A new day dawning in Fayetteville.

• Author: Burnette, Kristine
• Position: Regional Focus

The future is bright for a North Carolina town whose leaders and citizens are committed to change. Armed with a new, robust economic development platform and a strong sense of community spirit, Fayetteville is succeeding in improving both its economy and reputation.

Fayetteville has a rich heritage, with roots that stretch back to 1783. Marquis de Lafayette, a Frenchman who fought in the Revolutionary War alongside George Washington, gave his name to this city of 135,000. Today Fayetteville is home to two U.S. military bases, a thriving hospital system and quality colleges and universities.

However, until recently, the Fayetteville area was struggling to develop economically. Go back five years, and you'd have seen a city frustrated in its attempts to attract new business and unable to articulate a unified vision for its future. Tony Chavonne, who served as president of the Fayetteville Area Chamber of Commerce in 1999, says community leaders had begun to recognize that the local economy was not competing effectively. With low industrial diversity, a largely retail-based economy and diverging visions of how to grow, Fayetteville's future was hazy. "The community was urged to take a collective look in the mirror, recognize the economic problems facing it and begin working together for change," Chavonne says.

A group of local leaders spearheaded a plan--funded entirely by the private sector--called Greater Fayetteville Futures (GFF). They hired the Office of Economic Development (OED) at the University of North Carolina to pinpoint Fayetteville's strengths and weaknesses and then work with the community to identify the best opportunities for the region's future economic growth. The project was a collaborative effort involving the private sector, local government, community groups and the OED.

GFF kicked off in December 2000, managed by the OED and a 20-person steering committee. A stakeholder group of 50 people acted in an advisory capacity. In addition, 300 Cumberland County citizens participated in the project. Largely due to the broad-based community support it received, GFF has succeeded in shaping the future For Fayetteville.

"It was important to us for GFF to be community-driven and different from previous programs," says Chavonne, who served as the project's co-chairman. "We were determined that it would be more than just a report sitting on the shelf."

Fayetteville is home to large Hispanic and African-American communities and has a growing number of Korean and Vietnamese residents. The community involvement in GFF reflected that diversity. "Beyond the 'tangible' benefits of this initiative, we have also benefited from the community coming together with true representation," says Wilson Lacey, GFF's co-chairman. "People from all cultures and ethnic backgrounds participated."

Starting out, the GFF team reviewed all of the existing plans for economic development in the Cumberland County region. They then interviewed a wide range of stakeholders, conducted an economic scan of the region using key measures of competitiveness and projected how the region would look in five and 10 years based on current trends. The team also identified relevant best practices in economic restructuring for similar regions in the country.

The findings of the initial research were not earth-shattering. They showed what most residents and local leaders already...