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Who Are We?

By Jenny Callison, posted Apr 11, 2014
Illustration by Mark Weber
Is it a positive sign that the Wilmington area is engaged in a number of simultaneous efforts to define itself and focus on the future? Or are these surveys and studies simply a substitute for action, as some might suggest?

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these things are happening at the same time. Plurally, we’re trying to decide where to take the next step,” said Woody White, chairman of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners.

In addition to pursuing an information-gathering process throughits contract with Garner Economics LLC that resulted in a set of economic development-related recommendations, New Hanover County is in the midst of a comprehensive planning process.

The City of Wilmington is also developing a comprehensive plan, soliciting input from the community through a series of neighborhood meetings as well as its Planning on Tap visits to several bars to listen to patrons there.

Then there’s a regional branding initiative for Wilmington and its surroundings, involving representatives of the business community and led
by representatives of University of North Carolina Wilmington. That effort has taken a brief hiatus so that team members can ensure their ideas align with both the directions recommended by Garner and the themes under consideration in the current state branding initiative.

“Obviously there are a lot of processes going on,” said attorney Hal Kitchin, former board chairman of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. “If you stop and learn more, there’s not a tremendous amount of overlap. The county’s comprehensive plan is mostly a land use plan. [Garner’s] is an economic development initiative. If [the branding team] comes up with a brand we can use, we will. All of this is a sign of a mature community: larger communities can do more than one thing at a time.”

The area is having growing pains and has not quite internalized the impact of having direct access to Interstate 40, Robin Spinks, a business consultant and vice chairwoman of the Coalition for Economic Advancement, said at the Business Journal’s Power Breakfast on March 27.

New Hanover County officials commissioned the Garner study as a direct result of data showing that the county’s job growth continued to be anemic, said Wilmington Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Connie Majure-Rhett.

“We have been monitoring job growth in Wilmington since the recession,” she said. “At the end of 2012, Wilmington was one of only 19 MSAs [Metropolitan Statistical Areas] out of 377 that had not reached or exceeded U.S. job growth average for any month in a 24-month period.

“We decided instead of perpetually waiting for good news, we needed to tell people the truth so we knew where we were and could plan.”

As the chamber continued to monitor the job growth data, Majure-Rhett contacted Jay Garner and Tom Tveidt of Atlanta-based Garner Economics for advice about how to interpret indicators. When the December 2012 numbers showed the area with 5,500 fewer jobs than before the recession, Majure-Rhett said she decided it was time to open a community conversation about the region’s slow job growth. As a first step, the chamber invited Garner to be the keynote speaker at its 2013 annual meeting.

“We need to take a holistic look, search our souls and get better,” she said. “We’re not fine; the economy is not good.”

New Hanover County officials subsequently contracted with Garner Economics to perform the economic development study. County spokeswoman Carey Ricks said that undertaking the study was a natural outgrowth of the emphasis that the board of commissioners had placed on economic development in its strategic plan a couple of years ago, and that the new board had affirmed in early 2013.

The county’s comprehensive planning process will use some data generated by the Garner report, said New Hanover County assistant manager Tim Burgess.

One issue on which the Garner report underscored a need identified by the county was providing infrastructure – especially water and sewer service – to land zoned for industrial development. Burgess said the county had earmarked some land for infrastructure, but the comprehensive plan will further lay out where those services should extend.

In his remarks to the commissioners April 2, Garner emphasized that New Hanover County cannot expect to attract companies when it does not have available land parcels with infrastructure.

Wilmington Business Development CEO Scott Satterfield agreed.

 “The Garner study clearly demonstrates that we have an abundance of available property, but that land and site are two different things,” he said. “He points out that a site needs water, sewer, natural gas and telecommunications, as well as other amenities.”

Randall Johnson, executive director of the N.C. Biotechnology Center’s southeastern office, sees promise in both the comprehensive planning and the economic development initiatives.

“All of these efforts are creating an environment where we can have substantive discussions about economic development issues, leading to action to make what we know is a great place to live and work even better,” he said. “We are at a pivotal time in that discussion for the region, and I am encouraged at the discussion.”

To read about the Garner report's recommendations, click here.
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