What’s next for economic development in KC?
By Jared Campbell, Resident Engagement Project Manager at Downtown Council of Kansas City
What does the future of economic development look like in Kansas City? The mayor and city council hope to answer that question over the next four to six months with the help of a consultant team who will create a new strategic plan for equitable economic development. That was the key message delivered by 6th District At-Large Councilwoman Bough when she spoke before the Downtown Council’s Executive Committee recently.
Councilwoman Bough said this new plan will define the next decade of economic growth, set policy to catalyze that growth, prioritize and implement corresponding city initiatives, and provide a foundation for dynamic and strategic public-private partnerships.
The city has established an internal working group to serve as a foundation for engaging with the consultant team. When that team comes to town later this month, they will not only engage with the city’s internal team, but also the full city council, and start to have conversations with key stakeholders as well. The councilwoman stressed that the consultant will engage with traditional stakeholders, but the city also wants to think outside the box to converse with new and different groups that can bring fresh perspectives to this topic.
Based on a handout provided at the committee meeting, to build this plan, the city hopes to:
- Build a market perspective and data driven analysis to enhance understanding of the current economic landscape in Kansas City
- Host strategic planning sessions to set policy and vision with the City Council addressing challenges and optimizing growth opportunities based on economic landscape findings
- Collect and codify a cohesive framework of economic development priorities from public and private stakeholders
- Review and redesign the strategic approach for economic development tools, City-owned assets, and infrastructure to operationalize policy and strategic vision
- Simplify and consolidate economic development tools and pathways to support projects
- Improve public processes and align with 3rd party organizations and agencies to best address economic challenges and policy priorities
- Engage with a variety of local stakeholders for an iterative and inclusive process towards developing final deliverables, including groups often left out of economic development strategies
- Establish strategic review cycle for dynamic policy implementation
- Create a thorough evaluation process to determine the success of various City economic development incentives
The expected deliverables from the consultant team includes creating an economic landscape assessment including data-driven, city-wide and sub-market studies, peer city benchmarks, and an overview on the status of economic development subsegments (business, workforce development, marketing, site/infrastructure, and quality of life).
From those deliverables, the team will create a codified interpretation of “Economic Development” in Kansas City and a framework of priority economic growth drivers co-created and supported by stakeholder groups.
Finally, the team will create a concise action plan outlining municipal opportunities in supporting priorities including the responsible and key stakeholders, budgetary implications, timeframes, priorities, and key performance indicators.
On behalf of the DTC Executive Committee and the full board, we thank Councilwoman Bough for presenting this information to our organization and applaud her efforts in championing this issue. As the Downtown Council looks to re-establish our Housing Task Force and as we continue our efforts towards business attraction and retention, we look forward to participating with the consultant team on this process and with the mayor and council as they draft future policies to formalize and enact the recommendations in the plan.
