A Different Lens on Economic Development

Tim Fulton 00:07Welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week: when you think about economic development, you might picture a groundbreaking, a ribbon-cutting, or a shiny new district. But more often, it looks like slow, steady puzzle-building — figuring out how housing, infrastructure, mobility, and equity fit together to create a region that works for everyone. This week, I sat down with Padmini Roy-Dixon, economic development director and regional innovation officer at MORPC, who's been quietly assembling some of the most important pieces for Central Ohio's future. She shared what it means to shift from transactional deals to long-term planning, why our new economic development district designation matters, and how MORPC is helping communities get ready before opportunity knocks. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Padmini Roy-Dixon, economic development director and regional innovation officer for MORPC. Padmini, how are you?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 00:07I'm doing well. How are you?

Tim Fulton 00:07I'm doing well, thank you. When we talk about economic development, a lot of people talk about tax breaks for business expansion and relocation. Can you tell a bit about the broader approach that you take at MORPC when it comes to economic development proposals and strategies?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 01:52Absolutely. So economic development at MORPC is more about economic development planning, as opposed to transactional deals, which I think is more of the realm of the work that JobsOhio and its network partners do. So our approach to economic development looks at what are the different ways we can support communities and assist them to acquire skills, resources, technical assistance, data, project consultation, to help the community prepare for the development that's coming. So it's a very different lens. So, for instance, I'll give an example. If there is a community that has undergone a disaster, a natural disaster, and has a natural disaster declaration — for instance, if there is a grant that supports going after monies to help reconstruct properties, or to put in place a comprehensive plan that helps them plan for a more resilient economy going forward — that would be the kind of work we help the community do. So as the community rebuilds, if there's an economic development opportunity coming, say from a new company or a new innovation district, what have you, the community is ready to go after those and attract those investments.

Tim Fulton 03:22So, if I'm hearing you correctly, you're basically giving them the tools and the toolbox to pursue the things that they want to.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 03:33Yes. And if I could give some background — so this role, this office, is new. I was hired on less than two years ago to set up the Economic Development District, which was a designation which the MORPC region has been awarded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. It sits out of the Department of Commerce. MORPC's application included 11 counties, so it mirrors the Central Ohio region footprint that One Columbus uses. Our footprint, MORPC's footprint, is 15 counties. The only reason the four counties of Perry, Hocking, Fayette, and Ross are not included is because they're already grandfathered into other economic development districts.

Tim Fulton 04:26Got it. And that's something that's more like Appalachian.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 04:30Exactly. So as part of this role, the remit I had from William Murdock, our executive director, was to set up the Economic Development District and get started on an economic development portfolio. What we have done in the intervening months since I started was doing an onboarding listening tour of our communities to find out where the need was. How often did they talk to MORPC? What value could we bring? What challenges were they seeing? And how MORPC could play a role in plugging those. And from that initial listening tour, what we have identified as, like, different spokes of the wheel for the Economic Development Office are, obviously, all our economic development district work. But within that, we have a program that looks at freight planning, brownfield remediation. We look at something called competitive advantage projects, which are basically priority infrastructure projects for the different communities. We have a Drive Investment portal — think of that as a database, a free member resource database that advertises active and prospective grants and loan opportunities. And then the work we are now spearheading with the Economic Development Academy — and I know we'll get to that in a bit, but I wanted you to have that framework of what the office was set out to do, and what it has done in the interim months.

Tim Fulton 06:04I'm super curious. So I was going to go a different direction in terms of, what is your sort of philosophy behind economic development? I'm going to assume that you don't prescribe any sort of philosophy, in terms of — yes, you're going to talk about the things that you believe are important, but you're really there to serve the members.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 06:24Serve the members, yes. I feel like what needs to be made very clear is, MORPC is a values-obsessed organization. That is something William talks about a lot. That's something we really embrace and adhere to. So things like pay it forward, driving investments, creating an environment for prosperity, building value for our members. Once you have that as the foundation, everything sort of is driven by those values. So while our fundamental value is creating service for the members and meeting them where they are to make sure they are getting what they need, we are making sure that all our programs — those values sort of bleed into the work we are doing. And that's not just in economic development, that's also what we are looking at in transportation planning and mobility, and residential services, and sustainability. So that is something that really needs to be talked about, because it's such a fundamental part of our work.

