At the Tuesday, May 26 Cobb County Board of Commissioners work session the commissioners heard a presentation on the Economic Development Strategic Plan.
Economic Development Director Sabrina Wright stated this would be the final BOC work session presentation of the plan before the full draft plan will be formally presented to the BOC at the beginning of June.
Geoff Koski, President of KB Advisory Group, opened the presentation, and began by stating that the plan itself is substantially written, and the full final draft would be turned over to the Board of Commissioners for consideration on June 1.
Koski displayed a slide entitled “What We Learned” with the following three bullet points:
- Attraction to Cobb County continues, but obstacles exist within workforce readiness and product/land availability
- Housing choice, hampered by historic land use patterns, has become increasingly misaligned with the wages of Cobb’s workforce.
- To preserve existing residential communities and not sacrifice economic growth within the County, the next phase of growth will need to be driven by redevelopment in the County’s existing commercial cores and corridors.
“We weren’t necessarily planning on having as deep conversations about housing as part of this economic development strategic plan,” Koski said while displaying this slide.
“However, the plan led us there,” he said. “The data led us there and particularly the conversations with the stakeholders with the community led us to a conversation around housing.”
“And I think the community has recognized that, that without a broader spectrum of housing opportunity, there’s a potential to hamper the workforce,” said Koski.
Koski said that his team thinks that what will drive the economy is not just greenfield development (development on formerly undeveloped property), but redevelopment of existing developed land in the unincorporated parts of the county.
A slide identifying what Koski’s team saw as the county’s economic goals had the following three points:
- Implement County initiatives that advance economic competitiveness and align with coordinated regional economic development efforts
- Guide redevelopment and reinvestment in Cobb’s unincorporated commercial areas to help expand economic opportunity and improve the County’s long-term fiscal sustainability
- Support the business, workforce, and quality-of-life assets that sustain Cobb County’s long-term economic viability
Koski said that the first bullet point means that the county already has a strong economic ecosystem with organizations including Select Cobb, the Cobb Chamber and the Cobb Development Authority. He said that efforts from county government should align with the work of other economic development actors.
As for point two, he said the county should provide guidance and align with other organizations who are already doing work on redevelopment within the unincorporated areas of the county.
Addressing the third bullet point, Koski said that while “quality-of-life” might be fuzzy as is relates to the economy, it’s important in workforce development.
“Let’s just think about trails, for example … trails, I would say, is a quality of life asset,” Koski said.
“It’s not in so much that the economic development department is going to be in charge of putting in trails in the county, but what we’re asking of this plan is to acknowledge that things like trails help economic development,” he said. “They help quality of life and when you enhance your quality of life, you’re able to grow and attract businesses as well as residents here.”
Gabrielle Oliverio and Tate Wilson, also from the KB Advisory Group, gave further details on how the plan was developed, and the three team members fielded questions from the commissioners.
To watch the entire presentation and followup questions from the commissioners, watch the video below: