Economic Development

As our communities address growth and development impacts upon the provision of local services, there is a need for economic development both within and outside individual community’s borders. CNHRPC offers a variety of local and regional economic development planning services to advocate for housing choice and support development that will maintain sustainable communities. These services include comprehensive economic development planning, economic development planning circuit rider services, implementation assistance, survey research, community visioning session facilitation, grant writing, fiscal impact analysis and Cost of Community Services Studies, the development of impact fee ordinances, capital improvement programs, and tourism studies. Additionally, in the past CNHRPC has provided support to state agencies and community agencies in generating regional economic data and housing reports. Some other services include:

• Economic Profile Analysis: An economic profile analysis will look at a community’s economy in an effort to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. In addition, an economic profile will consider the state and regional economy and how a community is impacted by, and how they can capitalize upon those industries that are expected to grow. An economic profile can lay the groundwork for a comprehensive economic development strategy.
  
  
• Economic Development Strategy: An economic development strategy identifies the vision and needs of a community with regard to economic development. Understanding that many factors impact a local economy, a comprehensive strategy addressing strengths and weaknesses is needed. The strategy will, as a result, be specific and unique to the community.
  
  
• Regulatory Audits: Like an audit for land use, the regulatory audit for economic development will look at the regulatory framework through the lens of economic development. Things like favorable zoning and a regulatory framework friendly to business development can be considered.
  
  
• Economic Development Project Implementation Assistance: Often times economic development efforts require access to data sources as well as certain technical abilities. For instance, often times a community will need to leverage additional funding for economic development projects, and grant-writing technical assistance is needed. With this in mind, CNHRPC can provide assistance across the spectrum with regard to economic development implementation.