Success Stories

    The CED is proud of its 23-year history of helping our client communities survive and thrive.  The following page demonstrate how we have helped our clients over the years through community collaboration, research, and analysis.

 

Community Collaboration

    Graying of the North State
    The CED was the lead agency in a California Endowment project to study the potential need for senior services in northeastern California.  The two-year project required coordinating with senior service providers thoughout the twelve-county study region and holding focus groups with senior residents.  Through this project, the CED developed its own methodology for projecting the senior population in rural communities because exising projections proved insufficient.

     

    Community Economic Revitalization Teams
    The CED led the effort to build and coordinate Community Economic Revitalizations Teams in each of twelve northeastern California counties as part of the U.S. Economic Development Administration's efforts to assist timber communities affected by timber sales reductions in National Forests.  The CED provided community data and information and helped representatives and teams in each county produce economic development plans based on local, reliable data.

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Community Research

    The CED provides the most current, reliable, and relevent regional, community, and neighborhood statistical data for your project or initiative.  We can complete any research project requiring knowledge of community data (i.e. Census data, statistics, and other goverment and private community data), how it is collected, what it means for the community, and most importantly, conclusions that can and cannot be made from the data.  These are examples of the types of projects the CED has successfully completed, with specific examples of our many success stories.

     

    Statistical Data Requests (Secondary Data)
    Sierra Cascade Family Opportunities Needs Assessment Data
    The client operates Head Start programs in four northeastern California counties and is required to conduct needs assessments every two years.  Client staff rely on the Center for Economic Development to provide them with the most current relevent data to produce what the federal Office of Head Start tells them is "the best needs assessment they’ve ever seen."  The data we provide allows SCFO to plan programs around documented need in their communities.

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    Statistical Profiles
    Napa County Economic and Demographic Profile
    The Napa Valley Economic Development Corporation, a partnership between the City and County of Napa, engaged the CED to produce a comprehensive economic and demographic profile for Napa County, similar to its Annual County Profile Series.  The NVEDA customed their profile by having the CED add data on commute patterns and cost of living, as well as a customezed introduction inviting potential local and regional businesses to establish in Napa County.

     

    Chico Chamber of Commerce Online Profile Data
    The Chico Chamber of Commerce asked CED to collect data and prepare tables in .jpg format for its online profile. The profile is used to show socioeconomic growth trends to its members and to businesses interested in locating in Chico.

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    Community Need Statements for Grant Applications
    Westside Family Health Center
    The CED assisted with the client's Federally Qualified Health Center application by defining their service area and preparing the application community data tables. The key challenge was the client's location in Santa Monica, a higher-income city, while the funder only wanted to approve clinics in lower-income areas. The CED utilized the clients user addresses to select poverty pockets from which the clinic was drawing patients and defined a service area in a successful application. The client now enjoys 100% cost-reimbursement to serve income-qualifying individuals and an additional annual payment of $650,000.

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    Community Indicators
    Vital Signs Community Indicator Report for Shasta and Tehama Counties
    The CED collaborated with a team including the client, graphic designers, and community members to develop a report of social, economic, cultural, and health indicators in Shasta and Tehama counties. CED’s role was research and analysis for indicators on which the client was unable to find suitable information to use as measurements of indicators. CED also played an auditing role, reviewing all data used in the report and making determinations regarding whether or not the data used for all indicators were suitable.

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    Market Intelligence

    The following include CED's past Economic Gardening Market Intelligence partners.

  • WIRED Economic Gardening
  • Economic Gardening in Mendocino County
  • Butte Private Industry Council
  • Other Satisfied Clients
  • USDA RBEG
  • City of Chico
  • Siskiyou County

 

Community Analysis

    As experts in community data, which allows us to reliably determine which conclusions can be made versus those that should not, the CED is naturally positioned to be your community data analyst.   We partner with many organizations providing research and analysis support on larger projects involving economic development, community planning, advocacy, public relations, and more.  The following are examples of the types of projects we can complete with specific success story examples.

     

    Data Estimates and Projections
    Nevada County Housing Estimates
    Provided estimates and projections of housing by home value and household income in Nevada County by region for 1999 (the latest Census at the time of this project), 2009, and 2019 for the Nevada County General Plan.

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    Economic Impact Analysis
    Economic Impact of Modoc Medical Center
    The CED helped Modoc County save Modoc Medical Center by showing how the creation of a hospital district would benefit the county's economy. Read more!

     

    Economic Impact of Environmental Restoration in Siskiyou County, California
    The CED consulted with the Northern California Resource Center (NCRC) and the Siskiyou Economic Development Corporation to prepare a report on the environmental restoration economy in Siskiyou County and its total economic impact. Loss in forestry revenue was replaced by environmental restoration project funding in the 1980s and 1990s in Siskiyou County and the clients wanted to understand how the county’s economy changed during that time and the extent to which environmental restoration has been able to replace forestry as an economic activity. The CED helped the NCRC conduct a survey of restoration organizations and companies and concluded that while environmental restoration activity indeed grew in the wake of forestry declines, the composition of economic activity was much different, requiring different skill sets, and many remain out of work after the transition.

