BDAB recommends four target economic sectors for council; asks council to adopt visioning timeline

On March 3 the Bend Economic Development Advisory Board voted to recommend that the city council adopt the four target economic-sector groupings presented by Echo Northwest and to ask council to establish a timeline and visioning process to guide a city economic development strategy.

Echo Northwest consultants Beth Goodman and Natalie Walker presented the final target-sector analysis. Goodman said the analysis was designed to inform the city's upcoming economic-development strategy and economic-opportunities analysis by identifying cross-sector groupings that align with Bend's existing strengths and future opportunities.

The proposed cross-sector groupings presented to BDAB were: recreation and tourism (including outdoor-product manufacturing, food and beverage manufacturing, food services and accommodations, and entertainment and recreation); health systems; building for growth; and technology and innovation. The report emphasizes an iterative approach to sector selection and recommended follow-up analyses (supply-chain mapping, entrepreneurship and innovation tracking, workforce/talent needs assessments) to refine priorities over time.

"Between us, we did the analysis that you have in front of you about target sectors," Goodman said, summarizing the consultant team's work and the intended uses for the analysis in economic-development planning.

BDAB discussion and motions

Board members and stakeholders in the meeting raised three recurring themes: (1) ensure the city's economic development vision and goals are explicit and guide follow-up work; (2) prioritize actions that are durable over time and that build shared resources (workforce, infrastructure, incubation/acceleration for startups); and (3) use the target-sector analysis to coordinate investments (including urban renewal investments) where the city can have the most impact.

BDAB voted to recommend that council adopt the four proposed target-sector groupings for use in the urban renewal investment strategy and future economic-development planning. After the vote a board member said the recommendation should also include an explicit visioning timeline; BDAB approved a second motion requesting council establish a timeline and a visioning process for developing an economic-development strategy.

What this means

- The BDAB recommendation asks council to accept the consultant's sector groupings as inputs into the city's planning and to follow up with targeted analyses (supply-chain and workforce studies) that the consultant and staff said will be helpful. The board also asked council to include visioning work so the strategy can be goal-driven rather than purely technical.

- Echo Northwest and city staff described the target-sector report as a foundation for an economic-development strategy, not the strategy itself; BDAB and staff framed the next steps as iterative and tied to council priorities and the city's biennial goals.

Selected direct quote

- "They are not, sectors that are, necessarily, you know, they're not all, manufacturing sectors grouped together..." Beth Goodman, Echo Northwest (explaining cross-sector groupings).

Next steps

BDAB asked staff and consultants to carry forward the analysis as an input to the urban renewal investment strategy and to schedule the follow-up policy and visioning work that will inform a draft economic-development strategy. The board recommended council consider the consultant's findings at the council work session on April 2 and to establish a timeline for visioning and strategy delivery.