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Economic Development Committee pitches quarterly dashboard and GIS survey to identify commercial opportunities
Summary
EDC presented a plan to build a recurring economic dashboard tracking housing, employment and tax‑base indicators and proposed a GIS survey to map commercial‑zoned land to inform strategies to expand the town’s commercial tax base; council expressed support for a quarterly cadence and urged data sharing with URI and South County Hospital.
The Economic Development Committee (EDC), led by newly appointed chair Mike Goggis, briefed the council on accomplishments and priorities and asked for council guidance on near‑term workstreams. The EDC identified three priorities: (1) a GIS survey to map commercial‑zoned parcels and identify opportunities to increase the commercial tax base (staffers noted commercial zoning comprises a small share of total land area), (2) creation of a recurring economic dashboard to aggregate public data (Census, state reports) to monitor housing affordability, unemployment, workforce needs and business indicators, and (3) improved communication and liaison activities with major local employers and boards, including the University of Rhode Island (URI) and South County Hospital.
Josh Gilman previewed dashboard mockups and noted that most source data are public and some county or local numbers require assumptions; he recommended a quarterly cadence with the ability to increase frequency for special requests. Councilors asked for staff to post the slides to the agenda packet and for EDC members to attend relevant stakeholder meetings (URI housing meeting Sept. 19) and to coordinate an employee survey (commute distance, position, anonymized zip code and salary band) with URI and South County Hospital HR.
Council generally supported the dashboard and suggested quarterly reporting; they emphasized care in interpreting small‑area data and asked EDC to share references for the dashboard’s data sources when materials are posted.
