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Reorganization of Quality of Place Work Group Under new co-chairs Winkie La Force (Executive Director of Leadership Triangle) and Jon Wilner (Executive Director of the ArtsCenter), twelve potential work group members met on March 29 to discuss collaborative efforts to market the County and its many cultural assets. The group identified others to invite to a second meeting in early May, at which time it will develop objectives and a work plan far 2007-08. The overall goal of the Quality of Place Work Group is to create thriving partnerships ensuring that the county is a great place in which to live and work, attracting and retaining the "creative community" of innovators, artists and civic leaders that will drive the desired economy. Agricultural Services and Other Rural Enterprises A group consisting of Planning, Environment and Resource Conservation, and Economic Development Department staffs are meeting weekly to wrap up recommendations for changes to support innovative agricultural enterprises throughout the county. The work will be presented at the May Quarterly Public Hearing. EDC staff is also working with Planning Staff on a proposal for Rural Economic Development Areas and on reexamining regulations governing rural crossroads community nodes. The Rural Economic Development Area concept will be part of the May Quarterly Public Hearing, with an update on the nodes targeted for the Fall Quarterly Public Hearing. Central Permitting and Facilitated Development Interdepartmental predevelopment meetings (including Hillsborough staff as appropriate) continue on a regular basis. Project applicants meet, face-to-face, with all staff that has a project review role, with Economic Development staff present in anon-regulatory, facilitating role. The applicant has an opportunity to learn all of the steps involved in project approval and to ask any clarifying questions of staff. Minutes of the meetings become the road map for the approval process. While time consuming and sometimes difficult to schedule, staff and applicants have expressed great satisfaction with the results. Building Inspections is preparing information on additional staff requirements to formalize the one-stop permitting process. Target Industries for the Economic Development Districts Attachment A shows the Desirable Business Matrix developed by the Business Climate Work Group during the past year. The first part of the matrix ranks the importance of potential criteria in determining the desirability of target businesses. The last section shows which of the ten industry clusters identified in the Research Triangle Regional Partnership's competitiveness plan, Staying on Top, could be appropriate in Orange County. It is the recommendation of the Business Climate Work Group that businesses meeting the criteria (particularly those ranked high) would be welcomed into our community, would receive expedited review, and would be eligible for any incentives that might be created at the local level. Attachment B gives more detail on the RTRP clusters, and makes a first cut at identifying target industries for the three Economic Development Districts.