BEDAB Strategic Plan

Mapping Bend’s Economic Development Future

Bend's innovation district, as seen from the air.

The Bend Economic Development Advisory Board’s (BEDAB) three year strategic plan guides the work of the City board charged with advising the Bend City Council on business and economic development issues.

The Plan

City code requires the BEDAB to create a three-year strategic plan, identifying projects and guiding the work of the city’s nine-member board as it seeks to:

  • Advocate: Provide input into City policy and procedures from a private sector perspective.
  • Facilitate: Broker entrepreneurial support among existing community resources.
  • Market: Brand and guide marketing efforts of Bend as “Open for Business.”
  • Coordinate: Organize and oversee City resources applied to economic development.

This plan also provides strategic direction for the City of Bend’s Economic Development Department. Policy direction for City of Bend staff and committees comes from the Bend City Council, who create their own goals every two-years (available here).

After holding a number of discussions in late 2021 and early 2022, the BEDAB voted to approve the plan 8-0 at their meeting on June 6, 2022. City Code requires the Bend City Council to consider the plan before formal adoption.

Both the 2022-2024 BEDAB Strategic Plan and the Bend City Council goals share a focus on land supply, housing availability, and infrastructure development.

BEDAB Members Participate in a Roundtable Strategy Session

  • Monitor permitting metrics, release a quarterly report detailing review times and
    volumes via the Business Registration Newsletter
  • Propose enhancements to the city’s permitting system that reflect development,
    communities concerns and needs around review times and certainty.
  • Monitor available land supply/land inventory, review updates to the City’s BLIS
    land inventory system, request inclusion of commercial and industrial land
    absorption data.
  • Support the continued implementation of the Juniper Ridge Work Plan
  • Support policy that allocates funding for critical infrastructure investment
  • Survey a sample of property development and production builders operating in
    Bend twice annually to determine developer confidence and identify looming
    concerns around land supply or other development barriers. Share aggregated
    results with interested businesses

  • Provide input on public safety policies that impact businesses.
  • Support policies that provide for a spectrum of workforce housing opportunities
  • Support the development of new childcare supply in Bend through:
    • Advocating for a continued reduction in childcare transportation SDCs in
      late 2022
    • Monitoring the effectiveness of City childcare development assistance
      program, suggesting changes where necessary.
  • Connect businesses to workforce development opportunities through quarterly
    spotlights on Worksource and East Cascades Works programs in the Business
    Registration Newsletter.

  •  Gather information necessary to identify key industry trends relating to industrial
    and commercial land use within Bend.
  • Host three focus groups with relevant industry representatives and partners to
    review industries likely to continue to grow locally within the next 20 years.
  • Review Bend’s economic competitiveness through a SWOT analysis, leveraging
    EDCO’s relationship with local traded sector businesses.
  • Review a high-level Economic Development Strategy with the Bend City Council
    by the first quarter of 2023.

  • Visit Bend and their annual Business Plan
  • EDCO’s biannual contract with the City of Bend
  • Existing City American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants for childcare & workforce
    development.
  • Opportunistically pursue future investments via ARPA that address key business
    needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

 

DATE MEETING MATERIALS  Meeting Link  Meeting Recordings
2023 
08/23/2023 Meeting is Cancelled
07/26/2023 Meeting is Cancelled
06/28/2023 Meeting is Cancelled
05/24/2023 Meeting is Cancelled
04/26/2023 Agenda  Located on City Calendar  04/26/23 recording
03/22/2023 Agenda  Located on City Calendar  03/22/23 recording

 

Contacts