Economic Development - Vision Statements and Planning

A Time for Choosing, Part IV

Asset-Based Economic Development is a strategy that builds on existing resources—natural, cultural and structural—to create valued products and services that can be sustained for local benefit.

St. Cloud is a great small-town city. We don’t have to be shackled to the economies of the past and we don’t have to be held hostage to the whims of the housing market. But we need to lay out what our future will hold and then use our God-given assets to make that vision into reality. In this week’s article, I’ll summarize the Asset-Based Economic Development plan for St. Cloud, provide some additional examples from other successful implementations throughout the US and propose a Vision Statement for our city.

Before laying out any plan or embarking on any new venture, it’s best to have a goal in mind. At the end of the day or at the end of the trip where do you want to be? Where do you see yourself? St. Cloud needs to answer this question: 20 years from now, what type of a community will we be? My vision for St. Cloud and even Eastern Osceola County is for our city to be a proud, tight-knit neighborhood, bound together by our community activities and our shared sense of commitment to our town. I see that St. Cloud can become a beacon of history and prosperity surrounded by a sea of new and personality-less communities.

That vision statement, or ANY vision statement, should be used to help shape our city’s long-term goals and priorities. It gives direction and framework for future civic, public and private actions. It helps keep us on track and pointing towards our ultimate goal: a better future for our community and our children. When reviewing any major proposals, it lets us ask the question: will this help move us closer towards achieving our city’s goals?

With a Vision Statement for our city in place, we can prioritize and rank the economic development opportunities that we’ve identified through our Asset-Based Economic Development process. If there are 25 industries whose business needs we can meet, we can now rank and order them according to how they in turn meet our needs. We can market and recruit the businesses and industries that will move us further along the path to achieving the goals set out in our Vision Statement. We don’t have to hope for bleed-off from Lake Nona, we can set our own priorities and take control of our future.

If you’ll recall, Asset-Based Economic Development contains four major steps: first, we need to identify our assets-- individuals, associations, institutions and natural resources; second: we identify which industries have general or specific needs that our plus-rated assets could meet; third, we need to narrow our focus down to the industries that would benefit most from being here and that we would benefit most from having her; and fourth, we need to execute multiple, coordinated plans designed to entice and assist clusters of existing and start-up businesses in those designated industries to move into our area. Done within the guiding framework provided by a Vision Statement, ABED has proven that is can help develop and build strong, destination communities.

25 years ago, Pittsford, New York was a sleepy suburb of the city of Rochester. A bedroom community, populated by 35 thousand people who mainly commuted 30 to 45 minutes each day to work in a mid-sized city of 250,000, the town was similar to St. Cloud in many ways. It had a long history of being an agriculturally-based community, dominated by large land-owners and farmers. It was in close proximity to a major metropolitan area and it still had large tracts of undeveloped land. It had an aging population base but a growing number of newcomers who moved into the area for its transportation and public resources—good schools, green parks and a large recreational area along the Erie Canal. But like St. Cloud, the town was split between the agricultural and land-owning community who wanted slow- or no-growth, the business community who wanted rapid economic growth, and the political community who wasn’t trusted by either party.

During the late 1980’s a small group of concerned land owners, businessmen and young politicians arranged a series of meetings and laid out a rough vision for the city’s future which they then used to guide an Asset-Based Economic Development plan. Stepping outside the needs-based development of the past, which put the farmers in conflict with the business leaders, they laid out what the city had, what they thought the city should become and what industries could best help the area achieve that vision. Over time, the plan changed and evolved as new industries sprang up in volumes that weren’t even conceivable in 1988. But the Vision was constant. And now, Pittsford, New York is one of the most desirable communities to live and work in New York State. With a larger population, it retained its small-town feel, still hosting parades, seasonal events, rallies for high school sports and more. They enabled and encouraged industrial development that provided a solid tax base and well-paying jobs for Pittsford residents. Economic Development isn’t a process that takes place over night, but rather over years. And after years of planning and hard work, a city very similar to St. Cloud became a strong, proud, desired community where the children of those planners can now raise their own families.

St. Cloud is still a great, small-town community. With parks and churches, local restaurants serving good, home-cooked food, a beautiful lakefront and a proud heritage, our neck of the woods is a wonderful place to call home. We don’t have to be shackled to the economies of the past, but we need to lay out what our future will hold and then use our God-given assets to make that vision into reality. Other cities have led the way, shown us what mistakes to avoid and shown us how to achieve our long range goals. Now, it’s our time to set our path and make our vision a reality.

We’re in the midst of an election cycle. Right now, local politicians are listening like at no other time. If you believe that we need a plan for our future, that we need a vision for what St. Cloud is to become, then you need to tell people. Email me, email your City Council members or email the candidate of your choice. Let’s not continue wandering into the future, but let’s drive forward with a vision in mind.

What’s your vision for St. Cloud?

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Published in Regional Newspapers in Central Florida