Tim Fulton 07:32And when you say value — you are not talking about — so let's define it. Small-v value is what a corporate leader does for shareholders: they extract value from the — or they increase the value of the company. You are talking about a capital-V value, where it's equitable access to resources. And that is very important to you. These are not political issues. Equitable access is not a political issue. That's right, or it shouldn't be.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 08:01We want the whole region to succeed. And we firmly believe that with the development that's happening, we need to make sure that all communities are ready, are empowered, to leverage the development that's happening. And they can only do that if they have equitable access to resources, to skills, to insights, to data that our team produces at MORPC. So that is what drives our work.

Tim Fulton 08:36Yeah. And back to your listening tour, I'm curious if there was a big disparity in terms of how knowledgeable these leaders were in terms of what was available to them, or what they could do, or what they should be doing. Did you feel like there were some people that just sort of got it and some that didn't? And the follow-up to that is, which do you think you would prefer to work with — somebody whom you can sort of just feed everything into, or somebody who has predetermined notions about what they can and should be doing?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 09:14An interesting question. I think what we learned, in a strong way, was how we needed to do a better job explaining what the district means. MORPC has been an MPO, a metropolitan planning organization, for decades. That is a designation that's been in the works for so long that people understand MORPC's role when it comes to long-range planning. When it comes to economic development, we have had to be very intentional about picking our lane, building connections, and also level-setting that this is not the lane we will go into, which is those transactional deals. We will be helping you with grants assistance, or we will be helping you with data or access to resources, which might not be what you're getting from other partners. So that was made very clear during all the conversations.

Tim Fulton 10:20I guess I'm a little unclear. Okay, right? So, should we do a circle and a rectangle argument, like — an MPO, it is a — do we just say C-E-D-S, or do we say CEDS?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 10:20Say CEDS.

Tim Fulton 10:20Okay, so a comprehensive economic development strategy committee, or CEDS. So we have an MPO, which is a metropolitan planning organization, and we have, yes, a CEDS. A CEDS sits within an MPO always, or does it have to — no? Okay. And an MPO should always seek to have a CEDS? No? Okay.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 11:08There are lots of planning organizations, planning councils like MORPC, that are either an MPO or an EDD, or both.

Tim Fulton 11:17Okay. What's an EDD?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 11:18Economic Development District. So the CEDS was the first — I know I'm throwing a lot of —

Tim Fulton 11:18It's good.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 11:18So the CEDS was the first document MORPC had to write. And when I say MORPC had to write, it was a huge collaborative effort, with One Columbus at the table, Ohio State, Columbus State, all the economic development organizations at the local level. And that created the CEDS, which is considered to be a regional blueprint for economic development for the 11-county region. The CEDS, once that was approved, led to the economic development district designation. So now that we are a district, that puts in place an institutional relationship with the U.S. EDA. And what that means is, if you are a community and you are applying to an EDA grant, we have an EDA representative for the Ohio program who will consult with you on your grant application to make it as competitive as possible, who will be able to lean in and tell us, "This project might not be that strong, but if you look at this program this way, it more aligns with economic development priorities." So that opening the road to accessing resources and technical assistance, and that kind of one-on-one project consultation, that has been made possible by the EDD designation. And that, I think, is significant for the region. That is new.

Tim Fulton 12:54Because it makes the region eligible for these pots of money.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 12:54Exactly.

Tim Fulton 12:54And does the committee endorse the application?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 12:54Yes.

Tim Fulton 12:54Got it. Okay, so they're signing off as well.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 13:07Yes. So the CEDS committee, which falls under the district, is what was set up. So we set that up as a way to implement the document, the CEDS document, and agree on the path for what projects we want to take on. How do we implement the CEDS? And a CEDS update is coming up in two years, so the CEDS committee will be working on that. And as a sidebar, we are very fortunate in the committee that we have. We just completed a year's worth of meeting — we meet every quarter, so we have four meetings that wrapped up last month. And it's a robust indicator of the economic strengths and diversity in the region. We have local economic development professionals, but we also have higher educational institutions. We have the private sector represented by OhioHealth, Connect Realty, Honda, Rev1. Columbus Chamber is a partner, Consolidated Cooperative is a partner. And we were very intentional in creating that makeup of the committee, so we not only had economic development leaders, but we also had people who were almost adjacent to economic development — housing, technology, transportation, higher ed. So we are really fortunate in how that committee has come together, and how much we can lean on them. One of the projects we are taking on as part of the CEDS committee is this community case study initiative, where we are asking the different CEDS committee members to lean in and talk to us, present to the group at large, about novel, innovative ways they have tackled a problem. So is it a unique funding structure that you have created to tackle infrastructure development? Is it a way you're looking at school funding? Is it going to be a way you are funding an innovation hub? Those are all ways to make sure we are information-sharing, not just on best practices, but also trying to develop solutions to problems collaboratively. And that has come together because of the CEDS committee and the district designation.

