Harnessing The Digital Economy

Worth County, GA -Planning for a New Century Community

A 21st Century Retirement Community as a

Mechanism for Rural Economic Development

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The focus of Worth County's involvement in the Southeastern Economic Development Administration's experiment in Harnessing the Digital Economy will be to engage in a planning process to design a "New Century Community" which will integrate the idea of a new type of retirement community, based on neo-traditional multi type housing, with full telecomputing facilities to include telemedicine and other electronic services. This idea focuses on the economic development potential of such a concept for a rural area and will be facilitated by Worth County Development Authority's Executive Director, Susan Knox. There will be six objectives for this New Century Retirement Community planning process:

A) To capitalize on Worth County's status as the first Freenet community in the State of Georgia to assist in realizing a community economic objective of the 1992 Worth County Comprehensive Plan to engage in a retiree attraction program;

B) To provide a viable alternative for a growing economic sector, retirees, to offset some of the impact that the reduction of the peanut program may ultimately have on the area known as the peanut capital of the world;

C) To link resources provided through the initiatives of the State of Georgia in the areas of distance learning; telemedicine; The Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunication Technology; Georgia Tech Research Institute (funded by the Economic Development Research Program); regional approaches to economic development and planning; and recreational and transportation infrastructure investments (South Georgia Parkway and Veterans State Park). The linking of these and other resources will be used to provide a comprehensive approach for addressing the needs of the targeted demographic group of retirees;

D) To develop the idea of a "New Century Community" within a futures context that will allow for a rural community to understand and capitalize on emerging trends to provide a diversified economic base that builds on the strengths of a rural area;

E) To emerge with a final work product from a broad participatory group of local leadership that will enable the New Century Retirement Community to successfully attract private sector investors for the implementation of the project;

F) To demonstrate the effective role of the 21st Century economic development practitioner in harnessing resources, identifying societal trends, analyzing a community's potential and facilitating the assembly of partners in collaboration through both work teams and local FreeNet linkages within the community and also with other communities via the Internet

The "New Century Community" will serve as a demonstration project for a number of economic development strategies for rural areas that have not been as successful trying to compete in the traditional industrial recruitment model." Rural areas have certain attributes that ideally lend themselves to pursue retiree attraction. In the 1990 report for a study conducted under the Economic Development Research Program by Georgia Tech entitled, Attracting Retirees: Risks and Opportunities for Georgia , it was found that today's elderly population is characterized as healthier, more affluent, and better educated than previous generations. The communities where they relocate are believed to benefit from the higher income they bring with them. Hence, attracting these retirees is increasingly considered an option in the economic development efforts of depressed and rural regions.

PROPONENTS CAPABILITY

The Worth County Development Authority is a key organization in the Southwest Georgia area. The Authority has demonstrated support for a futures orientation by the underwriting of the implementation and ongoing support for the operation of Georgia's first FreeNet located in Sylvester, GA. Long before it was common practice to be linked up to the information highway, Worth County raised local funds to set up a community network believing it would be key to their future. In addition, the Authority has pursued a regional approach to economic development through membership in a multi-county joint development authority. The Worth organization is charged by local government officials as being the lead agency for fostering economic development for the county and implementing the economic component of the 1992 comprehensive plan. This plan specifically outlines that the county deems retiree recruitment as desirable. The third example of this visionary leadership quotient not typically found in many rural areas was in the planning process that established zoning throughout the county to maintain the integrity of residential development and recognition of the compatibility of the area for retiree relocation. Worth County has shown the ability to identify emerging trends that offer potential for economic development in the community and has the leadership potential to understand the importance of rethinking and retooling what a rural area could be over the next twenty years..

The executive director of the Worth County Development Authority, Susan Knox, has demonstrated proficiency in participatory community-wide planning in developing a workable economic development strategy for a rural community. Ms. Knox is a member of the Steering Committee for Council of Economic Development Organizations Region 9, a collaborative effortto define strategies based on a regional approach to economic development. In addition, Ms. Knox serves as a member of the National Digital Economy Network Group sponsored by the Center for Communities of the Future and the St. Louis County Economic Council and as such benefits from the exchange of ideas relative to the issue of integrating the opportunities afforded by the emerging digital economy into the practice of local economic development. Ms. Knox has an understanding for the necessity of developing capacities for the future and has been chosen by her peers from across the nation to represent them in the revision of the curriculum of the Economic Development Institute. These revisions incorporate into the curriculum those trends that are critical to the future practice of economic development.

The framework for a "New Century Community" contains both a major development project and a regional mechanism for economic and community transformation of a cluster of small towns. It is expected that total planning and development time would be 5 - 8 years.

PROBLEM

A key need for rural areas in the early 21st Century will be to create a physical environment which anticipates the impact of trends of the future. Rural communities that are successfully able to attract new residents can stem the tide of out migration that has been occurring since the beginning of the development of industrial cities and the decline of the agricultural employment due to greater mechanization.

