Heads up, Clark County. Your Southwest Washington neighbor is revving up a new strategic economic development plan.
And while each county is unique, with its own economic needs, demands and goals, it might be instructive to know what’s on Cowlitz County’s list of objectives heading into next year.
That list of objectives — drawn up in “Turning Point,” a new economic development plan crafted for the Cowlitz Economic Development Council — will be presented during a Port of Woodland Board of Commissioners workshop from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the port’s office, 115 Davidson Ave.
The plan may be of particular interest in Woodland, which straddles the line between Clark and Cowlitz counties.
The workshop, for informational purposes only, is open to the public. The presenters are Mike Karnofski, chairman of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council, and Ted Sprague, president of the CEDC.
The goals of the new plan for Cowlitz County, where the jobless rate is 10.9 percent (in Clark County, it’s 13 percent), are based, in part, on an analysis of the region’s strengths and weaknesses. For example:
• Development sites with “immediate access” to Interstate 5 are scarce in Cowlitz County, according to the plan, so the region must develop an “employment center for high-wage, service-oriented companies” to set the stage “to attract business investment from the Portland region.”
• One of the biggest obstacles to attracting companies is Cowlitz County’s “lack of competitive sites,” according to the plan. As a result, the county must remove “any construction constraints,” such as “drainage considerations” to ensure that “all industrial properties are ‘shovel ready.’”
Nelson Holmberg, executive director of the Port of Woodland, said he hopes the port will play a crucial role in helping boost Cowlitz County’s offerings of competitive industrial sites. He said one idea is to designate 12 acres of port-owned land as an “incubator park” aimed at supporting and attracting a “cluster of industries,” including fishing and recreation. “It’s taking a fresh look at how we approach economic development in Cowlitz County,” Holmberg said of the new plan, including deciding “what are the target sectors we’re looking to attract to our area.”
In Clark County, the area’s chief economic development agency — the Columbia River Economic Development Council — is developing a similar countywide economic-development plan. It’s scheduled to be completed no later than June 30.
