Sources
Updated
Every row on this site comes from a public source and links to it. No live sites are fetched when the site is built; pages are generated from the CSV ledgers. Paywalls and bot challenges were not bypassed.
Publications and records cited
- LNP | LancasterOnline Public Notices — example citation
- LNP | LancasterOnline (Local Business) — example citation
- LNP | LancasterOnline (What's in Store) — example citation
- WFMZ-TV 69 News — example citation
- LebTown — example citation
- WITF — example citation
- Local21 News (WHP) — example citation
- Reading Eagle — example citation
- PA DCED — example citation
- Lancaster County Planning Commission (LCPC) meeting review layer — example citation
- York Daily Record — example citation
- Conewago Township Board of Supervisors minutes — example citation
- PA Department of Labor & Industry WARN Notices — example citation
- PennLive — example citation
- York Dispatch (via ydr.com) — example citation
Known gaps
- LNP | LancasterOnline is metered; bodies were not read. Local Business coverage before April 2026 is thin because older result pages were rate-limited.
- The PA Department of State business search (file.dos.pa.gov) was behind a Cloudflare challenge and was not used. There is no county-indexed feed of new business filings.
- City of Lancaster permits: CityView requires an account and has no public listable search. Public city GIS permit layers stop at 2020.
- County plan reviews cover only the LCPC 2026-09-14 meeting layer. Other municipalities' permits were not swept.
- PA WARN covers only employers and events above WARN thresholds and publishes notice months, not days.
- York, Lebanon and Berks news is thinner than Lancaster. Dauphin and Chester are context only.
Raw data
- openings.csv — Openings and incoming concepts from news coverage.
- closings.csv — Closings, wind-downs, and PA WARN sites.
- developments.csv — Development and investment projects.
- permits.csv — County plan reviews (LCPC), 2026-09-14 meeting only. Not municipal building permits.
- filings_flow.csv — Public notices: fictitious names, dissolutions, foreign registrations. Not a complete filings list.
- warn_events.csv — PA WARN notices for Lancaster and nearby counties.
- snapshot_metro.csv — BLS metro unemployment rate and total nonfarm jobs.
- listings_confirm.csv — Small sample of listing confirmations.
- sources_log.csv — Every source touched while building the data, with result.
- README_DATA.txt — Data notes: row counts, window, gaps and caveats.
Source log
Every source touched while building the data, with its result (ok, paywalled, no public data, error, blocked).
| Source | Result | Rows | Accessed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PA Open Data - Registered Businesses in PA Current by County (xvd7-5r2c), Lancaster | ok | 73444 | 138,007 raw officer-level rows -> 73,444 unique filing_number/business_name (1:1). County field = shortcountyname (+county_code), apparently derived from the geocoded registered-office address. No status column: dataset is titled "Current" and treated as active. Dataset rowsUpdatedAt 2026-09-02. Officer name/party columns NOT extracted (privacy). address_looks_local: Y if 5-digit ZIP in county ZIP set (Census 2020 ZCTA-county relationship file, any overlap, UNION GeoNames postal codes for the county incl. PO-box ZIPs); if ZIP valid but outside set -> N unless city matches county USPS/GeoNames place list (then unknown); no ZIP -> Y if city in county place list else unknown. Snapshot stock, not new filings. | |
| PA Open Data - Registered Businesses (xvd7-5r2c), York | ok | 54188 | 94,371 raw rows -> 54,188 unique; same method, York ZIP/place set | |
| PA Open Data - Registered Businesses (xvd7-5r2c), Lebanon | ok | 13884 | 25,096 raw rows -> 13,884 unique; same method, Lebanon ZIP/place set | |
| PA Open Data - Registered Businesses (xvd7-5r2c), Berks | ok | 51944 | 91,857 raw rows -> 51,944 unique; same method, Berks ZIP/place set | |
| US Census 2020 ZCTA-to-County relationship file | ok | 0 | Reference for address_looks_local ZIP sets (FIPS 42071 Lancaster, 42133 York, 42075 Lebanon, 42011 Berks) | |
| GeoNames US postal codes | ok | 0 | Reference for address_looks_local: adds PO-box/unique ZIPs and USPS place names by county | |
| PA DLI WARN Notices page | ok | 26 | Notices are HTML accordion entries grouped by year/month (2023-Jan through 2026-Sep); no PDFs needed. Parsed 312 entries; kept 2025-01..2026-09 entries for Lancaster/York/Lebanon/Berks/Dauphin/Chester. notice_date = month heading (day not published). 18 Lancaster/York/Lebanon/Berks WARN site rows merged into closings.csv (S&S Activewear two notices = one site row; 2 merged into existing news rows C-080 Giant Direct and C-123 WILX Logistics; 16 added with W- ids). | |