Worth County will focus on at least four visible key trends as it positions itself for 21st Century opportunities:

1. An aging of the population resulting in 20% over 65 by the year 2030;
2. An increasing concern on the part of baby boomers to have meaning for their lives within the context of a strong quality of life;
3. A transformation of the economy to one that is worldwide and based on knowledge as the provider of value and wealth; and
4. Linkage of people and institutions throughout the world by an electronic infrastructure which ensures information flow at any time from any place by any person

By connecting these four trends, Worth County will establish a framework of opportunity for this rural Georgia community that was not previously realized. In order to successfully connect these trends for the benefit of the citizens, it will require that leadership operate within a futures context -- a new paradigm of thinking and collaboration. This will allow the design and development of a "New Century Community" by integrating the four trends into one systemic idea--a retirement community of the future which also serves as an economic development for a contiguous cluster of small, rural towns in Southwest Georgia.

It is of highest priority to the citizens of Worth County to maintain its quality of lifewhile recreating its economic potential. In order to be revitalized and sustainable, this community must redefine its role, organizational pattern and economic focus. Large agricultural companies will continue to absorb small family farms, decreasing the potential demand of products and services of the traditional economy. One strategy will be to diversify from a predominate agricultural economy to an economy that provides a sustainable and positive culture for people who are concerned about an unstable and dysfunctional society. The strong traditional roots and safe environs of rural areas becomes a desirable commodity in the competition to attract retirees. Worth County understands that more people with real assets will be retiring in the future and that they can take advantage of the economic development opportunity of retirement. A natural advantage present in Worth County and surrounding Southwest Georgia areas is the sense of community and will be complemented with diverse facilities to accommodate a diverse retiree population. Wired villages conducive to a high quality of life will serve as an incentive for people that are knowledge oriented in search of a positive quality of life. With today's communications technology, it is possible to live anywhere in the country and work" As a rural area with vision and commitment, Worth County will prepare for the future by forming partnerships with state economic development organization and private sector entities to create a "New Century Community".

The defined project area will include Worth County and other contiguous counties that desire to participate. The concept is for a cluster of 6 - 8 small towns with undeveloped land central to each of the communities. The undeveloped land of 200 - 400 + acres would become the site for a New Century Community." This community would be modeled after the neo-traditional Down Home Communities physical layout concept used by Joel Embry and Andres Duany in Florida. The physical layout would reflect diverse living accommodations (single homes; duplexes and quadraplexes; garage apartments; condominiums; and apartments over small businesses) within a pattern of mixed zoning (small business and civic integrated) which would ensure people living and working together as was the case in traditional down home communities. The emphasis would be people living together and connecting on a personal basis to assure a new sense of community."

The underlying principle for this and future "New Century Communities" would be based on those people seeking a high quality of life for retirement. However, those living in the "New Century Community" would be limited to 50 - 60% over 55 in order to assure a mixed age population. In addition, there would be an emphasis on a diverse population of ethnic backgrounds to insure a thriving cultural atmosphere.

The research of the 1990 Georgia Tech report concluded that Georgia communities which had certain principal attributes, would be likely candidates for a retiree attraction program. Worth County fits a number of these profile characteristics since it has a low crime rate, close proximity to a military base for armed forces retirees, moderate climate, low cost of living, close proximity to such popular tourist sites as the Gulf Coast, nearness to urban areas that can provide various cultural, educational and shopping options, and a favorable political and regulatory climate.

Traditional retirees recruitment efforts have included all of the above detailed elements, but as we approach the 21st Century, we need to apply the futures context to this economic development strategy as well. This proposed project would utilize full telecommunication infrastructure as part of the retirement community. This would assure that information of any type would be available for those who would work from their homes; need telemedicine; desire to be involved in decision making for the community via electronic democracy ; would participate in continuous lifelong learning and would desire to maintain contact with family and friends via electronic telecommunications.

This "New Century Community" could involve those who would live there as participants in planning, and therefore, become a factor in creating demand for the community. The uniqueness of the idea would serve to attract people from throughout the country and possibly the world.

PROJECT IMPACT

Of particular importance to the overall 21st century economic development potential of a "New Century Community" for this rural area, and others to follow, would be its impact on the perception and mind set of the surrounding towns. By including a representative from each of the towns would be involved in helping to plan a "New Century Community", would provide the opportunity for these leaders to develop what would be needed to prepare for the 21st century. It is expected that the impact of planning and developing a "New Century Community" help transform the thinking and operations of small towns themselves with regard to economic development, governance and education. Each "New Century Community" would eventually become an economic development mechanism for the entire region, not limited to the development project itself. The following outcomes in rural Southwest Georgia are expected with the development of a "New Century Community":

• A 21st century that combines both the capacity of future technology with the sense of community found in traditional environs;
• An increase in the economic base of the entire region;
• An understanding of the importance of collaboration among local, state and national people and organizations in the public and private sectors;
• A fully wired rural region positioned for a 21st century knowledge based economy;
• The creation and / or retention of jobs directly related to providing health care and other needs of a growing retiree population;
• An enrichment to the community volunteer base that can provide cross generational learning and social opportunities;
• A new mindflex for rural people traditionally resistant to change;
• A growth in access to capital for entrepreneurs with the influx of deposits from retirees;
• An example of how diverse people of different ages, backgrounds and genders can live in mutual support; and
• A demonstration that communities can leverage intangible assets, such as quality of life into viable economic activity that will have direct impact on the economic base.