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“In every case," Wyatt said, “the response has been It's your community. What are you going to do?”
However, she and her fourperson partnership staff will meet with communities and developers to sort through issues so the parties can make “informed” decisions about important land-use projects, she said.
Wyatt emphasized the partnership has no regulatory or zoning authority.
“Growth is not bad," said Wyatt, who took a leave from her strategic-planning firm to help start the partnership. “Fm a former developer. I will tell you it’s unmindful growth that’s unnecessary. Which is why we have invited every elected body, citizen, civic organization and the development community to review our objectives and work cooperatively in an informed basis to leave a legacy.”
The threats of inappropriate development for the region “abound," she said. “The efforts of this partnership are urgent.”
Still, “we don’t, as a partnership, individually address" the threats,Wyatt said. “Our approach and our business plan has been that we arm people with facts, everybody around the table — the development community, the elected officials, the citizens — with the same facts."
Just as threats abound, so do tourism/economic development opportunities, Wyatt said.
She called’ tourism the region’s “largest industry.”
“We know it’s a growing sector,” said Wyatt, noting that “heritage” tourists, typically well-educated, two-income families, “will spend more when they visit [and] usually leave the place better for having been there.”
To lure them to the region, the partnership has prepared tour packages for busy travelers who lack the time to plan them.
It works collaboratively with farmers and the wine and equine industries to support
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