The City of Davis is laying the groundwork for a transformative economic future with its new Economic Development Strategic Plan aimed at bolstering fiscal resilience and expanding living-wage opportunities.
City staff in a new approach is focusing on targeted industry clusters, including advanced manufacturing and sustainable technologies, to enhance the jobs-housing balance and strengthen community ties. This initiative promises to not only diversify city revenues but also create a thriving, inclusive economy that benefits all residents, aligning with the City Council’s vision of sustainable growth and prosperity.
“The City Council desires that the shared vision’s action plan will showcase a variety of economic conditions, opportunities, and programs and enhance the jobs-housing balance in the City, encourage strategic business growth, result in stronger ties with the business community, and increase fiscal stability,” staff writes
In April 2024, the City Council set forth strategic objectives for 2024-2025.
The first objective, “Achieving Greater Fiscal Resilience,” involves creating an economic development strategic plan to expand the economic development program and diversify city revenues.
The sixth objective, “Stepping Up Economic Development Activities,” aims to establish a shared economic vision with immediate actionable steps for the city.
The council is seeking “Strategies to help start, retain, and grow local businesses and investment.”
“The Council’s goals for economic development will take time to fully realize,” staff warns, “but implementation of some of the proposed elements of a strategic plan can commence before the plan is finalized.”
Staff recommends, as a first step, “preparing the ED Strategic Plan, the economic development policies in the City’s current General Plan should be updated to reflect the Council’s current goals, be transformed into the guiding principles, and translated into a series of programs and activities that will inform the ED Strategic Plan.”
The initial staff report and presentation centers on job creation within specific recommended industry clusters.
For this initial step, staff focuses on recommending a reshaping of the City’s current General Plan’s Economic Development Goal #3: “[r]etain existing businesses and encourage new ones as a means to increase higher-paying jobs, create greater job diversification, and create a more balanced economy for all economic segments of the community while also maintaining the City’s fiscal and environmental integrity.”
The key goals for economic development outlined by city staff include:
- Achieving Greater Fiscal Resilience: This involves developing an economic development strategic plan to grow the economic development program and increase and diversify city revenues.
- Stepping Up Economic Development Activities: The goal is to create a shared economic vision and near-term steps that enhance the jobs-housing balance, encourage strategic business growth, strengthen ties with the business community, and increase fiscal stability.
- Living Wage Job Growth: Focus on creating living-wage jobs that contribute to a diversified and inclusive labor force.
Implementing these goals facilitates economic development by:
- Strategic Planning: Developing a comprehensive economic development strategic plan provides a structured approach to achieving fiscal resilience and targeted economic growth. It aligns resources and efforts toward common objectives, ensuring efficient use of city resources.
- Targeted Industry Focus: By concentrating on specific industry clusters such as advanced manufacturing, agriculture, and entrepreneurship, the city can leverage its strengths and opportunities, attracting businesses and fostering job creation in these sectors.
- Living Wage Implementation: Prioritizing living-wage job growth helps improve the quality of life for residents, leading to a more stable and sustainable local economy. It ensures that economic benefits are widely shared, supporting community well-being and social equity.
- Enhanced Partnerships and Community Engagement: Strengthening ties with the business community, educational institutions, and other stakeholders fosters collaboration and innovation, driving economic growth and resilience.
- Business Retention and Attraction: Implementing strategies for business retention and attraction ensures a supportive environment for existing businesses while drawing new investments, contributing to a dynamic and robust local economy.
Staff adds, “Staff recommends that four of the ten industry sectors studied by the COE serve as the City’s overarching targeted industry clusters: Advanced manufacturing, Agriculture, water, and environmental technologies, Business and entrepreneurship, Retail, hospitality, and tourism.”
Staff cites the Greater Sacramento Economic Council’s (GSEC) “2024 Capital Regional Industry Analysis and Recommendations” report, prepared last year, which recommends focusing on the advanced manufacturing and agriculture, water, and environmental technologies sectors.
These recommendations are supported by the findings in their 2024 Capital Regional Industry Analysis and Recommendations report.
GSEC highlights the importance of these sectors due to their potential for growth and their alignment with the region’s strengths and existing businesses.
The report underscores the need to address workforce talent gaps and improve regulatory environments to better support these industries.
While staff recommends that we focus efforts on the four industry sectors outlined by GSEC, “1, it does not mean that we will not support businesses that fall into other categories. The intent, however, is to create a form of prioritization so that our efforts are intentional and directed to those sectors that most closely align with Davis.”
“Living-wage job growth is essential to creating a healthy job-to-housing balance,” staff notes.
Economic development and the creation of living wage jobs is linked back to the ongoing need for affordable housing.
Affordable housing is seen as a top priority for the City Council because of its intrinsic link to economic growth.
“Developing affordable housing options is a top priority for the City Council. Housing is intrinsically linked to economic development. Investments in housing projects can stimulate economic growth,” staff writes.
Staff notes that the development of affordable housing can stimulate the local economy by creating construction jobs and generating demand in other sectors through the multiplier effect.
Furthermore, affordable housing ensures that a broader population can reside in the city, contributing to a diversified and inclusive labor force.
“Living-wage jobs allow individuals or households working full-time to provide for themselves comfortably. People with livable incomes tend to have better access to healthcare, education, and other essential services,” staff explains.
By using a living-wage standard for job growth, the city aims to ensure that individuals can comfortably afford essential needs, which in turn supports economic stability and community well-being.
“A living wage standard is dynamic, geographically specific, measurable, and defined, unlike the current “high-wage job” standard,” staff writes.
The integration of affordable housing into the economic plan is intended to enhance workforce participation and attract businesses by providing a stable and diverse labor pool.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology manages a nationwide living wage calculator. For Yolo County, the living wage for a one-adult household is $25.60 per hour; for two-adult and two-dependent households, it is $32.31 per hour.
The next steps include a concentration on updating the General Plan policies that align with council goals on economic development, implementing some or all of the proposed programs, and possibly continuing to work on the Economic Development Strategic Plan while simultaneously implementing key proposed programs or activities.
Leaving aside for a moment the TEMPORARY “construction jobs” (not sure why that’s EVER mentioned as a goal), I’ve been repeatedly told that Davis (more specifically, UCD) has more jobs than the city’s residents actually need. Leading to two outcomes: 1) Inbound commuting, and 2) Outbound commuting for some reason.
Both of which (for some unexplained reason) can be “solved” by building more housing (or so I’ve been told), not by creating more jobs.
The city needs to come up with a coherent argument at some point, don’t you think? By the way, wage is not spelled “waige” (see Tag).