| OSM Nominatim geocoder + PennDOT municipal boundaries (opendata/municipalboundaries MapServer) | ok | 0 | Used only to assign municipality to WARN sites in closings_warn_part.csv; 12 of 18 matched; 6 left blank | |
| US Census Geocoder | blocked | 0 | Returned "Request Rejected" from this network; replaced by Nominatim + PennDOT boundaries | |
| BLS Public API v1 - LAUS metro unemployment rate (LAUMT42xxxxx00000003) and CES total nonfarm (SMU42xxxxx0000000001) | ok | 10 | NSA series for MSAs 29540 Lancaster, 49620 York-Hanover, 30140 Lebanon, 39740 Reading, 25420 Harrisburg-Carlisle. Unemployment latest Jul 2026 (preliminary); jobs latest Aug 2026 (preliminary). Seasonally adjusted LASMT metro series do not exist. | |
| City of Lancaster CityView portal (permits/licenses/business registration) | no_public_data | 0 | Applications require account; public side offers only single-property lookup by address (Property/Locate), no listable permit or business-registration search. Online permit functionality being phased in during 2026. | |
| City of Lancaster ArcGIS - Commercial_Building_Permits / Residential_Building_Permits | no_public_data | 0 | Public layers but Issue dates only 2018-01-02..2020-12-31 (2,096 commercial / 5,521 residential); nothing in 2025+ window | |
| City of Lancaster ArcGIS - SALDO_Approvals_RO (Land Development Approvals Viewer) | no_public_data | 0 | 526 city SALDO submissions, SubmittalYear 2007-2023 only; none 2025+ | |
| City of Lancaster ArcGIS - BusinessList_RO (BusinessList_2021) | no_public_data | 0 | 3,912-row 2021 vendor-style business list (last edit 2022-06); not the city business-registration file and outside window; not used | |
| Lancaster County Planning Data Hub - LCPC_Meeting_Review_Points (SALDO_points + CPO_points) | ok | 32 | Only holds reviews for the upcoming LCPC meeting (2026-09-14): 30 SALDO + 2 CPO. No historical 2025 archive in the layer. Owner/applicant names, phones, emails withheld; person-named applicants/plan names blanked. | |
| Lancaster County Planning Data Hub - county_building_permits(_2026) | no_public_data | 0 | Aggregate units-permitted-by-type by year (32 rows), not individual permits; not written to permits.csv | |
| Lancaster County Planning Data Hub - LCPC_Meeting_Points_Hosted (CPF_Points) | no_public_data | 0 | 2 rezoning review points without dates; not used | |
| Lancaster County Planning Data Hub site catalog | ok | 0 | Catalog searched via ArcGIS sharing search (orgid I6XnrlnguPDoEObn) for subdivision/review/permit/land development | |
| LNP | LancasterOnline - What's in Store (section RSS via TownNews search) | ok | 311 | Metered site (JS meter). Rows built from public RSS headline + lede only; article bodies not read. Covered 2025-01-02..2026-09-23. Intermittent HTTP 429 rate limiting; retried after waits. 207 openings + 103 closings + 1 development (incl. 3 first-ring rows). | |
| LNP | LancasterOnline - What's in Store (section HTML) | ok | 0 | curl from box returned 200 once, then HTTP 429 (rate-limited) for the rest of the session; switched to RSS. Rows counted under RSS line. | |
| LNP | LancasterOnline - Local Business (section RSS) | ok | 42 | Only first page (2026-04-07..2026-09-25) retrieved; page o=100 (Jan 2025-Apr 2026) returned HTTP 429 and was not retried to completion - GAP. 10 openings + 11 closings + 21 developments. | |
| LNP | LancasterOnline - Public Notices (RSS keyword search: fictitious / dissolution / foreign registration) | ok | 72 | Also q=dissolution and q="foreign registration". Headlines/ledes for all; ~20 notice bodies opened individually (public notices not metered) to get the actual fictitious name. Individual (sole-proprietor) registrant names and home addresses deliberately omitted. Notices whose filed name was not visible were skipped. Intermittent 429. | |
| LNP | LancasterOnline - Public Notices landing page | ok | 0 | Page reachable earlier via curl (saved HTML); used to identify notice types. Rows counted under RSS line. | |
| Public Notice PA (PNA statewide notice site) | error | 0 | Home page loads; ASP.NET search postback (Lancaster County + 'fictitious') returned HTTP 500 Runtime Error when automated. Did not pursue further (no browser automation of forms). LNP's own notice feed used instead. | |
| PA Department of State - Business Search | blocked | 0 | Cloudflare 'Security Verification Required' JS challenge (HTTP 999 to curl; challenge page to WebFetch). Public JSON endpoint /api/Records/businesssearch returned same challenge. Not bypassed per rules. dos_file_number_if_found left blank for all rows; 0 lookups completed. | |
