By Kirk Ross
News & Opinion Editor
There is an effort, now accelerating, to revamp local economic-development strategy and structure – a process most would agree is long overdue.
The pieces of a winning economic-development strategy for Orange County have been around for years. They include our quality of life, an educated workforce, proximity to research campuses, access to transportation and a central location in a growing area.
The sticking point over the past few years has not been in these raw materials, but in the way to use them; there’s been a lack of consensus about how to market our attributes, and what kinds of businesses we want to attract.
Fortunately, various local governments and citizen advisory boards have begun putting the results of study and contemplation on the subject of economic development into practice. Hillsborough has had a good deal of success in leveraging public investment. Chapel Hill has taken a hard look at the commercial and retail market in building its economic-development office. And Carrboro has delved extensively into what makes a thriving local economy.
Each of the towns brings a unique perspective to the table. In crafting a new economic strategy with the county, the university and the business community, representatives of the towns have an obligation to pass on their communities’ perspectives on what a successful economy should look like.
Likewise, any new entity that is created should work in harmony with the strategies developed by the citizens’ representatives.
As organizers of the effort have readily admitted, there will be points of philosophical difference. One likely area is in the manner that resources should be split between recruitment of outside companies and growing the businesses that are already here. The offering of incentives, not a common practice in this county, is another issue in which the public investors in this new enterprise will have to reach agreement among themselves and with the business community, which has encouraged the idea.
Given the multiple public agencies, governments, organizations and businesses that will be involved in the project, we urge that representatives of the public and private sectors take the time to craft an economic-development effort that takes advantage of what we offer, respects our values and compromises neither.