Enhancing Community Appeal Drives Economic Development and Raises Quality of Life

A region’s quality of life is dependent on a community’s appeal, which is why economic development organizations like GSMP must strive to enhance community appeal as part of their overall strategy.

While economic development relies heavily on a community’s “product” (such its workforce, location, infrastructure, sites, buildings, and so on), the quality of life and place are vital to the long-term sustainability of that development. This includes the vibrancy of downtown areas, the preservation of natural beauty, and the utilization of regional benchmarking to guide sustainable, impactful development.

Vision 2025, our region’s economic development strategy, specifically encompasses all these factors to ensure that Hays and Caldwell Counties grow their quality of life while preserving and improving their quality of place.

One of the action items set in this year for Vision 2025 revolves around the support of downtown vibrancy. This action item is broad in the types of functions that are involved, including efforts to make downtown areas attractive to residents, businesses, and visitors.

Having vibrant and attractive downtowns serve several purposes. With a vibrant downtown, residents have more options to increase their quality of life within one walking area. Think of locations such as new retail stores, eating spaces, and community gathering areas, all of which serve as job centers that offer closer-to-home employment opportunities for a city’s residents. In turn, this develops a stronger tax base for a city and allows new economic opportunity to thrive with smart planning and strategic development.

The concept of well-planned development is also seen in another facet of Vision’s 2025 action items – the preservation of natural beauty. There is no question that the beauty of the Texas Hill Country is a major asset to the Texas Innovation Corridor and its quality of place.

As such, the Texas Innovation Corridor (TxIC) Future Development Committee is serving as an invaluable resource to enhancing our community appeal by identify assets that should be protected and areas that are best-suited for development in the region. Their work, which has been mentioned in previous columns, is vital to serving the long-term sustainability and strategic growth of our area.

We also see that similar purposefulness in benchmarking, via the action items of our regional asset review and community score cards. By tracking the trends that correlate with quality of life (such building permits, crime rates, attendance of art & cultural events, etc.), our region will be able to identify where improvements can be made. It will also notate the Texas Innovation Corridor in comparison to the rest of the country regarding quality of life. GSMP intends to publish the findings of this regional asset inventory and community score card system, further touting Hays and Caldwell Counties as one of the best places in the country to live.

All of these action items parlay in to elevating a high quality of life. By enhancing community appeal, Hays and Caldwell Counties will continue to be a high-quality place to both live and do business, allowing for new, good-paying jobs and increased capital investments.

If you are interested in getting involved on enhancing our region’s community appeal, I’d be delighted to get you plugged in! Email me at jasong@greatersanmarcostx.com or find me on Twitter @JasonGiulietti.