Solano County developing future roadmap

Solano County developing future roadmap
Monday, August 18, 2008
BY LORALEE STEVENS
STAFF REPORTER

SOLANO COUNTY – Solano County has hired community analysis powerhouse Doug Henton of Collaborative Economics to perform a three-year in-depth study of county resources and potential.

The county is eager to attract new business, especially in the clean tech, life sciences and food and beverage manufacturing sectors.

The Solano County Economic Development Corp. will oversee the $484,500 project, which will feature profiles of five key industry clusters, according to the group’s Vice President Sandy Person.

The development corporation is a consortium of public agencies, including all the Solano cities, and private companies, formed 25 years ago to encourage smart development.

“We have a major brewery, a candy maker, wind technology and a growing number of medical technology and neutraceutical companies,” said Ms. Person. “We need to find out how to expand those industries.”

Mr. Henton, who is also a consultant to the California Economic Strategy Panel, has worked with Sonoma and Sacramento counties, among others, to develop regional economic and innovation strategies.

“He did an index of economic and community progress for Silicon Valley that had a tremendous impact on how that region developed,” said Ms. Person.

Solano County, hovering midway between Sacramento and San Francisco, faces a number of challenges to economic development.

Its work force is robust – 426,000 people live in Solano – but most commute out of the county to work in points north, south and west. Like its neighbor Napa, voters turned down a business-backed gas tax to improve transportation infrastructure.

“Our work force and the amount of undeveloped but utility-served land available, especially in the northern part of the county, are strengths. But Solano has historically suffered from an identity problem,” said Ms. Person.

Meanwhile, the recent bankruptcy filing by the city of Vallejo has cast a shadow over the entire region even as many areas of the economy are thriving.

In Fairfield, for instance, the city donated property for a 1-million-square-foot mall.

The presence of Anheuser Bush and Jelly Belly in Fairfield, BP Solar and Roofing and Genentech in Vacaville and Gymboree in Dixon attest to Solano’s ability to draw corporations. “But we need a roadmap into the future. Doug Henton and Collaborative Economics will study our weaknesses and our advantages and help us plot a course,” said Ms. Person.

The completed study will identify 20 economic indicators that will tell the story of the county and its seven communities on an annual basis, including economic, work force, housing, education and transportation.

A land inventory and absorption study will identify all undeveloped parcels in the county that are zoned commercial and industrial and rate each parcel’s readiness for development.

Five key industry clusters will be profiled that will provide Solano with a focus for growth and work force development and also enable local developers to target companies for expansion.

It’s expected to be completed in 2011.

For more information, visit www.solanoedc.org.