Northern Border Regional Development

The Northern Border Regional Development Commission (NBRC) is a regional economic development partnership between federal, state, and local government. Established by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill, the Commission is composed of the governors of the 4 Northern Border states and a federal co-chair, who is appointed by the President of the United States. Each year Congress appropriates funds for Commission programs. The program provides financial and technical assistance to constituencies in the region in meeting its special problems, to promote its economic development, and to establish a framework for joint federal-state-local efforts toward providing the basic facilities essential to its growth, attacking its common problems and meeting its common needs on a coordinated and concerted regional basis.

Northern Border Region

New York State is one of the four states in the federally-defined Northern Border region that includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Under the program the States are responsible for recommending projects for NBRC assistance in the following seven priority areas:

  • (1) transportation infrastructure;
  • (2) basic public infrastructure,
  • (3) telecommunications infrastructure;
  • (4) job skills training, entrepreneurship, and business development;
  • (5) health care assistance to severely economically distressed areas;
  • (6) resource conservation and asset-based development; and
  • (7) renewable and alternative energy sources.

New York’s Northern Border Region

The Northern Border region of New York State contains the following seventeen counties: Cayuga, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, Fulton, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Oswego, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Seneca, Warren and Washington. (Click map for larger image)

Nothern Border map

New York Policy and Program Development

Area development program grant awards provide matching funds for projects in or affecting New York’s seventeen Northern Border counties. Priority is given to projects that will expand transportation infrastructure, build basic water and wastewater systems, enhance telecommunications access or increase work force and economic development activities.

Projects and Project Eligibility

Funding is available for up to $250,000 per project. Funding priority is given to projects in the following distressed counties as defined by the NBRC legislation: Franklin, Fulton, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, Oswego and St. Lawrence. The maximum NRBC contribution for a project or activity to be carried out in these counties is 80%. NBRC funding for projects in non-distressed counties is limited to 50%.

2011 New York State NBRC Projects

Clayton Local Development Corporation - $250,000

Located in the Thousand Islands along the Canadian border, the Village of Clayton community relies heavily on tourism. While the community boasts many unique shops, parks, eateries, and recreational opportunities, the area currently lacks adequate hotel accommodations. This funding will support the installation of basic public utilities to develop a remediated brownfield site on the St. Lawrence River. The existing public utilities were required to be removed during site remediation activities. The town and the development corporation have secured a funding commitment from a corporation with success in developing the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel in Appalachian New York. The proposed development will include a $20 million 100-room hotel, creating an estimated 80 full-time jobs.

Lewis County Development Corporation - $95,320

The Lewis County Development Corporation recently purchased an old mill site from a private owner and is looking for redevelopment possibilities for the site. The mill site used to house a pulp and paper mill that employed 286 people, but closed in 2000. A local private entity, Aries Chemical Inc., is looking to expand its operations into a warehouse located on the site if rail service is available. This project will rehabilitate a railway spur located in the Village of Lyons Falls and allow for the expansion of Aries Chemical Inc.


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