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Preparing bait to land the next big fish

The Pasco Economic Development Council sees incentives as a path to getting top jobs.

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published February 18, 2007

LAND O'LAKES - For a moment last year, Pasco County seemed close to the biggest coup in its recent history: snagging a major cancer research center.

That moment passed. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute announced it would build its facility in Hillsborough County, which offered more financial incentives than Pasco could.

But the Pasco Economic Development Council is hoping to help lay more groundwork for the next time the big guys come knocking.

President Mary Jane Stanley said her organization is working this year on revisions to the county's incentive ordinance. The goal is to establish clearer guidelines about when companies would qualify for such incentives as reimbursement of impact fees.

The significance, she said, is that it would take out the guesswork; companies considering Pasco would know upfront whether they qualify for county assistance.

Stanley said she also supports creating an incentive fund to help lure big companies to the area. Some members of Pasco's legislative delegation have said they plan to ask the state for $10-million to attract jobs, particularly high-paying ones, to the county.

"I think it would make it easier for us to have a fund in place," she said.

Stanley said one of the council's most significant accomplishments of 2006 was to help rewrite the economic development component of the county's comprehensive land use plan.

Now, that portion of the plan more clearly spells out the county's commitment to attracting and keeping so-called primary target businesses. That definition applies to companies that pay an average wage that is higher than 115 percent of the county's current annual wage and bring in more than half of their revenues from outside the county.

Of the 14 council projects that located here in 2006, 10 are considered primary target industries.

County officials are expediting the permitting process for such companies.

As Pasco County seeks to change its reputation as solely a bedroom community, Stanley said the county took an important step this year in prioritizing properties near the Suncoast Parkway, Interstate 75 and U.S. 301 for development as "employment centers."

In essence, she said, this means the county reserves a total of roughly 4,600 acres for primary target industries and commercial, office and some multifamily uses - almost anything but more single-family home subdivisions.

Last year, the council also launched a $47,000 ad campaign to run in statewide publications. It features photographs of the ocean and a man riding a horse and touts the county's identification of employment centers plus its proximity to Tampa International Airport

"We've just turned an entire county into the land of opportunity," the ad says. "It's called Pasco County."

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 20:29:07]