Agenda - 10-18-2007-3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Letter from the EDC Chair At its annual board retreat in October 2002, the Orange County Economic Development Commission (EDC) resolved to complete a new strategic plan to guide the organization. A subcommittee formed to work with staff on development of the planning process. The group engaged Leslie Scott Stewart of the UNC- Chapel Hill Office of Economic Development to assist in the effort. In the period since the last economic development strategic plan was adopted in 1996, several plans and studies were completed within the towns of Orange County and the surrounding region. The EDC decided to build directly on that work to help frame the issues for the county's current planning process. The EDC also decided to undertake a web -based survey on broad questions related to the Orange County economy. The EDC used the sum_ mary and the survey results as background information for an Economic Development Summit for Orange County, held on January 7, 2004 at the Friday Center and attended by 120 people. Following a keynote speech by Mary Jo Waits, Associate Director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University, participants broke into four groups to prioritize and develop 5 -year strategies. Based on the small group work, four key areas emerged: • Business Climate • Infrastructure • Workforce Development • Quality of Place After lunch, participants attended an initial work group session (based on individual interest) in the four issue areas. The four work groups continued to meet during the months of February through June, 2005, with each group meeting at least eight times. In addition, the co- chairs of the work groups have met five times to consider the overall strategy, and the Directors of the EDC have devoted substantial portions of sixteen meetings over the past two years. Conservatively, we estimate the number of volunteer hours involved in the strategic planning effort to date to exceed 1,500. We are pleased to present this document, and encourage you to help us refine and further strengthen the economic development five -year plan for Orange County. Please forward any comments or suggestions to the Orange County Economic Development Commission via email (edcmail @co.drange.nc.us) or telephone the office at 919- 245 -2325. You may also submit comments to: Economic Development Commission P.O. Box 1177 Hillsborough, NC 27278 We look forward to hearing from you and working together to attain our goal of creating 5,000 new private sector jobs and $125,000,000 in new commercial tax base by June 2010. Ruffin Slater Chair, Economic Development Commission July 2005 0A