Guidance for Communities
Center for Competitive Economies (C3E) provides direct technical assistance to help communities examine their assets, opportunities and challenges and plan how to grow and prosper. Recent projects include economic and technology planning for Cherokee County and operation of an Environmental Finance Center.
Cherokee County economic and technology planning
C3E completed two projects for Cherokee County in 2000 to help it address challenges resulting from major downsizing by both apparel and furniture companies. C3E partnered with Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to conduct a technology assessment and develop an economic restructuring plan.
- Technology assessment: C3E conducted an inventory of the physical infrastructure, labor force and institutional resources in place in Cherokee County to support the growth of technology-oriented jobs. The report for this activity included a primer on the parameters and pricing of various options for broadband Internet access in the county and information about services expected in the near future. It received high marks from county and state officials for its thorough approach. View an executive summary
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- Economic restructuring plan: The economic adjustment strategy provided an objective analysis of the county's assets and liabilities for industry expansion and attraction. Based on the analysis, the study team identified industries that had the greatest potential for expansion in or attraction to Cherokee County. C3E assessed the potential for technology-related companies, durable goods manufacturing and natural resource-based industries in particular. It also examined relevant best practices in economic restructuring from other areas and the economies of the metropolitan areas closest to Cherokee County. The report concluded with a set of recommendations and specific strategies for the county to build on its current assets and attract and create New Economy businesses. The project involved a series of meetings and videoconferences with key business, government and education leaders in the county. View an executive summary or the full report.
Environmental Finance Center
C3E and its partner, the UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, operate a regional Environmental Finance Center (EFC). It is one of nine such centers that currently comprise a national network of university-based centers. The center builds bridges between the University community and governments to provide environmental services in fair, effective and sustainable ways. Key staff members are C3E Director Michael Luger and Associate Director Leslie Stewart and Richard Whisnant and Jeff Hughes of the Institute of Government.
The EFC connects students and faculty in the University who work principally on environmental financing, management and planning tools, and governments that can use the tools to serve the public interest. The center recognizes that economic development, construed broadly, is the goal that normally prompts communities to consider improving their environmental infrastructure. C3E uses information delivery technology that is both appropriate to its core clientele and that helps span the distances between content creators and clients in its home region, the southeastern United States (EPA Region IV).
Recent EFC activities include:
- Sponsoring a class of UNC-Chapel Hill master's degree students in planning and environmental policy programs to help a four-county task force in eastern North Carolina apply sound growth management principles to an ecologically sound region (spring 1999)
- Facilitating a problem-solving meeting among federal, state, local and private leaders for the city of Charlotte on how use its new Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund to redevelop distressed areas (July 1999)
- Developing a report for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources that outlined the costs and revenue sources for the Million Acres Initiative, an effort to set aside a million acres of conservation land in the next 10 years (fall 2000)
- Developing a multi-media course on financing tools and approaches for local government and planning officials to use in developing sustainable infrastructure for water, wastewater and solid waste to be tested in the southeast and then offered nationally through the EFC network
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Kenan Institute
