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<br />required in the first three cornerstones; Organization, Product and Business <br />Retention & Expansion. More mature programs are able to shift resources <br />toward the latter cornerstones; Workforce Development and Marketing. At <br />its current level of funding the City of Arden Hills can only address three <br />cornerstones well. Based upon the needs discovered during our strategy <br />sessions we would recommend those to be the Product, Organization and <br />Business Retention / Expansion. <br /> <br />It is our recommendation that funding and staffing be secured over the next <br />five years for full implementation of this plan. Assuming this to be an <br />achievable objective, we have written a five year economic development <br />strategy that addresses all five of the cornerstones. However, this program <br />is heavily weighted toward the first three; organization, product and business <br />retention and expansion. <br /> <br />Organizational Develooment <br /> <br />The first component essential to a successful economic development program <br />is to ensure that the organizational capabilities are in place for ED to <br />succeed. In order to accomplish that success, we recommend that Arden <br />Hills address the following organizational issues: <br /> <br />1) Community and Economic Development Director. <br /> <br />For economic development to succeed there needs to be someone in <br />the community with these responsibilities. Currently, there is no one <br />on City staff with the title of economic development director. Full <br />time economic development staff is not warranted at this time. <br />However, a minimum of part time attention to economic development <br />is warranted. Our first recommendation is that the awareness of this <br />priority be recognized through title change. We would recommend <br />that the title and job description of the Community Development <br />Director be changed to Community and Economic Development <br />Director as soon as possible. <br /> <br />Strategic Plan for Economic Development Page 6 of 20 <br />\\Metro-inet.us\ardenhills\Admin\Committees\Economic Development Commission\AH Strategic Plan - Final 5-16-07.doc <br />