Boone County EDC prioritizes housing, childcare and local workforce retention

Andrea Kern, executive director of the Boone County Economic Development Corporation, said the office will prioritize housing, childcare and retaining workers who currently commute into Boone County.

Kern spoke about the EDC’s early priorities during episode 2.16 of the City of Lebanon’s Love and Lebanon podcast with Joe LePage, communications and community development director for the City of Lebanon. Kern said the office is moving beyond traditional employer recruitment to “be really strategic about what we do so that we're not doing everything.”

The EDC plans to expand community development work to address housing and childcare, which Kern said are necessary to attract and keep employers and the county’s workforce. “We have to stop importing 70% of our workforce,” Kern said. “That means 70% of our workforce is not living in Boone County.”

Kern described several concrete initiatives the office is pursuing or has started. The EDC is supporting Zionsville’s DORA efforts, has hired a new director of strategy and innovation and is considering establishing a community development corporation to pursue CDFI funding and focused community development projects. “We’re looking at creating a community development corporation as part of the EDC,” she said.

On incentives, the EDC is rethinking property tax abatements to tie some employer incentives to community needs. Kern described possibilities such as asking companies that receive abatements to contribute to a childcare fund that would, in turn, make incentives available to childcare providers.

Kern said the office has begun community engagement work, holding two listening sessions in her first month and planning additional sessions, including a meeting in Thornton with business leaders. She intends to publish a three-year strategic plan in the fall to guide work through 2026 and beyond: “My goal is to have that out in, you know, September, October of this year.”

Kern drew on statewide experience and prior programs in explaining her approach. She said her prior work with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs and programs such as a $2,000,000 Preserving Main Street program informed plans to pair capacity building and funding. “Being actually being able to go out and actually practice what you're preaching is was really important to me personally,” she said.

Kern also flagged land-use trade-offs facing Boone County as it grows, saying the county must balance preserving agricultural land with accommodating new housing by encouraging density in existing footprints. She said average household size in the region is “just over 2” people, and that housing demand includes diverse housing styles beyond large single-family homes.

LePage and Kern discussed workforce and quality-of-life goals in the context of recent county growth and local events such as Boone County Summerfest. Kern encouraged residents and leaders to engage in the EDC’s planning process and said the office is open to conversations with stakeholders. “If you think that there's a reason to work with the EDC or just wanna please, I'm open to having that conversation,” she said.

Kern’s remarks in the podcast described direction and plans rather than formal board actions or adopted policy. The EDC has announced a staff addition, and the office has begun preliminary outreach and planning; Kern said additional specific programs and any funding commitments will be detailed as the strategic plan and subsequent initiatives are developed.