Supervisors urged a stepped-up push on economic development after staff described a statewide relaunch of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership's Local and Regional Competitive Initiatives assessment and recommended the county complete the assessment and use the results to guide strategy.
A supervisor who attended a VEDP Teams briefing said the program will issue customized assessments to localities that will be compared to peers and produce data on planning, performance indicators and land availability. The supervisor said the assessments will highlight gaps in economic-development planning and recommended that the county use the results to improve its comprehensive-plan alignment and target investments.
Board members said the county must make the Economic Development Committee (EDC) more useful, coordinate development strategies across the three towns, and market county-owned commercial and industrial properties more aggressively. Staff noted the county already subscribes to commercial listing services (CoStar and others) and receives metrics — for example, a county property listing had 485 views in a recent month and 15,000 views since it was listed — and directed staff to present material for posting on the county website so local property listings are visible to prospective developers.
Supervisors also asked for a report showing returns on local investments funded with tobacco commission grants, citing one local sidewalk project paid with tobacco‑commission funds (a $600,000 sidewalk) as an example and asking staff to show how past grant-funded projects returned value. The board discussed offering targeted incentives for prospects and noted that larger-scale economic development often requires up-front spending to secure grants, incentives or build-ready sites.
County staff said they will circulate the VEDP assessment when it arrives, coordinate who fills out the survey, and provide a tobacco-grant return summary. The board suggested making 2026 a focused year for economic development work.