STRATEGIC PLANNING
STRATEGIES
- Human Capital
- Traditional and Non-Traditional Infrastructure
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Quality, Connected Places
- Collaborative Leadership
To develop a skilled labor force capable of creating a knowledge-based and innovation-based economy, and that encourages businesses to start, locate, and expand in the region
1. Retain and stabilize the regional population to provide a sufficient population base to ensure the continuing viability of regional institutions and communities, and to provide sufficient labor force to ensure that the region’s economy can grow and develop. By and large, this is a function of economic opportunity, infrastructure (broadband, utility, and transportation improvements), business climate, cost of living, and quality of life.
2. Improve regional population demographics, i.e., attract a skilled, younger demographic population, to stabilize and grow the region’s population and labor force, and to reduce the impact of the region’s dependent population demographic.
3. Improve regional educational attainment through enhancing our region’s educational system and services; increasing the percentage of the population acquiring advanced educational degrees at the associate, bachelors, masters and doctoral levels; encouraging the region‘s best and brightest to stay in the region to pursue their careers and lives; encouraging enhanced STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education, leadership, technology-based education, and entrepreneurial education at the primary, secondary, post-secondary, and adult education levels; and encouraging enhanced career development planning early on during education to help guide the younger demographic into careers with futures.
4. Increase the quantity and quality of human capital through education, workforce training, job training, internships, and other mechanisms so as to develop a highly skilled, tech-savvy regional labor force that meets current and future employer needs
5. Focus on building and capitalizing on regionally significant occupational clusters as a development asset.
To catalyze innovation and new business development and growth, especially as regards technology-based, value added, and net export businesses
6. Maintain and improve transportation infrastructure, consistent with smart growth principles and sustainability principles, and utilize the region’s transportation infrastructure as a driver of economic development
7. Maintain and improve utility infrastructure, including water and wastewater service, natural gas and electricity service, and broadband and alternative energy infrastructure; whenever possible, such investments should be consistent with smart growth principles, sustainability principles, and green infrastructure principles
8. Improve the region’s “shovel readiness” through activities including site development / industrial park and acreage expansion / infrastructure expansion / permitting / development along rail and highway corridors and broadband backbone corridor / interstate interchange development / spec building development / building redevelopment, all consistent with smart growth principles
9. Develop, improve, and expand non-physical or non-traditional infrastructure, including specialized space, dedicated equipment, information and communication technologies, business networks, linkages to the education/research/labor force training system, and logistics; and also including the development of physical facilities geared toward technology-based businesses, including specialized shared-use physical facilities, especially as regards technology development (i.e., prototype development, shared testing and manufacturing equipment, test beds, etc.), shortage of diverse and affordable physical space with specialized amenities (e.g., broadband, shared conference space, shared operating and office equipment, etc.)
10. Improve communities through initiatives including downtown and neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment; building renovation / adaptive redevelopment / re-purposing and reuse; encouragement of improved sustainability of communities and neighborhoods, complete streets, and walkable communities; brownfield remediation and redevelopment; protection and restoration of water resources, waterfronts, open spaces, and habitats; enhancement of public access to waterfront areas; increasing and improvement of housing stock and building stock; creation and improvement of creative districts and neighborhoods; improvement of wayfinding; and enhancement of recreational / tourism assets (including public parks space, green space, trails, etc.)
To catalyze innovation and new business development and growth, especially as regards technology-based, value added, and net export businesses
11. Target economic development activities and initiatives toward significant regional industry clusters and occupation clusters that are value-added and net export clusters
12. Promote and catalyze entrepreneurship
13. Incentivize and catalyze enhanced business productivity, innovation, technology transfer, technology adoption and commercialization, and collaboration/partnerships between the university, business, and economic development communities
14. Provide adequate and innovative business development finance resources, technical assistance, and outreach as needed to catalyze and incentivize new private sector business development and assist in the retention and expansion of existing regional businesses
15. Assist in the retention and expansion of existing regional businesses
16. Attract new businesses to the region
To create quality, connected, safe, convenient and healthy places to live and work, that make the region attractive as a place to live, work and do business
17. Maintain and improve the region’s cornerstone and community-based and civic institutions and quality of life assets, capacities, and services to improve area quality of life and positively impact economic development
18. Develop, maintain, and promote a range of housing choices and opportunities for all residents; efficient public transportation systems; safe pedestrian networks; access to quality health care and educational facilities; and other quality of life amenities
19. Utilize smart growth principles to ensure cost effective growth and development while minimizing sprawl
20. Promote the region’s diversity
21. Enhance and promote the region’s cultural, arts, history, and tourism assets, destinations, organizations, and services
22. Develop, maintain, and promote integrated connections between communities both across the region and external to the region
23. Promote and protect the region’s natural resources in a sustainable manner
24. Streamline and reform permitting, development review, and other regulatory processes to provide a predictable legal and regulatory environment for businesses
25. Ensure regional and local agencies provide collaborative, seamless, consistent, and timely customer service to business
26. Develop a business-friendly regulatory and tax system and business assistance/incentive programs
27. Enhance regional marketing capacity and activities
To encourage coordinated governance and rational and coordinated systemic investment in targeted economic development initiatives
28. Encourage, at the community, county, and regional levels, comprehensive and strategic economic development planning; develop and implement community and economic development projects consistent with those plans and with smart growth principles and sound environment principles; and create capital funds to implement projects
29. Improve coordination and collaboration between and among all levels of government as well as the private sector, including enhancing public‐private partnerships, and make strategic investments that are aligned with and further regional priorities
30. Improve leadership training and enhance public involvement in coordinating decision‐making and investments at the regional level
31. Seneca Nation of Indians initiatives
32. Improve economic resilience through appropriate steady-state actions (avoidance, prevention, and mitigation of economic disruptions) and response actions (response to economic disruptions)