| LebTown (WordPress REST API: posts search + Business & Nonprofits category, since 2025-01-01) | ok | 37 | Free/no paywall. 205 business-category posts + keyword search titles screened; article text read for selected items. 18 openings + 10 closings + 9 developments (incl. S. Annville data center). | |
| LebTown - South Annville data center articles | ok | 0 | Also https://lebtown.com/2026/09/15/s-annville-approves-land-plans-advertises-drafted-zoning-ordinance/ . Counted under LebTown line. | |
| York Daily Record (ydr.com) | ok | 8 | Some articles fetched in full (Stack'd, Wonder, Taylor Chip, Revival, Primanti, Peach Bottom data center, data-center roundup); others returned HTTP 302 redirect on fetch (Splitshift, Darna/Paddock, P&H Distributors) and were used headline-only. Coverage is thin: found via a handful of web searches, not a systematic section crawl. 4 openings, 6 closings (+1 York Dispatch via ydr.com), 2 developments. | |
| York Dispatch (yorkdispatch.com) | error | 0 | HTTP 302 on fetch; Cascades plant closure not added (industrial closure likely in WARN track). | |
| Evening Sun (eveningsun.com) | ok | 0 | Seen in search results only (Hardee's Manchester Twp closure reversed; P&H Distributors closing first reported 2026-03-18). Used for notes, no rows. | |
| Keystone Newsroom | ok | 0 | Corroborates Peach Bottom data-center status; cited in developments notes. | |
| Conewago Township (York Co.) - BOS minutes 2026-07-07 & data center info page | ok | 1 | Moratorium Resolution 2026-13; info page https://www.conewagotwp.com/data-center-information-2026/ | |
| Local21 News (WHP) | ok | 1 | Anchordown Crabhouse closure; details from search results (page not independently fetched). | |
| Reading Eagle (readingeagle.com) | ok | 6 | Articles fetched in full without paywall (Kanpai Sushi, Cafe Folino, Saucony Creek/Lang, Fromuth). Coverage thin: found via 2 web searches only. 2 openings + 4 closings. | |
| WFMZ-TV 69 News (Eat, Sip, Shop) | ok | 2 | MaGerk's opening + Brickstone's (takeover pair). | |
| PennLive | ok | 1 | Used for Giant Direct, WILX, South Annville corroboration (notes) and Dura-Bond (Dauphin context development, headline/snippet only). | |
| PA Governor newsroom / PA DCED newsroom | ok | 2 | Eurofins (cited in D row notes), Kettle & Fire (2025-05-15), Gerard Daniel Worldwide Hanover (2026-08-26). No systematic crawl of all DCED releases - GAP. | |
| WITF | ok | 1 | Swatara Twp (Dauphin) $10.5B Corscale data center - context row. Also Eurofins 2025-12-22 story cited. | |
| ABC27 (WHTM) | ok | 0 | WILX corroboration (notes). | |
| Lancaster County Planning Dept. (LCPC) review letter 74-49-8B | ok | 0 | Eurofins site/owner detail (notes). | |
| Clair Global press release | ok | 0 | Corroboration (notes). | |
| Rock Lititz campus directory | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-001. | |
| Lubker Distribution news | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-003; developments notes. | |
| MaGerk's official site | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-002. | |
| Skip's Chicken official site | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-004. | |
| Chicken Hill Distillery official site | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-005. | |
| Federal Donuts official locations page | ok | 1 | listings_confirm L-006 (Lancaster not listed). | |
| Cartel Brewing & Blending official site | no_public_data | 1 | Site live but location info JS-rendered; L-007 recorded as unconfirmed. | |
| Buffalo Wild Wings locations (Lebanon PA) | no_public_data | 1 | JS-rendered; L-008 recorded as unconfirmed. | |
| Goodwill Keystone locations | blocked | 0 | HTTP 403 to automated fetch; skipped. | |
| Swarovski store finder | blocked | 0 | HTTP 403; skipped. | |
| Park City Center directory | no_public_data | 0 | Directory JS-rendered; could not confirm tenants statically. | |
| EDC Lancaster County | no_public_data | 0 | Not crawled directly; EDC-backed items (Reist Popcorn PIDA loans, Kettle & Fire quote) captured via LNP/DCED. GAP. | |
| ROCK Commercial Real Estate market reports | no_public_data | 0 | Not retrieved (time); no rows. GAP. | |
| PA DOS registered-entities dataset (data.pa.gov xvd7-5r2c) - local extract written by the official-data worker (registered_entities_*.csv) | ok | 0 | Used instead of blocked file.dos.pa.gov to attach dos_file_number_if_found: exact normalized-name (+entity type where needed) matches only, no fuzzy matching; 31 of 72 filings_flow rows matched. For fictitious-name rows the number is the registrant entity's file number, not the fictitious-name registration. One name-only match (Sheds Unlimited) rejected due to entity-type mismatch. Openings/closings not matched (trade names too generic for exact matching). |