Commerce Lexington Presents Updates on Regional Competitiveness Plan
The Seven Action Items from Commerce Lexington’s Regional Competitiveness plan.
In March 18th’s Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee, Andi Johnson of Commerce Lexington an update and overview of their Regional Competitiveness Plan. The Regional Competitive plan sets seven action items to make the greater Lexington area (Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Montgomery, Scott, and Woodford Counties) a competitive region in attracting new businesses and economic development projects.
Lexington has allocated $322,000 to Commerce Lexington to support the plan. So far, Commerce Lexington has created a “Greater LEX” brand, attended and hosted events across the country to advertise and promote the region, and facilitated twelve new Kentucky Product Development Initiative (KPDI) projects that add improvements to industrial sites in localities that have the most potential for new development.
Most of Council’s questions and discussion centered on the relationship with other counties in the “Greater Lex” region, the branding name Commerce Lex has created to describe a nine-county focus region for this plan.
According to Johnson, much of the last year or so has been spent educating other local governments about Commerce Lexington’s plans to earn their support. Currently, the following surrounding local governments are providing financial support for the Regional Competitiveness Plan:
Madison County Fiscal Court, City of Richmond, and City of Berea
Scott County Fiscal Court and the City of Georgetown
Woodford County Fiscal Court, the City of Versailles, and the City of Midway
Bourbon Fiscal Court
City of Nicholasville
Franklin County, the City of Frankfort, Jessamine County, and the City of Winchester are pending and likely to come on board as financial supporters in the next year.
No action was taken on this item. You can watch the recorded meeting on LexTV.
