On Nov. 10 Tom Gordon, New Castle County Executive joined to Major of Wilmington ant other representants to unveil the NCC Economic Development Strategic Plan.
This is County Executive Tom Gordon’s speech:
“Last year, I tasked our Office of Economic Development, in partnership with the Department of Land Use, to move towards creating the first ever comprehensive plan for economic development in New Castle County.
The economy here in Delaware and in New Castle County was and is still struggling and lagging behind the rest of the region and country and we needed some type of path forward.
We recognized that there is more the County could do to help existing businesses and attract new good paying jobs and industries helping Delawareans earn a livable wage.
It is our goal for this new plan to be a blueprint with action steps aimed at short term goals and long term opportunities for the county to take and enablng economic growth and sustainability.
This new Strategic Plan is a big first step in making some needed changes to programing and future planning for local jobs and businesses. But we can’t afford to sit this on a shelf; we need use this as a plan of action to make responsible changes.
The plan is focused on the following:
A rigorous self-assessment to determine the competitive strengths of northern Delaware and build upon them.
An identification of the growth industries of the future, taking into account the demographic and technological shifts which are likely to define the next decade.
A plan to attract and retain growth-sector businesses and rejuvenate the entrepreneurial spirit of New Castle County.
Action steps to guide economic development and planning in the county.
To obtain the most honest and productive plan it was important to include as many businesses and stakeholders in the creation of this plan. This included 3 days of focus groups and interviews of leaders from business, academia, government, and civic organizations.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in this process and took time out of their days to help us with their feedback.
This plan provides details for best practices and initiatives which the County can use for good, responsible development and jobs.
Many of these, especially the Land Use changes are already underway with the Office of Economic Development working closely with our Land Use GM Eileen Fogarty.
This includes a number of streamlining and timeline improvements to make the land use process clearer and friendlier with a focus on encouraging smart growth.
The other parts of the plan involving brand new initiatives and changes in programing and regulations will be led by Marcus Henry, who is working alongside our County Council to initiate these best practices and initiatives.”
This is the link to the actual plan:
here is the link to the actual plan:
http://nccde.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/7778
