Leaders drawing economic map to the future

Carson City's economic future is important enough to attract some 20 local government, school, business, building and utility leaders to roundtable discussions every two weeks.

Since starting these talks at the end of last year, this public-private group has determined the best plan is based on understanding the past and present.

The team has outlined a three-part approach to establish an economic strategic plan for Carson City:

- First, take an inventory of the water, gas, electric, sewer and phone lines in Carson City and neighboring areas in Douglas and Lyon counties.

- Then bring in POLICOM Corp. to examine the history and trends of the local economy.

- Finally, combine all this data as a strategic plan for future economic development, possibly with the assistance of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.

"This could lay out our economic future for many, many years to come," City Manager John Berkich said. "It is critical that this be done well."

The manufacturing community especially encouraged a look back before planning ahead. Kris Holt, executive director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority, lobbied to start with an infrastructure inventory and historical analysis before drafting a strategic plan.

"I don't think we're ready for the Urban Land Institute," said Holt, the primary recruiter bringing manufacturers to the region. "We need to do a first step. I want to do a situation analysis first."

Holt and representatives from Sierra Pacific Power, Nevada Bell and Southwest Gas will get together in coming days and decide how much information they are willing to share about their utility lines.

"Every utility in-house knows what it has, but the city and counties don't have a clue where the utilities are," said Vince Goicoechea, a Sierra Pacific business development manager. "We're trying to help plug in that piece of the puzzle."

Goicoechea did a similar study last year in Elko. City leaders had their sights on a handful of locations for development, but once they learned where the utility lines came together they chose new sites.

Goicoechea foresees Carson City leaders identifying a number of preferable locations for development and then narrowing them to the best sites based on how well existing utilities already serve the area.

"The best land rises to the top," Holt said. "It tells you what you can and can't do."

Economic strategic planning arose last year as the Builders Association of Western Nevada approached Berkich with questions. Berkich initially met with BAWN representatives and the process then evolved to include leaders from the utilities, manufacturing associations, the Carson City School District and Western Nevada Community College.

"It's timely. It's important," Berkich said. "We need to have a plan that maps out our future so Carson City can have a stable, vibrant economy."

Carson City and NNDA have each committed $3,000 to bring in the Tampa Bay-based independent research firm POLICOM to analyze the city's economic sectors in great detail. WNCC has added $1,000.

Carson-Tahoe Hospital, the Carson City Area Chamber of Commerce and the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce have each been asked to add $1,000 and Lyon and Douglas counties have been asked for $3,000 each.

The third part, establishing the strategic plan itself, will cost about $100,000, which will also be split between private and public sources, Berkich said.

Holt became familiar with POLICOM a few months ago when the firm did a similar analysis for Washoe County.

"It tells you where the money is," Holt said. "It explains a 20-year history of your economy. It tells us who are we, where are we, what do we want to be."

For WNCC, the city's economic strategic planning falls in line with the college's academic master planning for the next six years, WNCC President Carol Lucey said.

"The timing couldn't be better," said Lucey, who is part of the public-private group. "I think everybody is on the same page. Everybody has come to an agreement that this is the time to do community planning."

Supporting the city's efforts with economic development is one of Lucey's five primary goals for WNCC. She believes the college contributes most strongly to the cause with its construction, information and manufacturing technology programs.

While the city focuses on infrastructure, Lucey sees the college's strength as building a strong workforce to attract more industry.

"The way we will be more useful to the community is to provide human resources," she said. "One of the big question from companies looking to move is about workforce."