St. Charles Parish Business Roundtable Presentation

1
St. Charles ParishBusiness Roundtable
Presentation

• River Region Chamber of Commerce
• 2006

2
Agenda

• Overview Why are we here?
• Project Objectives
• Project Methodology
• Results
• Parish
• Regional
• The Next Step
• Task Forces
• Community Involvement
• Closing Comments

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Objectives

• Identify factors impacting the business climate
  and quality of life within the River Region, (St.
  Charles, St. James, and St. John The Baptist
  parishes)
• Identify factors that are
• Local
• Regional
• Take action to bring about managed change that
  positively impacts the Region
• Build stronger alliances between business and
  other community sectors to foster increased
  cooperation in support of shared goals

4
Methodology

• Six small business roundtable meetings were
  conducted, two within each parish
• One meeting was held for the Regions industry
  representatives to obtain their perspective
• An Internet survey was advertised and conducted
  to help prioritize the important issues
  identified within each parish and across the
  region
• A professional facilitator was used to support
  objectivity, inclusiveness, and accuracy of data
  gathering

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Methodology

• 104 citizens attended parish roundtable meetings
  to identify issues
• 19 representatives attended the industry
  roundtable meeting
• 152 respondents completed the online surveys
  prioritizing the issues
• Separate surveys were conducted for each parish
• Each survey contained the same regional questions
• Response options were weighted on degrees of
  important, more or less important

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St. Charles Issues

• Economic Development
• Code Enforcement
• Infrastructure and Services
• Crime
• Hurricane Protection
• Residential Development

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St. Charles -- Comments

• In the long run, we need to send a clear economic
  development marketing message, similar to
  Mississippi, to overcome the uncertainty of New
  Orleans redevelopment.
• The river parishes west bank lacks adequate
  hurricane protection. It also offers the largest
  tracks of dry land.
• Code enforcement needs to be more contractor
  friendly.
• Traffic is causing congestion on all major roads.
• We need more firefighters on the fire department.

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St. Charles -- Comments

• We do not want to become like St. Tammany. We
  should have the infrastructure in before
  development occurs.
• One major reason for the lack of workers in the
  area is a shortage of housing. We need to use
  land more wisely, like garden/patio homes and
  smaller lots.
• Most housing is either high income or low income.
  There is a shortage of middle income housing.
• We need creative redevelopment of older areas.
  We need to identify pockets of opportunity.
• Property crime is increasing, primarily looting.
  Theft is up at building sites.

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St. Charles Issue Ratings
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Regional Issue Ratings

• Roads

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Regional Issue Ratings

• Insurance

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Regional Issue Ratings

• Workforce Development

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Regional Issue Ratings

• Regional Cooperation

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Regional Issue Ratings

• Other Ratings

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Regional Issues

• Road Construction
• Workforce Development
• Insurance
• Regional Cooperation
• Mass Transit
• Small Business Owner Activism
• Regional Economic Development
• State Economic Development

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Where do we go from here?

• Initiate a process to proactively manage the
  future
• Open process
• Public-private partnership
• How can you help?
• What can you do?

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Action Plan

• Action Task Forces will be formed in each parish
  and the region
• Each Task Force will initially focus on the three
  to four highest rated issues impacting each
  parish and region
• Emphasis will be on identifying and taking
  focused action to bring about positive change

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St. Charles Task Forces

• Infrastructure and Services (including hurricane
  protection)
• Criminal Justice
• Economic Development
• Code Enforcement and Residential Development

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Regional Task Forces

• Workforce Development
• Industry Subcommittee
• Small Business Subcommittee
• Roads
• Insurance

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Chamber Public Policy Committee

• Industry Issues
• Environmental Regulation
• Energy
• Industrial Taxation

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Work On An Action Task Force

• Volunteer to serve on an Action Task Force in
• Your Parish
• The Region
• Study the issue that has been assigned to your
  Task Force
• Develop specific objectives that will address
  weaknesses and build on strengths

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Closing Comments