More thoughts on the worthiness of local economic development

To some in local government, the economic downturn and reduced tax revenues may raise the question of whether it’s worthwhile to fund local economic development initiatives. The best answer is that providing for local economic development is an important way of ensuring that your community is friendly to businesses and can quickly respond on a local company’s behalf at critical times.

For example, Building Place recently read about a high technology company that experienced catastrophic damage to one of its clean rooms when the town’s water line burst. The flood damage threatened the company’s ability to stay in operation, and therefore threatened job losses and reduced tax revenues for the town. Fortunately, the local economic development office responded quickly and…

…was able to find “emergency” grant funding to install new pipes in the area.

Local economic development offices often act as a go-between or liaison between a local government and the business community. From ‘the inside,’ a local economic development professional (whether on staff or a paid consultant under contract) can help government departments, state agencies, and others entities work successfully with local businesses – with the goal of trying to grow existing businesses and attract complementary businesses to the area.

A good guage of whether your local economic development professional is doing a good job is how much of his or her time is spent meeting/communicating/interacting with local major employers, other business owners, the Chamber of Commerce, and other business groups. The only way to truly know what the needs are in the business community is for someone to go out and talk with them. Too often, they are too busy to come to public meetings, or to visit City Hall during “regular business hours.”

If your “DDA Director” or “economic development specialist” or “Main Street Manager” spends less than 50% of his or her time “in the field,” then he or she is probably not providing full value to the community.

To retain existing businesses and create new investment and growth opportunities, we must do more than just respond and react to the next crisis. Effective planning for economic development is essential to keeping your community an attractive place to live, work, visit, and play. This is as true for rural townships and villages as it is for small towns and large cities. There is no better time then now to use economic development tools to position our communities to take full advantage of future opportunities.

Click here to read the original article, “The Worthiness of Local Economic Development” – the first piece in our “economic development” series. Your comments are welcome (see comment box below).

For more information about how Building Place can help you, click here to send us an email, or contact us here.

© 2009 Building Place – Rodney C. Nanney, AICP (www.buildingplace.net) – All rights reserved. Contact us here for information regarding reprinting, redistribution, or other use of this material. Excerpts may be quoted with proper attribution and a link to this website.

About the Author

As the principal planner and Zoning Guru for Building Place Consultants, Rodney C. Nanney, AICP is an innovative provider of solutions to community planning, zoning, and local economic development challenges. Mr. Nanney is a recognized zoning expert and the creator of the Place Zoning model for mixed-use neighborhoods and walkable communities.

An accomplished writer and public speaker, he also has the all-to-rare gift among planners of being able to effectively communicate planning and zoning concepts in plain language. He has spoken before audiences large and small, and as diverse as church groups, college students, elected officials, and elementary-age children.