Economic Competitiveness

Employment is the backbone of a healthy and functioning economy, thus an understanding of the dynamics of your community’s existing and future employment base – and where and why employers locate where they do - is essential to maintaining and (where needed) improving local economic vitality and regional economic competitiveness.

 Minimum Requirements: 

• None.

 Get More Out of Your Plan: 

• Consider an analysis of the number and character of jobs and industries within your community. The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project can be a useful tool for examining Traded and Local industry clusters down to a countywide level, while American Fact Finder provides 2012 Economic Census data to a place and zip code level (to be released by June 2016).

• Utilize your community’s Employment Forecasts to help characterize and guide the future development of employment areas in your community.

• Local plans can identify where, when, and how new employment areas will be guided to most effectively remain accessible to the regional workforce and leverage public and private investment in infrastructure.

• Many communities use the comprehensive plan to identify the proportion of housing opportunities that are accessible to employees in your community using a jobs-housing ratio.  

 We Can Help!

• We can provide further analysis of industry “clusters” that drive the region’s economy. For each of these key clusters, we have prepared cluster profiles.

• Professionals involved in industrial and office development provide unique and valuable perspective in the Comprehensive Planning process. We developed and distributed a survey to metro-area site selection professionals, which communities may choose to use as a template  in the engagement process of their comprehensive plan.

The redevelopment of underutilized or disinvested properties and districts is a complex but critical opportunity impacting local and regional economic competitiveness. The information provided in this section of the Handbook may supplement the plan’s required objectives, policies, standards, and programs geared towards redevelopment.

• Minnesota Statutes § 473.859 Subd. 1 states that local comprehensive plans “shall contain objectives, policies, standards, and programs to guide… redevelopment and preservation for all lands and waters within the jurisdiction of the local governmental unit”. The information provided in this section of the handbook is intended to assist communities as they grapple with the opportunities and challenges associated with development sites that are declining in value, viability, and marketability. 

 Get More Out of Your Plan: 

• Identify the presence of brownfield challenges in your community through mapping and characterizing these issues, and setting objectives and policies that position brownfield properties as an economic opportunity. MPCA’s “What’s in My Neighborhood” application can be useful in locating perceived and confirmed brownfields.

• Examine the presence of any declining major commercial development areas in the community and establish a strategy and policy framework to address “grayfields” that have become vacant or obsolete.

• If your community has a traditional downtown, assess existing conditions, identify capital programs and other initiatives to keep the downtown’s economy viable, and determine how and what types of businesses would benefit from a downtown location.

• Municipalities and counties in Minnesota have the authority to enact several programs and strategies towards the redevelopment of declining properties and neighborhoods, and there are examples throughout the region of special authorities, districts, and financial tools that have been put in place to do just that. Identify those resources within your community and determine how local policies and programs can be directed to support those resources. Land that is underutilized and potentially contaminated contributes to blight, loss of property values and may adversely affect public health (Minnesota Healthy Planning: How-To Guide, page 47). 

 We Can Help!

• Our Tax Base Revitalization Account provides funding to investigate and clean up brownfields for redevelopment. View the TBRA website or contact your Sector Representative to find out more about this program.

In order to remain competitive in attracting, retaining, and developing businesses that have historically served as catalysts to our region’s economic vitality, your plan should examine and relate to existing education and training programs and resources available to the current and future workforce, and seek to integrate policies and programs aimed at sustaining and growing a well-equipped workforce.

 Minimum Requirements: 

• None.

 Get More Out of Your Plan: 

• Investigate local data related to educational attainment, and match your strengths and weaknesses to economic goals, policies, issues, and opportunities.

• Integrate data and trends on employment and unemployment that help to reveal the need for policies and programs that can help to keep unemployment rates low.

• Strengthen your plan by integrating an assessment of your community’s workforce. Indicate program and resource opportunities for education and workforce development to provide insights into housing choice, public services, and other key considerations.

• Workforce productivity can be a telling indicator of the strength and quality of the workforce, as it measures the output (for example, gross metropolitan product) per a specific input measure (such as hours worked).

• In the context of the comprehensive plan, your community will benefit from a better understanding of the local workforce’s level of compensation.

• Identify programs that currently operate in your community and, where needed, support and strengthen the community’s workforce development network through local policy and goal-setting.

 We Can Help!

• Through a collaboration and data-sharing effort with Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), we have prepared maps that identify where some of the strongest occupations in our region’s leading industries are located.

The most effective comprehensive plans are those that set an attainable vision for the sustained prosperity of a community’s assets, including its business community. Your comprehensive plan should identify goals, actions, and policies directly targeted at the retention, attraction, and creation of businesses in your community.

 Minimum Requirements: 

• None.

 Get More Out of Your Plan: 

• Gather and analyze information on the mix of businesses in the community.

• Identify and assess the effectiveness of your community’s existing Business Recruitment, Attraction, Retention, and Expansion efforts, and set goals and priorities for the efforts moving forward.

• Cultivate small business stability and growth by identifying resources, partnerships, networks, and programs that assist small businesses and entrepreneurs with issues such as management, accounting, financing, real estate, and marketing that the small business may not have the background or capacity to tackle without assistance.

• Assess existing incentive policies and programs in relation to your community’s current character and future growth, as well as to identify opportunities to create, revisit or restructure your community’s approach to business incentives.

• Identify appropriate areas where economic and land use conditions exist that might be strengthened through exploration of a special service district.

• Local food production and sales can improve community assets and provide fresh produce and healthy foods to nearby neighborhoods (Minnesota Healthy Planning: How-To Guide, page 72). For more information, please visit the Minnesota Department of Health Healthy Places website.

 We Can Help!

• See the resources section for information about business development approaches that might be helpful in your community.

Generally, the comprehensive plan should not serve as a community’s economic development strategy. However, the comprehensive plan provides an excellent opportunity to identify important data, policies, and strategies that can help to inform and shape your community’s approach to economic competitiveness.

 Minimum Requirements: 

• None.