AGENDA

Guest Presenter: Erin Schaeffer,

Economic Development Planner

Topic: City-wide Economic Development Action Plan

WHY the City-wide Economic Development Action Plan?

This is an exciting opportunity for the City of Beverly to have its first City-wide Economic Development Action Plan. The project will enable the City of Beverly and its Economic and Community Development Council (ECDC), which is advisory to the Mayor, to develop a plan to strategically implement initiatives. The Economic Development Action Plan will build on recent planning work to identify implementation strategies, related actions, and community partnerships to meet the City’s broad economic development goals outlined in the City’s Master Plan. The City has recently hired consulting firm BerryDunn to aid the City with this technical work. Project steps include a market analysis, public engagement, a gap analysis of key industry sectors, development of strategies and an implementation plan.

The overarching Economic Development goals and guiding City policy are:

·       Expand and diversify the City’s tax base

·       Retain and attract quality jobs

·       Explore new and emerging industry sectors

·       Provide business support to ensure local businesses of all types

and stages can thrive

·       Promote environmental sustainability

·       Enhance the character and identify of Beverly’s commercial clusters

The City’s Economic Development Planner, Erin Schaeffer, identified this project opportunity, wrote a successful grant application and will be leading this project. This project is supported by a Housing Choice Grant that the City received in the amount of $85,000.