Tim Fulton 15:35Okay, and do the partners that participated in getting the committee together, like — does OhioHealth have a dedicated seat?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 15:35Yes.

Tim Fulton 15:35Got it. Ohio State has a dedicated seat. What I didn't hear — does the city, or the county, or the counties have seats?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 15:35Yes.

Tim Fulton 15:35Okay.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 15:54Each county's economic development representative is on the committee. And all 11 count as a vote, yes. And we also have somebody from the city of Columbus, Mark Lundine, who is the economic development administrator. He sits on the committee.

Tim Fulton 16:09Great. Okay, so it's like — if I wanted to be critical of this model, what is a critique of this?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 16:21I think an overall critique — not just of this model per se, but of maybe all the work we are trying to advance — would be limited resources. The amount of needs that are there for infrastructure development, expanding utility capacity, expanding housing, childcare, mobility, broadband — all of those are their own needs. And together, as a region, if we are to keep growing at the trajectory we are, those investments are going to be critical. If you look at our last Leaders Listen survey, which was just done and released in March — and I have the actionable insights report here for you — that shows overwhelmingly, respondents said housing is too expensive, too few job opportunities, too few high-paying job opportunities, lack of affordable childcare. Those were all concerns they raised when they talked about economic growth. If you flip that, most residents agreed that the Columbus region, the Central Ohio region, needs to invest in more infrastructure, needs to invest in more utilities, to continue on the trajectory of growth. So I feel like when people are telling us this, it's a huge watershed moment for us, where practitioners, planners, leaders, public officials almost need to work together to make sure that we are taking all those public opinions into consideration as we are planning. And I find LinkUS to be such a testament of that. I think a need was identified, and community leaders, planners, organizations like MORPC, COTA, Franklin County — they all got together and decided, how do we thread this needle? Which is why it has been such a success. And I understand a lot more work has to be done, but we still need to celebrate what we have accomplished. And that's a big plus, the fact that we are actually looking at bus rapid transit corridors that will lead to bikeable, walkable neighborhoods, that will create safer, more accessible bike lanes and trails and sidewalks, and more frequent transportation systems, and the BRT lines would be hubs for housing and retail. That is economic development. So when you talk about my philosophy, I don't look at it just as a tax incentive or a roadwork grant. Yes, those are important. And before joining Ohio State, I was with the Department of Development, where I headed the division that would work with companies — tax incentives, loans, the Ohio Third Frontier program. So I've seen it from that lens. But the lens we are seeing it from now, where those transactions have been made — what are we doing to prepare the region — is so important. And I feel like that kind of proactive, thoughtful planning is what will matter, because we can basically choose the kind of development patterns we want, and MORPC, as a trusted convener, helps do just that.

Tim Fulton 19:53And you would argue, in response to that critique, that CEDS is what's allowing for our choices of finite resources that we have. Because, you know, the reason why these things exist is because a need here is not the same as the need, although very similar, in Austin or in Salt Lake City. Like, we are a unique place with unique problems and opportunities.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 20:21I think CEDS is a valuable conduit for resources. But if you were to ask me, is that enough? I would say no. I would say there needs to be more done in terms of pulling down resources. There needs to be more done in terms of working collaboratively. I think there has to be an unwavering focus on the future. There needs to be relentless collaboration, because our growth — Columbus has a strong momentum when it comes to growth. But if you look at the Columbus Foundation's benchmarking report, which they released last December, we are middle of the pack when we look at the Austins, the Nashvilles, the Charlottes — which I think is a great, promising thing, because that allows us to proactively accommodate that growth. So yes, the CEDS, the MPO, the work we are doing in trails and greenways, those are all great initiatives, but we need to keep working on, how do we get more resources, how is there more collaboration, more planning, and not lose focus on the future?

