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STRATEGIES
The Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham seeks to assist its communities in the production of an adaptive, emergent workforce and to foster an environment of cooperation, connectivity, and sustainability.
A well-marketed region with an atmosphere of pervasive cooperation, premier educational facilities and staff, an ample, employment-ready workforce, heavily-invested leadership, and an infrastructure network that is both highly connective and accessible.
- To foster regional cooperation.
- To develop and maintain a strong, competitive workforce.
- To promote relationships among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
- To establish a well-connected, accessible, multi-modal highway, freight and public transportation network.
- To provide optimal infrastructure in order to support current industries as well as attract new industries.
- To market and improve regional assets.
- To cultivate a competitive, attractive quality of life.
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Through the examination of the mission, vision, and goals, projects and strategies were developed to achieve each of those goals.
Cooperation throughout the region is an under-emphasized priority for the most part. RPC seeks to bring regional cooperation forward through its daily efforts. More specifically, however, RPC will assist the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce in conducting a “gap” analysis of economic development service providers. This analysis would identify what each provider does and what their service areas are; ultimately, the analysis would highlight what agencies are duplicating services and what services are not being provided or are under-provided.
Another mechanism for regional cooperation will be the RPC’s participation in the Alabama Rural Action Commission (ARAC). This commission was created by Governor Bob Riley in 2007 with the goal of improving statewide quality of life. RPC’s executive director, Charles Ball, is deputy co-chair of the Region 3 committee. Currently, ARAC focuses on economic development, education, health, and workforce development.
The Governor’s Office of Workforce Development guides ten regional workforce development councils; the RPCGB region falls under the Region 4 Workforce Development Council. The State Workforce Development Council Operating Guidelines designate that the purpose of the councils is
“To facilitate establishment and implementation of a comprehensive, coordinated seamless workforce development system for the region that supports economic and job development activities to include needs of existing businesses and industries.”
The Guidelines also state that the councils should be “business-led and business-driven”.
The Region 4 Workforce Development Council meets on a monthly basis in rotating locations throughout the region. In the summer of 2008 the Council established a strategic plan to further explore its vision and goals. The RPCGB supports the vision and the goals and strategies established by the Council (reference Region 4 Workforce Development Council: 2018 Strategic Plan). For specific projects identified for workforce development, see Goal 2 in the appended project listing.
Region 4 Workforce Development Report
In order to facilitate relationships among the public, private, and non-profit sectors, The EDD is actively seeking to assist in the establishment of a state chapter of the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit education and research organization focused on responsible and sustainable land use and development.
Also, RPC will continue working with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce in order to link itself with private interests. RPC will further utilize resources available through other public agencies and market those resources to its members. Finally, RPC will offer its assistance in non-profit-led initiatives throughout the region.
The Metropolitan Planning Organization (Jefferson and Shelby Counties) and the Heart of Alabama Rural Planning Organization (Blount, Chilton, St. Clair, and Walker Counties) are the primary avenue for identifying and implementing transportation projects in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT). These two organizations are housed within the Regional Planning Commission and organized by its staff. The RPCGB supports the projects identified in the Birmingham 2030 Long-range Transportation Plan and the State Transportation Improvement Program as projects whose implementation would support economic development (reference Birmingham 2030 Long-range Transportation Plan and the State Transportation Improvement Program). For additional transportation improvement projects, see Goal 4 in the appended project listing.
One of the forefront needs of the region is adequate infrastructure to support growth. RPC, in an effort to assist its member communities, will offer support in identifying funding sources and administering projects to improve infrastructure throughout the region. Additionally, RPC will seek to identify a funding mechanism to insert business incubators throughout the region. Infrastructure improvements that have already been identified can be seen under Goal 5 of Appendix B.
In order To market and improve regional assets, RPC has scoped the creation of a website that will maintain a database of available sites and buildings throughout the region. RPC will collaborate with various agencies and organizations in order to successfully and flawlessly implement this tool. Such a tool would provide a comprehensive site to which economic developers could link their websites.
In addition to supporting the ARAC initiative to improve the State’s quality of life, RPC will engage a variety of other initiatives to improve the region’s quality of life. The EDD will seek to develop the principals of sustainable growth for the region and promote those principals as the uniform definition of sustainability for the EDD. The EDD will also continue its efforts with the Alabama Partnership for Clean Air (APCA) in order to improve air quality. The EDD will develop relationships with healthcare-based groups in order to assist in the marketing of local research products in order to inject strength healthcare business ventures. Finally, RPC will support efforts to retain residents – especially young professionals.
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