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Home My WebLink About2009-12-16 Economic Development Policy Group_MIN_Attach 1 Economic Development Policy Group December 16, 2009 This report is a compilation of a self facilitated group discussion among the members of the Policy Group and the Staff project team. The group was provided a draft document created by the Technical Advisory Committee who had completed the same exercise at their meeting the week prior, which was to review and edit the local and regional expert input on the data, trends and comparative advantages and challenges described in the 2007 Economic Opportunities Analysis completed for the City of Ashland by ECO Northwest. The information listed below is taken directly from the Policy Group discussion. Both groups will continue their discussion which will result in one complete, combined document of trends and a SWOT outline to augment the original work done in the 2007 EOA. Trends affecting Ashland  Aging demographic  Affordable housing problems increasing  Increased complexity of development process (land use review and construction)  Value of land and development costs two to three times the ROI  Job scarcity for local generation beyond high school  Increase percentage of local children at or below poverty level (school lunch program for stats)  Increase of non-profit businesses  Increasing use of credit/debit cards for routine purchases SWOT Draft Outline Strengths  Existing citizens/community members (human capital)  People as an asset/resource  Local wealth does exist  Large existing infrastructure that is underutilized (shoulder season/tourist sector)  Physical location on railroad line  Local economy comparatively resilient  Residents resilient also  Excellent natural resources that are valued by citizens  Excellent public capital (SOU, ACH, AFN, ASD, etc)  Overall community awareness/involvement  Ashland is “real world”, a genuine functioning town  Participatory nature of the citizens/community Weaknesses Page 1 of 2  Lack of capital (human, business and more)  City lacks economic development coordination  Lack of conference center/facility/meeting space  No existing rail service (passenger)  Social capital/equity weak compared to other TBL’s  Local retail market deficiencies prevents/reduces local money multiplier Opportunities  Mechanism to connect local wealth with local capital needs (business community) Page 2 of 2