     

    Economic Impact of Richardson Grove Bypass
    Freight movement along U.S. Highway 101 along the North Coast of California is constrained by a highway segment through Richardson Grove, through which only vehicles with limited size and weight restrictions can pass. The California Department of Transportation contracted with the CED to study the economic impact of a new roadway around this segment that would allow Interstate truck traffic access to Eureka and Humboldt County. The CED surveyed businesses with carefully crafted questions to determine how likely businesses would use or benefit from the new highway as opposed to simply asking whether or not they claimed to benefit.

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    Fiscal/Financial Impact Analysis
    Fiscal Impact of the Proposed Redding Auto Mall
    Economic growth presents many challenges for rural communities, among which is locating space opportunities to provide enough goods to meet local demand and avoid monetary leakage. The Redding Auto Mall is a controversial development designed to correct a problem of high levels of retail auto sales leakage from this community of 160,000, though is it proposed to be located in an unincorporated urban reserve – the only undeveloped land with access to Interstate 5 in the urban area. The CED/SBDC Partnership analyzed the development and calculated the economic and fiscal impact of the development on the city of Redding. The information is being used to negotiate a tax-sharing agreement between the city and Shasta County.

     

    Fiscal Impact of a Cogeneration Facility on the City of Alturas
    The City of Alturas asked CED to estimate the fiscal impact of a proposed cogeneration electrical generation facility on the City of Alturas. The report will be used as justification to negotiate with Modoc County and/or the company proposing the facility to build infrastructure necessary to develop the project.

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    Retail Leakage Analysis
    Oroville Retail Leakage Study
    The CED provided estimates of taxable retail sales leakage from Oroville. The amount of retail dollars spent per person in the Oroville retail market area was estimated and compared with taxable retail sales actually captured in Oroville. The report was used to attract major retailers and restaurants to Oroville, including Home Depot, Grocery Outlet, Big Lots, and Applebee’s. Subsequent reports have shown that retail leakage has lessened in Oroville as a result of using this CED report.

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    Industry Cluster Analysis
    California Regional Economies Project
    CED was hired by Jim King, Incorporated to conduct an industry cluster analysis and prepare tables and charts for a set of template reports prepared for the California Economic Revitalization Team's California Regional Economies Project. The CED provided all of the tables and conducted all of the Excel work necessary to the production of these reports.

     

    Central Sierra Target Industry Study
    CED used the methodology developed by the California Economic Strategy Panel's California Regional Economies Project (CREP) to prepare a list of economic base industries for the Central Sierra Economic Development District and Planning Council. CED revised the report template developed during CREP so that it applies to the unique economic situation in the Central Sierra.

     

    Mendocino County Industry Cluster Analysis
    Mendocino County previously identified three industry clusters to analyze for economic development potential: retirement services, visitor services, and green manufacturing. In a three-year project, the CED provided a detailed analysis of the economic development potential of each cluster, identified potential industry linkages upon which to build each cluster, and provided recommended implementation actions and local partners. The retirement cluster analysis included a residential survey to determine why older residents moved to Mendocino County and how they spend their money. One conclusion was the conclusion that most retirees moved to Mendocino County long before they retired, and that most of them spend significant amounts of retail dollars outside of the county. This information led to discussion of a 10-percent shift “buy-local” campaign to try and capture these dollars.

     

    Sierra Economic Development District Regional Industry Clusters
    As part of the Sierra Economic Development District’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, the district asked CED to identify existing industry clusters in the four-county region of El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, and Sierra counties. Per the client’s request, the CED broke out the four-county area into five areas of analysis that did not follow county boundaries: the Sacramento Urban Area, the North Gold Country Corridor, the South Gold Country Corridor, the Sierra Nevada Western Upslope, and the Lake Tahoe Basin. The CED aggregated confidential data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to produce non-confidential industry aggregations for analysis. The CREP method was utilized to identify separate sets of industry clusters for each area analyzed.

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    Business/Land Use Feasibility Studies
    Redwood Valley Rancheria Land Use Potential Analysis for a site in Nice, California
    The Redwood Valley Rancheria purchased a 16-acre property in Lake County along State Highway 20 and asked the CED to analyze the feasibility of potential retail, construction, and food service businesses on this property. The CED evaluated the property’s topography, local and visitor demand for analyzed business types, and the level of competition. The CED provided a revised site concept based on types of retail, construction, and food service businesses deemed feasible.

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Requesting Services

    If you would like to learn more about how the Center for Economic Development can help you, please call (530) 898-4598 or click here to e-mail our staff.

    For more information on community research and analysis, please contact Warren Jensen at the above number. To learn more about or enroll in our Market Intelligence for Small Business Program, Michael Suplita can be reached by email at msuplita@csuchico.edu or by phone at (530) 898-3864