The terms “community development” and “economic development” are often used interchangeably by both public officials and the public in discussing needs for our community. Often these terms are used without acknowledging that there is a difference between the two. These words are part of every political campaign, every campaign season. Many times, the candidates don’t understand the importance of supporting both concepts. Heavy emphasis is traditionally placed on economic development because it’s tied to jobs. But without community development, economic development may never happen because they need to run on parallel tracks.
Community Development is largely the use of public dollars, public planning, and public amenities albeit some community development uses private funds. It means the community invests in their own community. Community development can produce and affect the business climate and quality of life assets.
Economic Development mobilizes these assets to realize benefits for the community. Economic Development can be supported by public funds, but it is largely driven by private investments, company-based decisions, and private sector jobs.
Community development can be evaluated by looking at a community’s readiness. Where are public officials spending public dollars? Community development is a consideration of everything from schools, housing, transportation, and recreation. Do infrastructure systems, such as water, sewer, and electric have the capacity to grow? Do they service both households and businesses efficiently and more importantly are they cost effective? Are streets and roads ready for the impacts of growth? Schools need the capacity to grow with a potential influx of new families seeking jobs. The often-overlooked “quality of life” element is in fact, extremely important. Are the parks appealing and safe? Are there recreational programs like baseball, basketball, hiking, and swimming that keep citizens of all ages busy and entertained? Every one of these community development efforts is vital to successful economic development.
To support a healthy community, a growing tax base is necessary whereby combined public and private funds can create community wealth. Public funds are often stretched thin and are many times hard to secure. But that is where successful economic development pays off when it is deployed in tandem with community development. Economic development can create wealth, which can in turn provide more funding for public projects. Economic development is the single most important tool to build our tax base and it is often accomplished with private investment.
Economic development is traditionally defined as business recruitment, retention, and the expansion of private business. It encompasses large industrial projects and small business startups. It requires consistency and a long-term vision. Economic development professionals build relationships and networking capacities to market a community. So how do we boost our economic development efforts? Public officials should be encouraged to access every available resource to improve community development initiatives so that our economic development efforts are successful. DIG Frankfort was organized by business minded people to support economic development because when successful in these efforts, the entire community benefits.
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