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TDC IDEA - An Affiliate of the State Data CenterThe official website of The Development Corp.'s
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A CALL TO PLAN
by Colin Read, April 21, 2010
Every business works within a vision, a mission, and a strategic plan. Yet, towns and cities often fail to engage in this same strategic planning exercise so necessary for competitiveness in the private sector. After all, the power to tax somewhat reduces the immediacy of producing and selling a competitive product.
However, long term strategic planning is as necessary for local government as it is for private industry. Fortunately, towns in the region understand the need for long term comprehensive planning. The towns of Peru and Plattsburgh, Saranac Lake, and Rouses Point have all completed comprehensive plans in the past few years. Each of these towns faces many of the same opportunities and challenges. And all of these plans can act as a model for a larger, county-wide regional plan.
Such a plan must be motivated by a good grasp of some long-term economic forces. It does not hurt to be motivated also by some short-term economic challenges. In challenging times, stakeholders better accept the need for planning, change, and working together. The IDEA has been at the forefront in encouraging such discussions through its ongoing Vision 2040 workshops. These community discussions are beginning to bear fruit.
These comprehensive planning exercises can be state-of-the-art tools that inform a region of phenomena affecting it but also sweeping the nation. The baby boomers are aging, there are fewer workers following them, and there is a looming drop in our working age population. This observation has far-reaching implications on the need for regional competitiveness.
One way to visualize this phenomenon is through what economists and demographers call the population pyramid. The pyramid shows the number of members of our population by gender and age. Typically, this relationship appears like a triangle or a pyramid because most growing regions have a lot of young people and relatively few elderly people. However, this pyramid for Clinton County appeared more like a pot-bellied stove than a triangle by the year 2000:
Even by the year 2000, our population was aging with the rest of the nation. We had a baby-boom population that was moving through the demographic chart, creating the greatest bulge of individuals in their late thirties to early fifties. The region also had a bulge in the population in the age bracket 18-22 because two colleges are located in Clinton County.
Such a bulge in the more experienced end of the working age population is a good thing for an economy. It ensures there is a strong number of people working, compared to those who are too young to work or have retired.
By the year 2030, though, we estimate a significant shift in the pyramid:
By 2035, the second largest population group in Clinton County will be in its fifties. If we exclude the college-age bulge, we see that there will be about as many people of retirement age or over fifty and preparing for retirement than there are those in the critical workforce years of 25 to 49.
This reality helped shape the recent Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the Towns of Plattsburgh and Peru. Made up of professors and planners, educators and economists, retirees and real estate experts, and many different professions in between, and representing the entire spectrum of political philosophies, these groups nonetheless coalesced around the need to create a healthy, livable and vibrant community that can successfully attract a new cohort of young families.
The group recognized that community sustainability requires a vision that is people-centric. This region needs to continue to build employment, but in those jobs that people find sufficiently enjoyable to come to a new region. It requires an integration of work and play, and an emphasis on high quality jobs rather than simply on jobs for jobs' sake.
At the same time, if the North Country occupational data published by the Department of Labor grows proportional to national growth estimates, the IDEA predicts:
North Country Workforce Needs 2006 to 2016
Put simply, our region must develop a strategy that will address the ways in which it can grow, even as it addresses the aging population. Population sustainability has become the buzzword for those who are actively nurturing the workforce of today for job demand tomorrow.
These issues should not be confined to any one town in isolation, though. The entire Clinton County region faces similar demographics and challenges, and can enjoy the same opportunities. The work of enlightened citizens in our various towns can come together to produce a plan for our region that brings out the best of each of our towns. In doing so, we can create a sustainable region that thrives in an increasingly competitive global economy.
The IDEA is doing its part to encourage the dialogs necessary to make such a plan possible. It is sponsoring the second Vision 2040 workshop that brings together community leaders and young people so that we are well-prepared for the economic and demographic realities. It also conducts research into issues that will confront us all.
Watch the IDEA newsletter for reports on ongoing developments in this workforce and community readiness enterprise. And, please check out Peru's comprehensive plan on the web at www.perutown.com/cp.htm and Plattsburgh's plan at http://townofplattsburgh.com/dept_planning/aa_planning.html.