City approves economic development plan

Carson City will be asked for $9,000 this year and $12,000 next year to help fund a new Economic Vitality Coalition.

Supervisors on Thursday bought into an economic strategic plan formed over nine months by around 60 community volunteers.

Patrick Anderson, chairman of the coalition's public outreach committee, told supervisors the plan allows community members to view Carson City as a garden waiting for the seeds of development.

"We need to think as a gardener and step back and look at the plot we intend to till and plant seed and nurture and ask ourselves, 'What do we intend this to look like?'" Anderson said. "Let's not step back and leave it to chance."

Working in three committees, economic development, downtown and corridors, community members sketched an economic development plan that Mayor Ray Masayko called "a skeleton that needs the rest of it filled out."

"Folks that are going to do business here are going to want more information than what we have here, but this is a tremendous step and a step we needed to take," he said.

The economic plan will champion in coming months and years community economic development, community partnerships, regional cooperation and development downtown and in the commercial corridors of highways 50 and 395.

An Economic Vitality Coalition will be made up of a variety of public entities from the Carson City School District and Board of Supervisors to private development agencies like the Builders Association of Western Nevada. Coalition partners will be asked to contribute $1,500 for this year and next year to fund the coalition's annual budget, Anderson said.

Carson City Manager John Berkich said the city's $9,000 portion this year can be funded from savings from the economic development director

Western Nevada Community College eventually will hire a business development manager to work with the coalition.

Between 10 and 12 work groups will be established to work bit by bit on the 31 objectives in the plan. For example, the plan asks that a redevelopment area be established on the south and north sections of Carson Street and Highway 50 East as a way to create public-private partnerships. The work groups would determine which parcels to to put into the development area. Their work would be reviewed by the coalition and then city supervisors.

The plan can be viewed on the city's Web site, www.carson-city.nv.us/economic development. Anyone interested in serving on the coalition's groups must fill out a feedback form. For information on serving on one of the coalition's work groups, call Shelly Aldean, 885-8282, Patrick Anderson, 687-9351 or Charlie Long at 337-9167.