We announced last week that Amy Gowan, the current Director of the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, will be coming to Anne Arundel County in mid-April to lead our Economic Development Corporation (AAEDC). I selected her from a group of three very qualified and talented finalists at the conclusion of a search committee’s efforts.
The 17-person team at AAEDC is good at what they do. Twice during my time in office they’ve been led by one of their own as acting CEO, Jill Seamon, and done very well. They created and managed pandemic recovery grant programs, launched and grew a very successful minority business training and support program, and steadfastly supported local businesses in their efforts to grow. They also convened 6 gatherings of business owners during the last year, specifically for me to hear ideas on making our county more business-friendly.
There were two categories of issues that I heard repeatedly at these 6 sessions. One was that we need to make it easier to navigate permits and regulations, especially when opening or growing a business. This is an area that I expected to hear about, that has been a problem for decades in our county, and that I fully intend to confront head-on in the coming months. The other theme was that we should invest in growing a quality workforce, including affordable housing, transportation, childcare, healthcare, and education. This surprised me. It’s what I’m used to hearing from social justice advocates, not small business owners, but it makes sense in a place where there are more job openings than qualified applicants.
I am fully on board to make progress for these businesses in both of their areas of concern. Let’s start with permitting. I began fighting this battle as a farmer during the Leopold administration when commercial construction permit requirements were being applied to barns. I and my fellow farmers organized a forum on the topic, told stories of poor treatment at Inspections and Permits, and ended up pushing a bill through the County Council that created a less onerous process overseen by people who understand agriculture at the Soil Conservation District.
In my first term things got unacceptably slow at Inspections and Permits. Transition to the new online Land Use Navigator (LUN), retirements from an aging workforce, and COVID impacts didn’t help. It wasn’t much better at Planning and Zoning, where the staff has a fair amount of discretion but is required to comply with a land use code that is a mish-mash of old bills that County Councils passed in response to constituent requests, but create inefficiencies that delay good projects for years.
Things are getting better. We’ve made some staffing changes, worked through a lot of flaws in the LUN, and we have a County Council that understands the need to improve our code. Both I&P and P&Z have gotten the message that this is not an anti-growth administration. We are a smart growth administration, and economic development will have a seat at the table.
Our General Development Plan (Plan2040) sets forth a path for sustainable growth that is more equitable, greener, and smarter. We can protect nature and build the housing that is needed to sustain our businesses and our families, especially where we have the transit options that eventually will become a viable alternative to the vehicle traffic that threatens our health and our quality of life.
Speaking of health and quality of life, those are the things that our businesses say we need to deliver in a workforce. Our Housing Trust Fund, our new Parole Transit Center, our Green Infrastructure Master Plan, our public safety enhancements to be announced in the upcoming budget, our investments in the school system, and major improvements to so many of our county parks are, it turns out, drivers of economic development.
So Amy Gowan, our incoming CEO of Economic Development, will be set up for success. The fact that she has run a neighboring Department of Planning and Zoning, led a 45-person economic development team, worked as the legislative director for a mayor, worked in a housing agency, and started her career staffing a homeless shelter tells me that she will understand the big picture that our businesses are facing today, and she will integrate economic development with the rest of county government.
Why does it matter? Because our businesses are where our residents spend their days, make their livelihoods, buy their services and products - do I need to go on?
Amy Gowan will understand what our businesses understand. It’s not businesses versus government or businesses versus their workers. We are as interdependent as an ecosystem, and if we all keep listening to one another the way we did at those 6 AAEDC gatherings, we will all thrive.
Until next week…
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive