Pflugerville City Council tabled approving the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation's economic strategic plan Feb. 13, asking the PCDC to go back to the drawing board.
The gist
Delving into the details of the PCDC's third draft of a comprehensive economic strategic plan, council members emphasized the necessity to clarify the corporation's language and action items for economic development. Additionally, they raised questions about the PCDC's approach for achieving the city's future goals.
PCDC Executive Director Amy Madison explained the comprehensive plan was created following national standards set by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
These standards outline metrics and deliverables that are considered best practices for a city’s economic development.
Madison said the latest version of the PCDC's comprehensive economic development plan reflects more specific action items, per the request of council members.
“I agree that I think you were following the scope of the [request for proposal] based on EDC standards and best practices, and I guess we don't like it,” Mayor Victor Gonzalez said. “There’s some more work that needs to be done.”
Also of note
The Feb. 13 agenda contained several other items regarding the city’s plans for future economic development.
City Council pushed a decision regarding the $75,000 contract with TIP Strategies to conduct a workforce study until March. The study aims to provide an overview of the workforce in Pflugerville and anticipate the future workforce needs of various industries. For instance, it will assess whether the city requires additional higher education or workforce training opportunities to meet the demands of specific industries in the Pflugerville area.
The target industries outlined by TIP Strategy include:
- Advanced manufacturing
- Information technology
- Life sciences
- Retail trade
“Here we are investing millions of dollars in our downtown area, and I haven't heard about the retail strategy for downtown,” McDonald said.
Council members agreed that either the city or PCDC should conduct a community survey to gain a better understanding of the community's preferences for Pflugerville development.
