PROJECT SUMMARY
The Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council (Council), a public-private partnership, has been active in multi jurisdictional economic development for the past 16 years in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, Fort Bend County, Texas. Fort Bend County leads the region, state and nation in many of the categories that demonstrate economic and demographic excellence, and according to surveys by other agencies, ranks in the top 1% of all economies in the United States for growth.

For the past four years, the Council, under its contracts with local and city governments, has been developing an economic development tool that is driven by GIS (Geographic Information System) technology. The Council has been using the finished product for the past 12 months. They have created an economic development tool that incorporates today's latest technology with the Council's market and industry knowledge. This system reduces research time, provides a unique service that no similar organization offers, and enables us, from our own conference room, to provide our clients the ability to perform real-time site selection, sire development, fatal flaw analysis, and demographic research. By utilizing this new process, the Council has become more efficient and effective in attracting new quality business, industry and development to Fort Bend County. Site-specific research work that used to take nearly three weeks to complete can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Trading data layers between governmental agencies and the private sector has been facilitated through the Council, thus creating a more efficient, cost effective development process.

The Council's conference room is fitted with a 72-inch, touch-sensitive screen that is connected to the computer system. The GIS system uses a base map, which is a digitized aerial photograph of Fort Bend County. Selected "layers" of information are displayed on top of the color aerial. The user can select and overlay multiple layers at a time and decipher in minutes whether or not a specific site is suitable for a particular development. Layers the Council is currently using include: Roads, Highways, City Limit Lines, Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Lines, Topography, Water Features, County Mobility Plan, Pipelines, Electrical Distribution Lines, Potential Hazards, Traffic Counts, Rail Lines, Municipal Utility Districts, Potential Wetlands, Flood Zones, School District Lines, Zip Codes, County Lines, Soils, Ownership Abstracts, Master Planned Communities, Historical Sites, Cemeteries, Multi-Family Complexes, Retail "Big Box" Availability, Retail Centers, and Office Buildings. With these layers, further details are provided via a linked database built into the system.

An example of a layer that the Council created itself is one that plots the entire Fort Bend County office market (91 buildings). If a broker comes to our office and has a client who is looking for 15,000sf - 20,000sf of Class A office space that is located in a specific city, we can query our system with those parameters. The system will then digitally plot all the office buildings that fit these parameters on the digital aerial exactly where the buildings are located. They can then physically touch the location symbol (dot) on the touch-screen, and all the details for that building will appear on the screen (address, name of building, rental rate, size, available space, broker information, etc.). In the near future, with a touch of another button, a picture of that particular building will appear on the screen. The broker and his/her client leave our office, within an hour, with color printouts or digital files of each building that meets their specifications as well as complete demographic and tax information. The next layer the Council will build will plot the county's 315 industrial buildings and their availability.

The Council has used its knowledge of technology and economic development and "bundled" software, hardware, and date (provided by our governmental agencies), creating its own methodology for doing economic development work. The Council believes that this methodology for doing economic development work. We believe the process of identifying and utilizing shared information between the units of government, the Council and the private sector will lead to increased revenues and decreased expenses for all concerned.

Originality
The Council utilized existing mapping software and technology to create a new methodology for doing economic development research and site selection to enhance the economy of our governmental partners. To our knowledge, there is not other economic development group in the country that uses GIS technology for economic development purposes.

Quality
The quality of the visual and printed product far exceeds the expectations of our clients and partners. The visual product is high definition, colorful, fast, and easy to use.

Implementation
The implementation of this tool within the organization was seamless. A two-hour training session equipped the staff with enough knowledge to begin using the system with clients. Monthly training enables the staff to learn about new enhancements that have been recently added to the system. The Council has hired a GIS consultant to work one day a week to update and implement new information within the system. The consultant provides ongoing onsite training for the staff.

Economics
The GIS system has increased the staff's efficiency and effectiveness tenfold, thus saving hours upon hours of research time. We have hired a GIS consultant to work one day a week instead of hiring an additional full time staff person to develop the system. This economic development tool is ultimately used as a marketing instrument to bring new business and development to Fort Bend County. Those new businesses generate increased tax revenues and build stronger economies for our governmental partners.

Public-Private Partnership
The Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council is a nonprofit, 501(c)6 private corporation. We are a membership-based organization with 35% of our funding coming from contracts with the public sector partners and 65% of our funding coming from the private sector partners. We enter into a contract with each of the public entities to provide "economic development services." The county contracts us for $200,000 a year, and the cities' contracts range from $1,000 to $60,000 a year depending on their sizes and circumstances. The private sector funds are provided through memberships. Associate Members pay $1,500 a year, and Trustee Members pay from $6,000 to $25,000 a year. We have partnered with the public and private entities to develop the GIS system. Layers of information used to create the system were supplied by public and private sources. All of our partners benefit from increased availability flow of information used in the development process.