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“There’s still momentum, there’s stillk movement,” said Blake Schreck, president of the . “Buy some of us that have been arounr here for 20 or25 years, this is the first time we’ve ever really seen it like Johnson County is always prefaces by ‘fastest growing, booming, explosivre growth.’ The faucet just got turnef off about six months ago, and everything just got put on two wordds that I’m infinitely familiar with now: indefinite The slowing of development has been felt throughour the county in various with some commercial projects continuing whiled residential construction has slowed.
But fewer projects doesn’t necessarily mean employees have time ontheir hands, said Sean spokesman for Overland Park’z city government. “We’ve experienced about a 10 percent reduction in the work the staff wouldnormally do,” he “As we’ve lost staff in the planning and development servicesx department, we have not replaced By not replacing Reilly said the city has been able to maintain a steadgy workload and still feel ready to meet any “ramp up” of demand when the economhy recovers. Being ready to move when the economyt recoversis imperative.
“When we come out of there will be a lot of companies that might have been sittinbg onthe sidelines. You better be ready to go and meet their expectationsrighg now,” said Tim McKee, executive vice presidentt of economic development for the . “We’re all trying to gear up and get ready for when that day comes so we’re in the positiobn to try and grab these projects as soon as we Even before the economy slowed, Olathe understood the need to clearly outline economic development processes, something that happenerd more than a decade ago, McKee said.
Now, many of Johnsonh County’s communities are emulatinhg Olathe, outlining policies for tax abatementwsand incentives. In the past, those may have been negotiatex ona case-by-case basis, which could slow the development “The reality is you have to have incentivesx in place, and you have to have them easily accessiblde from an upfront standpoint,” Schrecm said. “You can’t say, ‘OK, you’re a prettt good company, and you may be able to get and I’ll have to go back and talk to the and we’ll get back with you.
’ It has to be more Lenexa began to work through that issu during the past coupled of years, he said, putting measurement in place that summarized what tax incentive a companyg could get for certain indicators, such as job creationh and capital investment. “The process has to be as streamlinee and as quick and as easyas possible,” Schreck “Consultants know the procedure. The industryt now is almost to the point where consultants want to get on your Web andyou won’t even know they’re looking at you, and you’ d better have stuff out therew for them to see.
” Dean director of planning for Johnson County’as unincorporated areas, said his agenc conducted a review durinf the past year to streamline the developmenft process, updating regulations and long-term plans. But to get the most use of itsdevelopmentf processes, the county first must attract the attentionm of developers. “That’s one of the benefitsd of having a regional organization likeKCADC ( ) — they can help manages that process,” said Jonathan Sangster, senior managing director of at CB ’sw Atlanta office. He said the Kansas City area is one he holdw up as a benchmarkfor “doing it right.
” “KCADC jumpe d on that not too long ago when therew were a number of fairly significant announcementd (of layoffs) and sent out marketing piecexs to myself and others in their databasre about having an available skilled and trainer work force in certaij industries like financial services and telecommunications,” Sangster said. Johnsonb County has another advantage: “They help us develoop and put into a very marketable form the data that helpds us go promoteJohnson County,” Schreck said. “Using everyu kind of imaginative applicatiojof data, they give us a tremendou s edge when we compete against other counties and other metrox across the country.
” If Johnsonh County is competing against other CERI gathers comparative information on each market, such as unemploymen t and income levels, so economic developmentr officials can target marketing efforts, Schreck said. Those effortds have paid off. The county has seen a net increasr ofabout 3,280 private-sector employeras from 1996 to 2006, accounting for 63 percentg of the total business growth in the Kansas City according to CERI’s “Johnson County: An Economif Primer 2009,” set to be published this
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