Economic Development Council outlines five-year blueprint, urges site marketing, workforce and housing steps

Scott Drocknick, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of St. Charles County, presented the EDC’s five‑year economic development blueprint at the St. Charles County Council meeting, highlighting recent business wins and a set of recommendations to keep local growth competitive.

The plan, produced with a consultant paid in part by a matching Economic Development Administration grant, credited a list of attraction and retention projects last year—named examples included General Mills in St. Charles, Sink Thermal in O’Fallon, Clement Ford in the unincorporated county and CIS Leasing in Weldon Spring—and cited “about $50,000,000 or more” in private investment and “several hundred” jobs tied to those efforts. The EDC also reported 12 loans and “almost $20,000,000 in total investment” from those loans, a 99% incubator occupancy rate, 33 startup graduations and more than 500 hours of counseling provided to local small businesses.

Why it matters: County leaders said the blueprint is intended to keep St. Charles County competitive with peer regions that have faster population growth and stronger in‑county job capture. The consultant’s work also framed local challenges—crime perception across the St. Louis region, low in‑migration compared with peer metros, workforce commuting patterns and a shortage of starter housing—that could limit recruitment of new employers.

Drocknick said the consultant, Jay Garner of Garner Economics, used benchmarking and site‑selection expertise to produce three reports: workforce development, a competitive peer study, and a central “blueprint for success.” Drocknick quoted Garner’s assessment: “St. Charles County is Missouri’s economic star,” and told the council the study shows the county is “hot” compared with the region but lags peers such as Charlotte, Indianapolis and Nashville on recent growth rates.

The report’s key recommendations delivered to the council included: - Site readiness and infrastructure: identify and market build‑ready sites and address water/wastewater gaps that have caused the county to lose large projects. Drocknick cited one lost project—Crystal City was awarded a James Hardie siding distribution and manufacturing facility he said was worth about $400,000,000 and would have created roughly 200 jobs—because required water or wastewater infrastructure was not deliverable in time. - Entrepreneurial capital: create an angel investor fund focused on St. Charles County to help local startups scale. - Housing at every price point: expand “starter” housing so workers earning $50,000–$60,000 can find homes that do not consume more than about 30% of income. - Workforce alignment: increase regular employer engagement with K–12, technical and community‑college training so curricula match current employer needs in welding, IT, health care and other trades. - Sustainable funding: pursue financing tools (the report suggests models such as road‑boards or forward funding) to bring land to market and pay for needed water/wastewater infrastructure. - Quality‑of‑place and sports tourism: invest in mixed‑use and sports tourism assets to attract regional and national youth and amateur sporting events and other visitors. - Resilience and FDI: plan for “black swan” events and remain proactive on foreign direct investment while acknowledging geopolitical uncertainty.

Drocknick told the council the EDC had sought proposals nationally and selected Garner Economics from Atlanta. He said the county qualified for the EDA matching grant because of the flood impacts in 2022 and the need to fold resilience into economic planning.

Council members thanked Drocknick for the presentation and asked that the full slide deck and the underlying reports be shared; Drocknick said he would provide the materials and follow up with additional pages of the three reports.

Ending: The council did not take formal action on the plan at the meeting; members asked staff to circulate the consultant materials and consider follow‑up steps as part of future economic and land‑use discussions.