Time for another member web video! This week, Liz Nelson, the co-owner of The Steelhead Bar and Grille talks about how her membership helps Greater Spokane Incorporated work with the City of Spokane and other municipalities to streamline regulatory processes like the permitting process.
Make sure you visit JoinGSI.org to see other member web videos and get more information on membership in our organization. Stay tuned – we’ll have two more member web videos in the next couple months.
Winter is upon us! How will you prepare? As businesses, you want to do all you can to be accessible to your customers, clients and visitors. When it snows, that can be difficult.
So you’re thinking about starting a business or expanding your own. Congratulations, and welcome to entrepreneurship!
But then you learn that building codes require you to install fire sprinklers, which could potentially cost $120,000. The high cost “kills the deal,” especially for an entrepreneur or small business owner.
Retaining jobs is the first priority of any community. Retaining approximately 5,700 jobs should be the priority of all communities benefitting from those jobs.
Fairchild Air Force Base employs about 5,700 people, and whether those jobs are around for many more years is up to the community. That’s why it’s important that all communities – Spokane County and the cities of Spokane, Airway Heights and Medical Lake – implement land-use regulations that help protect and preserve the base.
The Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) – funded by the Department of Defense to the tune of nearly a quarter million dollars – was developed to guide that protection. It gathered input from Fairchild and its surrounding municipalities. It prohibits certain developments that could encroach upon the base and restrict the base’s flying and training missions by limiting air space.
Both the Spokane County Commissioners and the Spokane City Council voted unanimously to implement the JLUS.
So why is this land-use agreement important? Simply put, it could go a long way in securing the base for many years to come, and assist its effort to attract new missions.
“Time is money” to businesses looking to move or expand. If land purchases, permits, approvals, and other requirements are a long, confusing or frustrating process in our region, companies may decide to site or move their business elsewhere, taking jobs and investment with them.
Avoiding surprises is one reason businesses choose our local business and industrial parks, which are considered “shovel-ready.” We are looking for that same ease with larger, undeveloped industrial parcels in the area.
In the economic development industry, the topic of shovel-ready sites has been discussed for years. Economic development entities on the East Coast and in the southern part of the U.S. have been promoting their certified sites, and have been successful in landing large facilities due to the ease of permitting and approvals.
Greater Spokane Incorporated has endorsed this movement to our regional partners as an opportunity to speed up site selection and investments, particularly on large parcels – both privately and publicly-owned. Last week, the City of Spokane launched its new Certified Sites Program, which will allow for property owners to have their property deemed shovel-ready, and speed up the process for permit application on their site. (more…)
Road construction season is a sign of progress – even when it’s not your car that’s progressing down the street. It’s progress because we need improved streets to improve traffic flow and better access for people to frequent your business. Everybody knows there’s no way around road construction – the city can’t do it without some disruption.
But that doesn’t mean it has to get in the way of your business. The City’s “Seven in Eleven” project – seven initiatives geared toward helping small businesses – includes an initiative that helps businesses deal with road construction (note: The Small Business Council of Greater Spokane Incorporated gave its input to the City when the City was developing the seven initiatives). (more…)
