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Economic development director urges reactivated EDA, state tools and incentives to prepare county for new projects
Summary
Economic development director Dale Hendon outlined a vision to attract businesses and tourism, recommended reactivating the county's IDA/EDA, and flagged state programs — from enterprise zones to a Go Virginia site inventory grant — as tools to ready Westmoreland County for investment.
Dale Hendon, Westmoreland County's director of economic development, asked supervisors on Oct. 1 to reestablish an active economic development authority and use state programs and targeted incentives to prepare the county for new business investment.
"We want to facilitate a strong economy in Westmoreland County through business attraction, business retention and expansion, and tourism," Hendon said, summarizing the office's vision. He proposed quickly establishing simple bylaws for the IDA or EDA, returning an MOU for the board to define the relationship with the county, and using state tools to lower the cost and time to get projects ready for market.
Hendon outlined several state programs the county could leverage: tourism zones for gap financing, CPACE to finance clean‑energy upgrades through tax assessments, existing enterprise zones, an agriculture value‑added grant administered through the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (referred to in the presentation as an 'AFib' grant), and a potential Go Virginia site inventory grant that could provide roughly $100,000 for preliminary site development work.
On incentives, Hendon described options ranging from general, policy‑driven tax preferences to direct, performance‑based incentives administered through the EDA. He explained the basic flow for a direct tax incentive: a business and the EDA sign a performance agreement (for example, $3 million in capital investment and a jobs target), county taxes are collected and routed through the EDA, and the EDA disburses incentive payments to the business if performance measures are met.
Supervisors raised practical constraints: water and sewer availability, landowner willingness to sell, and the need to identify specific locations close to towns with infrastructure. Several supervisors suggested focusing on areas along the Potomac corridor and near towns where services are already available to reduce upfront infrastructure costs.
Hendon closed by laying out a 90‑day work plan: reactivate the EDA with simple bylaws, prepare a business‑visit list (targeting 50 visits), pursue Go Virginia and other grant opportunities, and develop sample outcome statements and letters of commitment for landowners.
Next steps: Hendon will return with bylaws and proposed MOU language, a prioritized list of potential sites tied to available utilities and funding options, and a schedule for business visits.
