Charlottesville and Albemarle economic development bodies meet to discuss regional strategy

If the greater community is to have a regional strategy for economic development, it probably makes sense for two of the biggest players in the community to learn about it first hand while in the same room. 

Earlier this month, the economic development authorities for Albemarle and Charlottesville held a rare joint meeting to get a briefing on a strategy put together by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and recently adopted by their official body. (read the CEDS) 

“A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, or CEDS, presents the collective coordinated actions of the entities and organizations that will work towards creating economic prosperity for the region,” said Ruth Emerick, chief operating officer for the TJPDC. 

The plan lays out strategies for how different groups can work together toward specific actions, clustered around four goals. 

TJPDC hired the firm Camoin Associates to conduct the research for the plan, which involved site visits to all six localities in the district. A major reason to have the CEDS is that any groups including businesses can now appeal to one of the strategies in the plan as they seek grants or other funding opportunities. 

“This shared vision also allows our community to leverage existing assets while also growing our emerging industries which we know are growing rapidly in the area,” Emerick said. 

The plan is also a snapshot of current economic conditions. Total employment in 2022 for the six-locality region was about 133,000 jobs, an increase of about 4,000 since 2017. 

“This growth rate was greater than both the state of Virginia and the United States during that same time,” Emerick said. 

According to Emerick, the leading industries are government and health care, including employees at the University of Virginia.

But what are some of the goals?

“Goal 1 has a focus on existing industries, Goal 2 really leans into cross-sector collaboration opportunities,” Emerick said. “Goal 3 is about promoting placemaking and as we all  know, and hopefully we know that idea is on the appeal of live, work, and play locations and impacts a lot more than just tourism.”

Emerick said the idea is to create places where businesses want to locate or if someone wants to relocate to the area to pursue their career. 

Goal 4 is about infrastructure investment, covering everything from proper placement of utilities to ensuring there is enough housing. 

TJPDC staff will use a series of metrics to track progress and to report back to the U.S. Economic Development Administration for the next five years. 

Charlottesville has recently adopted their own economic development strategic plan and Economic Development Director Chris Engel pointed out that Goal 4 in that document is about about placemaking. (view Charlottesville’s economic development strategic plan)

“For a region like ours which kind of trades on quality of life in a lot of ways, I think that’s important that came out,” Engel said. “Two separate consultants talking about quality of place having an impact on economic development.” 

Emerick said the appendices in the CEDS are worth reading. 

“I for one would suggest going through the appendices in the CEDS plan because there are a lot of locality-specific data in there that you can use instead of sit down yourself,” Emerick said. “Secondly, there’s a lot of opportunity to do cross-collaboration with other jurisdictions who might be working on the same types of economic problems.” 

For instance, the plan for the TJPDC region is included within a greater plan for an even bigger area known as Region 9 which stretches north to Fauquier County. That higher-level document is in Appendix IV. 

That’s allowed for even more goals at a regional level. For instance, Goal 3 in “Go Virginia Region 9 Super-Regional Strategies” is to “Designate a Defense and Intelligence industry corridor” that could stretch down U.S. 29 and U.S. 15.

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