Kissing toads

Goochland Supervisors and members of the county Economic Development Authority met for a long overdue workshop at the West Creek Emergency Center on June 27. Economic Development is a complicated endeavor with many moving parts. This day-long session explored many facets of the subject and  raised more questions than it answered. GOMM will explore some of these in additional posts.

The session—the first of hopefully several—was facilitated by  John Thomas and Will Davis of DecideSmart, LLC (www.decidesmart.com), a consulting firm retained by the county to  help update to the county’s  strategic plan for economic development adopted in October, 2011 by the previous Board of Supervisors. Davis is the former economic development director for Chesterfield County and  Thomas  was director of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Supervisors Susan, Lascolette, District 1; Manuel Alvarez, Jr., District 2; John Lumpkins, Jr., District 4; Bob Minnick, District 4;, and Board Chair Ken Peterson, District 5 were joined by EDA members Lisa Dearden chair; Ben Slone; D. B. Smit; Curt Pituck; and Lucy Wysong, as well as John Budesky, county administrator, and Matthew Ryan, director of economic development. Bonney Creasy, executive director of the Goochland Chamber of Commerce and Christina Jordan Dunn, president of the board of directors of the Goochland Historical Society also attended.

Will Davis (standing) makes a point about economic development.

 

As warm-up exercise, the group was polled about what makes Goochland unique. The condensed response “a place of great beauty where all things are possible with well-managed local government.” Without its unique potpourri of people, Goochland is just rocks, trees, water, too many deer, and a burgeoning ursine community.

While enhancing the tax base to achieve  a 30/80 percent ratio of commercial to residential was the overall theme, many threads of growth swirled around the day’s discussions.

Participants were asked  during recent individual interviews  to prioritize needs, opportunities, and issues facing Goochland as it endeavors to enhance the tax base and preserve rural character.

Defining roles and expectations for economic development; establishing EDA procedures for loans; and infrastructure development ranked high. Starter home residential development was ranked low.

Opportunities for continued development of West Creek; new target development (medical, office, hotel, food, tourism); and sustaining and growing existing business ranked high. Workforce development in connection with Reynolds Community College was at the bottom of the scale.

Cost of infrastructure and cost of collaboration snagged only medium priority, while private sector land ownership ranked low.

Goochland’s EDA  has acted as a pass through for state economic development funds and made modest loans and grants to local businesses. It is the issuing agency for the bonds used to finance the rehabilitation hospital, which imposes no cost on the county or EDA.

For the past several months, the EDA has been trying to establish criteria and procedures for granting loans. Questions about the ability of the EDA to effectively and impartially evaluate loan applications to avoid “picking winners and losers” remain.

The northeast part of the county is experiencing the growth spurt anticipated since the turn of the century. Part of this is spillover from Short Pump. Some resulted from the county collaborating, rather than warring, with major landowners to being new enterprises to Goochland.

In the past few years one medical office building in the Notch spawned another, which now houses a surgical center. Ground was broken earlier this year for a rehabilitation hospital joint venture between Sheltering Arms and VCU. A recently opened Audi dealer sits in the shadow of Rt. 288. Behind that DriveShack is building a golf entertainment center. If it ever stops raining, a hotel will sprout opposite the Wawa and could attract small businesses like a bank branch and restaurants. A memory care facility is planned for the south side of Broad Street Road at the Henrico border.

On the residential side, a continuing care community is on tap for the Notch. An age restricted single family/townhome enclave will join a more traditional subdivision in the Hockett Road corridor. The old “Oak Hill” property at the junction of Rt. 288 and Patterson Avenue was given the green light for mixed use development, but no firm plans have yet emerged there. All of these projects are in the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, where increased property valuations bolster county coffers and service utility debt.

Concentrating this growth in an area served by public water and sewer, “the designated growth area”  should ensure that 85 percent of Goochland remains rural in the long term.

The real question about economic development— in the “designated growth area” and entire county— is what kind is most beneficial in the long term and how to attract it. “What would you like Goochland to be in 10 years?” Davis asked. “Should you figure it out as you go along, or plan?” Whether you have slow growth, good growth or no growth, it must be managed.

Ryan, who strives to handle prospects from first contact through issuance of certificate of occupancy, is the only member of county staff dealing solely with economic development though Budesky often collaborates.

We do a lot of good work to attract business  that never comes to fruition, said Budesky. “You’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.” Goochland, he said, has limited resources. Ryan works mostly alone. For the past seven years our strategy has been to catch Henrico spillover, but Goochland must be nimble to change as market conditions shift.

Goochland is experiencing a development surge, it’s time to evaluate next steps.

Ryan worked hard to convince Sheltering arms and VCU to build their hospital in West Creek.  Many other projects were the result of leads furnished by landowners. Unlike other major players in the central Virginia region, Goochland cannot afford to participate in the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic development consortium comprised of  the counties of Hanover, Henrico, Chesterfield and the City of Richmond, whose annual fee—the equivalent of more than a penny on our tax rate—is too rich for our blood. As GRP members pay to play, they do not share leads with outsiders.

Going forward, said Davis, Goochland needs to decide what kind of enterprises it hope to attract and be comfortable enough with those choices to reject proposals that do not align with its goals.

Peterson said he favors non-residential, taxable entities. He mentioned distribution facilities to exploit the county’s sweet spot location for transshipping cargo arriving at Tidewater ports west along the Interstate 64 corridor.  Lascolette suggested a data center. Ryan pointed out that Goochland currently has no vacant warehouse space, very little office space, but lots of vacant land that is a harder sell.

People involved in site selection for new businesses are looking for a reason to say no, Thomas said. “You need to find a way to get to ‘yes’ quickly to close the deal.”

Budesky pointed out job diversity is a criteria used in bond rating evaluations. Thanks to the Capital One campus, Goochland’s workforce is heavily weighted in the banking sector. As the hospital and other medical facilities build out, health care  is likely to change that, but more variety is desirable. Right now, health care seems to be a “hot”  market sector, but Goochland needs  a “Plan B” should that cool down.

Retention of existing business was addressed. Due to lack of resources, a visitation program for each of the county’s 1,600 businesses was put on the back burner. Thomas suggested that these interviews are vital and could be used to generate leads as in “what kind of businesses would you like to see nearby to support what you do?” Removing county procedures that businesses consider “ harassment”  and ensuring that county staff is customer focused is important.

“You need to be aware of your businesses,” Davis said. “It is just as important to know what’s going on with Cecil Wise (Wise Choice on Ashland Road) as it is with Capital One.”

Budesky contended that the county needs more attention in regional media. Richmond television stations fall all over themselves to cover crimes here, but  rarely report on the good things. Sometimes, they even for get to mention power outages or school closing in Goochland. The success of our schools, and the county securing at AAA bond rating get no attention.

He also said that the county must do a better job of branding itself to highlight that we are different from Henrico. “Capital One employees have no idea that they work in Goochland.” Budesky suggested a strong partnership with the development community to tout advantages of doing business in Goochland.

Budesky said that the meeting was the first step. Information gathered will be distilled into a framework in the next 60 days to include more information about the visitation process; tools available to achieve and end game; and ways to use the EDA to improve the business process.

The meeting generated much information to process. Many questions need answers. What is the role of the EDA? How does government create an environment that encourages and supports local business without overwhelming core services of education and public safety? How to ensure that actions are taken in an open and transparent manner for the benefit of all?