Alpharetta, GEorgia

Economic Development Plan

Over the past few decades, the City of Alpharetta, Georgia has experienced dramatic transformations from a rural area, to a suburban bedroom community of Atlanta, to a corporate jobs hub. However, the community has been hit hard by the current recession. Although the City of Alpharetta comprises only 9.6 percent of Fulton County’s total employment, it was home to 27.8 percent of the county’s job losses due to layoffs and closures in 2009. Job losses in Alpharetta alone comprise 10.2 percent of the ten-county metro Atlanta total. The City’s leadership recognized that there was a clear need to fully assess Alpharetta’s opportunities and challenges, and funnel energy into a process that will focus on creating a holistic strategy for the future that builds on the successes of the City’s 2002 Economic Development Plan.

In concert with the ongoing update to its Comprehensive Plan, Market Street will guide the City through a process that culminates in the development of a new 10-year Economic Development Plan for Alpharetta. This process includes the following components:

1. Stakeholder Input
A series of focus groups and interviews will be conducted throughout the community, accompanied by an online survey allowing the City’s residents and businesses to comment on the community’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges.

2. Competitive Snapshot
The Competitive Snapshot will analyze key demographic and economic data to shed light on the City’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. The City’s competitive position will be benchmarked against three communities that have experienced similarly high rates of growth and economic transformation in recent decades: Cary, North Carolina; Round Rock, Texas; and Sandy Springs, Georgia.

3. Target Business Review
The Target Business Review will analyze the region’s economic composition and identify those business sectors that have contributed to the region’s recent growth and have the potential to fuel future growth.

4. Economic Development Plan
The Economic Development Plan will represent the culmination of all quantitative and qualitative research and will present action items geared toward addressing challenges and capitalizing on opportunities for growth. This Plan will serve as a tool to unify the City of Alpharetta’s leadership behind a blueprint for the community’s future.

5. Implementation Guidelines
The Economic Development Plan will determine “what” the City of Alpharetta needs to do in order to obtain its goals, while Implementation Guidelines will help determine “how” the City will achieve its goals. This will include detailed action plans, capacity assessments, and benchmarks and performance measures to track progress in implementation efforts.