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Council weighs business development plan, permits and wastewater expansion to attract jobs and housing
Summary
Councilmembers discussed a business development plan, incentives for investment in struggling neighborhoods, development-review bottlenecks and a planned wastewater treatment expansion as key tools to support economic growth and new housing.
Councilmembers and staff discussed how industrial recruitment, small-business development, permitting processes and wastewater capacity interlock as factors that shape economic development and new housing in Goldsboro.
Interim City Manager Matt Livingston told the council the city had "signed a notice to proceed with the engineering firm and the contractor to do a 30% design" for the wastewater treatment plant expansion and said planning is essential because permitting and design can take several years. In a separate comment, a member described a planned 3.5 million gallon expansion as positioning Goldsboro to accommodate new housing and industrial recruitment.
Members praised the city's work with the Wayne County Development Alliance on industrial recruitment and described a separate business development plan that the council funded to pursue smaller-scale commercial redevelopment and neighborhood business initiatives. Council members said the city should not duplicate county industrial recruitment but should pursue programs targeted at downtown, neighborhood commercial corridors and older residential areas that have not received recent investment.
Several council members and staff raised development-review and permitting process bottlenecks as a barrier to investment. One councilmember used parking-lot rules as an example, saying some small investors are told they "can't do Y" when the restriction could be a policy interpretation or an ordinance needing revision. Councilmembers asked staff to identify bottlenecks, propose ordinance changes where appropriate and consider a customer-service focus in development services to reduce unnecessary delays.
Council members also discussed using tax-increment financing and other incentives — drawing on a recent Choice Neighborhoods study and neighborhood projects such as McNair Heights — to attract developers to underserved districts. Staff said these ideas would be considered when drafting the city's business development plan.
No formal votes on incentives, ordinances or contracts were recorded in the transcript excerpt; councilmembers agreed to include economic development and infrastructure items in the retreat priority polling.
