The new plan “seeks to pour the foundation for a more vibrant and flourishing Pulaski County for all. It is an ambitious vision, but not one beyond the reach of this community,” explains CDC executive director Nathan Origer. “It will not be implemented effectively without the adequate allocation of the resources necessary to carry out its numerous projects, but this allocation will not be a cost: it will be an investment.”

He added “to fund this plan properly will be to invest in this community — in the descendants, genetic and geographic, of those earliest settlers who built communities, lives, and cultures along the Tippecanoe River and the railroads that once crisscrossed these 12 townships; tamed the land and made it bountiful; and were proud to call themselves Americans, Hoosiers, and the sons and daughters of Pulaski County. To fund this plan will be to build our very own Mayberry 2.0, where we embrace our heritage and welcome progress to ensure the best quality of life, opportunity, and place for ourselves and future generations.”

(Find the recently adopted Simply Pulaski: A Plan for Quality – updated CDC strategic plan here)

The new plan document reflects the efforts of the members of the CDC’s 2021-22 strategic visioning committee. The committee currently comprises two CDC officers, three elected officials, and one at-large member. Four members own or serve in executive-leadership positions in Pulaski County businesses, one is a regional relationship manager for a local bank, and one enjoys a very active retirement. The project began in 2017, but was tabled in 2018 in light of more pressing issues, especially the adjustments, made by the County Council and driven by the CDC, to the county’s property- and income-tax structures — changes made to increase Pulaski County’s affordability while stabilizing finances.

The visioning committee members are Sheila Jimenez, chair; Kelsie Zellers, Maurice Loehmer, Kathleen Thompson, Lynn Johns, Bill Champion and Origer as an ex-officio member.

The committee worked in consultation with partner organizations, including the county commissioners and council, the county industrial forum, the Uptown Project, the Chamber of Commerce and the Community Foundation of Pulaski County. Three public information/input sessions were held in October. Finally, the final draft of the plan and adoption were approved by the CDC on Nov. 2. Implementation is set to begin Jan. 1, 2022.

The new plan

Key action steps in the new strategic plan (details can be found by reading the plan) address the following:

Marketing/Branding Business Development - focuses on the CDC’s efforts both to maintain itself in a place of prominence within and beyond the community and to market Pulaski County’s offerings to prospective investors.

Workforce Development - one of the most crucial aspects of economic development in Pulaski County; focused and properly aligned programming on this front creates opportunities to build the necessary workforce pipeline that existing employers require to be productive and competitive in Pulaski County while improving resident-workers’ opportunities to develop skills and to increase household wealth.

Targeted Industry Sectors - presents a list of sectors on which business-attraction efforts should be focused, particularly in light of Pulaski County’s demographic and logistical challenges. If population trends would reverse and increase the available labor pool, business-attraction efforts may in the future become more important, but presently are a low priority.

Real Estate Development - focuses on developing a better marketing strategy for existing real estate and developing new sites for enhanced business-attraction and -expansion efforts.

Entrepreneurial Development - focuses on facilitating the successful start-up of new, local businesses and the sustainable growth of existing small businesses. This key action step provides opportunities for increased assessed valuation in the community, new employment opportunities, and quality-of-life and quality-of-place improvements.

Business Retention and Expansion - These efforts are recognized almost universally as the most effective of the three economic-development strategies (attraction, retention and expansion, and entrepreneurial development). Especially in a logistically disadvantaged region like Pulaski County, and in a community where a number of existing employers either remain-owned or were originally established in the community, maintaining strong relationships with these firms and prioritizing their ability to remain sustainable and competitive in Pulaski County is of the utmost importance.

Tourism Development - Tourism provides Pulaski County with the opportunity to highlight its quality-of-life and quality-of-place amenities to visitors and to generate economic activity. While emphasizing efforts that improve a community’s livability over efforts to turn the community into a destination is generally a more effective strategy, it remains important for the CDC to leverage the existing assets that Pulaski County offers to display the attractiveness of the  community for both transient economic activity and the possibility of increasing residential relocation.

Community Capacity Building - Just as there are three primary strategies for economic development (attraction, retention and expansion, and entrepreneurial development), so, too, are there three primary components of the foundation on which sustainable economic development occurs: workforce development, quality of life, and infrastructure. The CDC’s focus on business retention and expansion and entrepreneurial development and minimization of business attraction and site-development efforts reduce the need for growth-oriented infrastructure development, and this plan has already addressed workforce development; improving the community’s capacity to welcome and to sustain growth is critical for the long-term wellbeing of Pulaski County.

Downtown Development - Downtown districts present the opportunity for interdisciplinary programming and projects at the intersection of multiple Key Action Steps, especially entrepreneurial development, community capacity building (housing), and tourism development (amenities development, accommodations development, and marketing). Additionally, their traditional grid-based layouts and higher levels of density are conducive to walkability, which can contribute to improved health outcomes, as well as the less tangible benefits of neighborliness and what urbanist Jane Jacobs dubbed “eyes on the street” — informal community policing through presence, observation, and interaction that promotes safety and security.

Institutional Capacity Building - Over the course of its existence, the CDC has often found itself assuming responsibilities beyond its mission, particularly over the last 10-15 years. These have included providing assistance to the Advisory Plan Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, and staff for these bodies; involvement in disposing of the former County Home; overseeing public-works projects for the county; and working closely with the County Council on addressing the county’s fiscal-health concerns. While executive directors have willingly done this, this expanded service to the county has limited the CDC’s ability to follow its mission and to implement the 2010 plan, especially in times without additional staff in the office. If the CDC is to implement this plan effectively and efficiently, then the county must ensure that proper staffing is in position in multiple county departments.

Moving forward

Origer noted that these key action steps “are not merely an intellectual exercise, nor are they simply my ideas or committee members’: they reflect the collective wisdom and care of the committee and the full CDC,” as well as elected officials and community organizations; the residents, landowners, and business leaders of Pulaski County; and outside advisors who took the time to contribute thoughtful input.

“They are meant to be carried out, not forgotten on a shelf,” Origer continued. “They are meant to be a part of our community’s future.”

The ordering of steps should not be interpreted as indicating any particular prioritization.

“The challenges that Pulaski County faces are complex and interrelated and demand a balanced approach to improving upon and investing in all three fronts — quality of life, opportunity, and place: making Pulaski County a better place to call home, in which to work or to run a business, and to visit, respectively,” Origer explained. “We recognize that making our community the best place to call home is necessary to retain and to attract residents, which is in turn necessary to attract future capital investment. At the same time, the fiscal concerns that limit the county’s ability to make transformative investments of any scale demand that we expend energy toward facilitating strategic investments.

“Ultimately, the CDC must strike a precise balance between making it clear that ‘community development’ is in its name for good reason and at the same time generating new sources of necessary revenue for the county government to ensure the long-term sustainability of this plan and the county government, more generally,” he added.

In the early years of the new plan’s implementation, Origer noted the CDC must work closely especially with the Community Foundation of Pulaski County’s Aspirations in Action steering committee to ensure that relevant community-driven efforts are strengthened by collaboration and not weakened by an uncoordinated and dispersed investment of resources, while simultaneously precisely targeting economic-development projects that provide vital injections of capital without draining existing resources. Beyond this scheduling consideration, the order of project implementation will depend on a number of variables.

The strategic visioning committee will continue to oversee implementation and to work with staff to establish timelines, to prioritize programs and projects, and to consider revisions to the plan as circumstances may necessitate.

“Community development is a team sport, and all of Pulaski County is on the active roster,” Origer said. “The (new plan) is our playbook for a vibrant, sustainable, healthier, and wealthier Pulaski County.”