The city of Houma has been selected as one of 12 communities to complete the Louisiana Development Ready Communities Pilot Program, an intensive six-month initiative aimed at helping communities compete for jobs, business-development projects and capital investment.
"This program represents the next step in our efforts to enhance the competitiveness of our local communities," said LED Secretary Stephen Moret. "By equipping these 12 communities with the resources they need to compete at the local and national level, we are helping them become better places in which to live, work and do business."
Houma's participation in the program is an opportunity to leverage state resources to better position the community for business growth, recruitment and development. Activities in the process include conducting town-hall meetings and surveying the community, logging a visual tour of the community, as well as assessing the community's quality of life, education, government services, local leadership, utilities, workforce, transportation, real estate, financing availability and other market factors. Terrebonne will complete its own community and economic development plans, as a pilot community, by early 2010.
Terrebonne Economic Development Authority, which completed Houma's application for the program, is working in concert with Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government on this initiative. TEDA CEO Mike Ferdinand co-chairs the local steering committee with TPCG Parish President Michel Claudet and Planning and Zoning Director Pat Gordon. Other steering committee members include Arlanda Williams, TPCG council chair; Jane Arnette, SCIA executive director; Drake Pothier, Chamber of Commerce president; Anne Picou, Downtown Development director; Travis Lavigne, Fletcher Technical Community College chancellor; Sharon Alford, Houma Convention & Visitors Bureau executive director; Jennifer Robinson, TPCG Planning and Zoning Department's senior planner; Janel Ricca, Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center director; Darrel Waire, TPCG Housing and Human Services director; Kelli Cunningham, TPCG Housing and Human Services CDBG administrator/assistant director; Tom Bourg, TPCG Utilities director, and Linda Henderson, TPCG administration.
At the steering committee's first meeting on Oct. 22, subcommittees were created (some based on program instructions and other based on suggestions and discussion of steering committee): Marketing/Communications, Education/Workforce, Quality of Life-Housing/Beautification, Visitors/Tourism/Retirement, Economic Development, Community Facilities, Governance/Organizations, Transportation, Diversification/Sustainability.
Twenty-five communities applied for the pilot program. Each community's application was scored on the following criteria: completeness of application, a resolution by the governing body to support the program, a description of the community's previous and current community and economic development experience, letters of support from local and state leaders and overall commitment to the aggressive pilot program schedule.
Other communities selected for the state pilot program include Arcadia; Crowley; DeRidder; Jena; Mansfield with Grand Cane, Logansport and Stonewall; New Iberia; Pineville; Slidell; Vivian; West Monroe; and Zachary.
The communities were then reviewed through a competitive process led by the Louisiana Development Ready Communities selection committee, which includes representatives from utility companies, Louisiana Association of Planning Districts, Institute for Economic Development and Real Estate Research at the University of New Orleans, and LED.
