurement tools in Nearmap. If final building matched the original plan, the submitted square footage was used.

Building type was obtained through submitted plan data, and updated as needed. Projects with more than one building type were counted as .5 of a project.

Due to methodology changes, data from prior years may have changed due to previous inaccuracies in completion status.