It’s that time again. Eight years ago, an outfit called TIP Strategies out of Austin delivered to the city "An economic development strategic plan for Kyle" it called "Bridging the Gaps, Building the Future." If you’re not familiar with it, you can read it here.
This morning, the city sponsored the first of what is scheduled to be three "summit" meetings that will, it is hoped, lead to the development of another economic development strategic plan, this one prepared by The Natelson Dale Group, Inc., and you can read all about that organization here. The stated purpose of this first of three meetings was "to identify the key issues, challenges and opportunities to be addressed by the research process and the remaining Summit (sic) sessions."
All well and good, as far as it goes.
Someone at the meeting suggested Kyle could become to Austin what Plano is to Dallas. I hate to bust anybody’s balloon, but that is simply not going to happen, nor should it, in my opinion.
One reason is geography and this is an important distinction. Plano is north of Dallas. Kyle obviously is south of Austin. If there is a comparison to be made along these lines it would be Round Rock or Georgetown is to Austin what Plano is to Dallas. Why is that geographical distinction important? For exactly the same reason that in just about any metropolitan center you can cite, the northern part of that center is more prosperous than the southern part. And that’s because water flows to the south and as the water flows through the metropolitan areas it inherits the waste deposited by those areas so the water quality in southern areas is thought to be not as pristine as those in the northern areas. It doesn’t matter whether that statement is true or false, that is the perception and that is the reason why northern fringes of metropolitan areas are almost always more prosperous than the southern sides. A better Dallas correlation would be Kyle is to Austin what Cedar Hill is to Dallas and, frankly, there is nothing wrong with that. Take a look at Cedar Hill’s web site.
The other problem I have with Plano is that its corporate base is rooted in relocations and too often relocations, while they look nice and give a community something to brag about, more often than not cost more than they can deliver. There are two reasons for this. First, city governments tend to give away the store in tax breaks to attract the company to relocate so there is very little in tax return netted by the municipality, possibly for as long as 10-20 years after the company’s relocation. Second, they don’t create that many jobs because the relocating companies relocates the bulk of its existing employees as well. Relocation may do wonders for the local housing inventory, but not so much for the employment inventory.
The best way to develop the business growth of a community is to nurture its entrepreneurial spirit. One of the exercises in this morning’s "summit" meeting was to identify those industries attendees would like to see in Kyle. I’m speaking just for myself now, but I have a problem with an exercise like that because I don’t think we know what industries are best for Kyle because those industries probably don’t even exist today. Ten years ago, if I told you could measure in real time the congestion levels on all the major roadways in Central Texas simply by tapping on your telephone, you would have called me, at best, a hopeless dreamer, but more likely a raving lunatic.
Do you know there is technology being developed that would not only eliminate the need for sanitary landfills but would recycle all waste into enough electricity to power, at least, all the homes in Plum Creek? And do you know these centers don’t look, from the outside, like an ugly factory, they look like this. Do you know there’s a company in West Monroe, La., that is recycling plastic waste and having it converted into railroad ties?
Recycling on a number of different levels is going to be a thriving industry in the not-too-distant future.
What I’m getting at here is that, in my opinion, it makes more sense for Kyle’s strategic economic development, to form partnerships/alliances with both private and educational research centers (and there are plenty of both in the Austin/San Marcos corridor) staffed with individuals who can identify a budding new potential industry and then convince those creative geniuses to locate their incubators in Kyle. Because those type of industries grow and as they grow they need to hire additional qualified personnel and then they need to build larger headquarters, all of which have major economic benefits for the community. And you don’t have to give away tax benefits to reap those benefits. The economy, the development is growing from within. A perfect example of what I’m talking about is Dell, Inc., which began business a little over 30 years ago in Michael Dell’s dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin.
Don’t get me wrong. A lot of items, both pro-Kyle and not-so-pro, needed to be said and aired in this type of open forum and they were aired. And that’s something that did not go unnoticed by Mayor Pro Tem Diane Hervol.
"I think this was very impressive and I’m really appreciative of all the input we’re getting from all over the city, from the developers, from the current stakeholders," Ms. Hervol told me immediately after today’s meeting concluded. "It’s good for us (as elected officials) to get this kind of input from the outside. It’s very beneficial."
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