Below is most of a letter I wrote to a friend in New Mexico. She does community development work on a volunteer basis. A lot of the resources are specific to New Mexico and I don't really have the time to find the Utah equivalent right now. I figured it would give you an idea of what is out there and what kinds of things to search for. If you don't know how to find stuff on the Internet very effectively, bug me
next week (by e-mail or PM would probably be best) and I can try to find some Utah-specific resources. I take online classes and have had a class in Internet research. Sometimes an hour or two of my searching the 'Net is worth many hours of someone else's searching. But this is Finals week for me, so I really can't do that right now.
HTH.
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Business Incubation in New Mexico
http://www.edd.state.nm.us/PUBLICATIONS/BIZINC.pdf
New Mexico Economic Development
http://www.edd.state.nm.us/
This Web site is a project of the
Rural Economic Development Through Tourism (REDTT)
Project of New Mexico's Cooperative Extension Service.
http://www.nmsu.edu/~redtt/Resources/html/index.html
El Camino Real Recreation site
http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=3135
New Mexico Business Resource Center
http://www.brc.nm.org/
New Mexico has a National Laboratory -- they have a mission to work cooperatively with business for economic development, specifically getting new technologies onto the market:
http://www.lanl.gov/partnerships/pdf/econ_impact03.pdf
New Mexico Tech Research and Economic Division
http://www.nmt.edu/~red/
(Ideally, you want to find a business development center nearby, but state resources can be useful, wherever you are. I cannot remember where you are right now. If you tell me the county etc, again, I can try to tailor some of this more towards local stuff.)
New Mexico Economic Development Directory
http://www.ecodevdirectory.com/nmexico.htm
Corporate Relocation Resources for Metro New Mexico:
http://www.nmsitesearch.com/resources/resources_6.htm
Economic Development Directory
http://www.ecodevdirectory.com/
That is some general stuff to give you an idea of what is out there. You will want to make a list of existing resources in the area, such as a Small Business Development center (these are in association with a college). You want to particularly target resources that are appropriate to your area. I specifically included a site for rural economic development in New Mexico. You will need to work out some goals and decide what the basis of those goals are.
My assumption is that you would prefer to promote development from within the community -- to grow the place 'organically' or 'boot strap' it -- as much as possible, combined with attracting business that is of real benefit to the community. I figure you do not really want to promote 'gentrification' -- where the neighborhood goes up in value but it mostly just forces out existing residents who can no longer afford to live there.
So, a good approach is to promote small business development. Small business is responsible for the majority of employment and job growth in this country. And the federal and state governments make a lot of resources available for that purpose.
One thing you probably want to capitalize on is tourism, since it is a recently designated historical area. Tourism brings money in from outside and can be a real shot in the arm for a poor area, if handled carefully. It can also be a seasonal business, which has its upside and downside. The upside is that for part of the year, you community is relatively undisturbed and retains its traditional character. The downside is that seasonal businesses only make money for part of the year. So, you may want to specifically address that problem and ways to cope with it in your economic development strategies.
You will need to think about 'marketing' for your area and its economic development activities -- a slogan, a name, etc. You might want to surf the websites of existing economic development departments to get a feel for how that is approached. Marketing is not the same as advertising. Advertising is one aspect of marketing, but marketing is a bigger picture approach: how are you going to position yourself? What is the identity of the area? What are its existing assets?
Believe it or not, the fact that it is poor is an ASSET for attracting business: It is 'affordable'. lol. Rents are low, etc. So, you will need to find some demographic data and the like, both for your area and for other areas to have a comparison. Then you can determine that it is "on average, 20% cheaper than...." etc.
You want to start with a visioning process and set goals based on that vision. If you start with a goal of 'economic development', it is all too easy to go astray and simply start attracting businesses in a way that degrades the community, leads to gentrification, etc. I know you are fighting the NIMBY stuff that has landed there in the past. So, this is your chance to decide what kinds of things you WANT to attract.
Remind me what county you are in and what big city you are next to and what the official name of the place is. I will see if I can do something more specific. Let me know if you have questions. I am not really an expert in economic development per se but it is sort of a 'hobby' of mine, since I have been reading business articles and books since I was 14 or thereabouts.
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And another letter to the same friend:
I tripped across this short article and wondered if New Mexico is one of the states with this program and it is. The website for New Mexico is:
http://www.nmepscor.org/
The national website is:
http://www.science.doe.gov/EPSCoR/states1.htm
Grants for Rural Biz
States with lots of farms and fields are making more grants available to businesses through a program funded primarily by the National Science Foundation. It's called EPSCoR (don't ask), and is designed to foster scientific research in rural areas. But in 15 states, businesses are also eligible for grants. Rules differ from state to state. South Carolina lets you do virtually anything with its grants, which run between $3,000 and $20,000. Vermont, however, prefers that "companies do those first couple of crucial experiments or buy a piece of equipment," says Christopher Allen, who runs EPSCoR there. Charlotte Gruner of Casper, Wyo., used the $5,000 she received in 2000 to attend a conference for grant writers. The founder of software company Pronghorn Scientific, who has since received more than $1 million in additional federal grants, says, "It's quite a procedure and I don't know if I would have gotten other funding" without EPSCoR's initial help.