Future Here Now: in Future Ready communities, economic development is an everyone task
This article is an earlier draft of a chapter I wrote for the new Guide to Planning in Ohio that just came out a couple of months ago. It was a nice opportunity to explain how economic development works most effectively to citizen planners (the book is used by professionals, and also by planning commission members and board of zoning appeals members and the like), and I think it does a good job of bridging that common gap. You can get the Guide at ohioplanning.org.
Look for more Future Readiness for communities this week, as well as a free resource for paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, you can try it out for 7 days — at a 25% discount! Just use this link -
Economic development
Many professional planners and citizen planners find themselves sticking a toe (or a leg) in economic development at some point in their lives. And for some, economic development can become a primary component of their work, as when economic development responsibilities are folded into a community development or planning and zoning department, or vice-versa. Planners often struggle with economic development, however, because the purpose of economic development can unintentionally run at cross-purposes to conventional planning responsibilities. To navigate these two sets of important and sometimes conflicting responsibilities, every planner should understand the…