Tim Fulton 21:33I have a lot of thoughts, and I'm going to remain focused on the next question. But I have so many thoughts about — there is an argument that in the very early 1900s, the Democratic Party was a response to smoky back rooms, right? And there was an argument that, like, hey, when you put everything out in the open, it's really hard to get things built. Like, yeah, smoky back rooms aren't great, but they helped get things done. Arguably, Columbus has always had a smoky back room. We have always had the Partnership. And it almost seems like we're sort of veering back in the direction of, like, we need partners, not the Partnership. We need lots of things, but we need stakeholders from large organizations to come together and make decisions about what's important for the region — obviously listening to surveys and listening to what are the concerns of the citizenry, but that is how you get things done. So I'm just stating that. That's not even a question, just stating it from a philosophical perspective. Talk about the Economic Development Academy that you're convening.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 22:55I am so excited about the Academy. So one of the things that came up during the onboarding listening tour was capacity-building — how communities all across the region have limited resources, limited personnel, maybe limited pockets of expertise, and how capacity-building is so essential to help them, again, leverage the growth and the development that's coming. So with that idea in mind, we set about creating a training program for communities. So it's targeted at elected and appointed public officials, school board members, township trustees, zoning board members, staff that works at community organizations. Economic development professionals are always welcome. There are no prereqs. It doesn't limit to MORPC members. But it's a series of training courses in economic and community development planning topics, to meet the varying needs of communities. We are very fortunate in the lineup of speakers. We have Mark Lundine, who we talked about just a minute ago, will be teaching a course. We have the city administrator for the city of Sunbury, the Logan County Chamber of Commerce's director. We have Mark Barbash from OEDA. We have Steve Schoeny, who's the city administrator for Upper Arlington. So the combination of foundational knowledge with practical takeaways and a networking opportunity built in is what is the Academy. And I couldn't be more delighted that it has actually come together, after months and months of work. It was an idea, it was a concept, and registration is now live. And we are really excited for the first class that happens on August 7.

Tim Fulton 24:57Fantastic. And will it be — is it just a day-long thing, is it a couple of months?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 25:02I'm glad you asked. So, six courses from August to December. Every course is only four hours long. We were very intentional about that, because we wanted people to come in from different parts of the state, different parts of the region, and not spend their whole day here. So we're boiling it down to four hours so that they can go back to their real job after that. The only caveat is the class on fiscal impact and economic impact analysis, which is in partnership with OEDA and would be provided the same day, three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon. But that was, again, intentional and a choice, because we wanted people to see the difference between fiscal indicators as opposed to economic impact indicators. But yeah, six courses.

Tim Fulton 25:51And is there any homework?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 25:52None.

Tim Fulton 25:55You want every — you've got to have pre-reads.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 25:57I really want people to come in with their questions. With, "I am creating this — hypothetically speaking, I work for a local government, and we are trying to advance a partnership with such-and-such organization. How would a local government go about doing so? We have a new project we are looking at, but we don't know what fiscal indicators to look at. What are the different economic impact models that are out there?" Most people don't know how to run an IMPLAN model, me included. So maybe giving those skills to the community at large. I really see a value in this for people who are voting on resolutions. If you're voting on a new community authority, for instance — there's going to be a class on that. Do you know exactly what that means, and what that means for tax payments and revenues to the school district and other parts of your municipality? So those kinds of foundational things, I think, are going to be so relevant and helpful for people. So that was the impetus behind setting something up. We talked to our partners at OEDA. Ohio University has a leadership program. We talked to the John Glenn College, which has a leadership program, to make sure we were picking a lane that really was different and was not a duplication of what's already out there. And all the conversations I had, people were very supportive and wanted to collaborate with us and wanted to help us get the word across. So it's been a really positive and fulfilling experience.

Tim Fulton 27:44Well, and you get to have a class starting. So I end every interview with the same two questions. What do you think Columbus is doing well, and what do you think Columbus is not doing so well?

Padmini Roy-Dixon 27:57I think what is Columbus doing well is what you talked about, the smoky back rooms. The collaboration, the partnership-building, the conversations, the community engagement — that Columbus is doing really well. So I come from the state, where I saw the start of JobsOhio. Then I went to academia, where we talked about international affairs and international students and partnerships. And now I'm here. So I feel like from each of my lenses, I have seen economic development differently. But what I have consistently seen about Columbus is the fact that it knows what it's going for, knows what's going for it, and understands that collaboration and working together without competition is so important. And I think that it is doing really well. And if I can, again, make a sidebar there — I came to the U.S. as an international student, I'm originally from India, but Columbus is home, and we are raising a family here. And what I feel so promising about the city is all the development that's happening, but all the development that's happening in a thoughtful and planned manner, and making sure that we are taking into account stakeholder opinions before taking something that's going to be huge and transformational. What could work better? Again, I think what the survey showed: we need more housing. Housing and economic development are interconnected, and market data shows that rising costs and limited options make us less economically competitive as a margin. If you look at the data from 2017 to 2023, over that six-year period, median home sale prices increased much faster than incomes did. So we are already creating that gap, year over year. And what the benchmarking report from the Columbus Foundation shows is that the Columbus MSA, the number of permits it's issuing per 1,000 units of houses, lags significantly behind Charlotte and Austin, two of our competing MSAs. People need more housing options at all different price points. I think that is probably the writing on the wall. At our last State of the Region, William called out to all the leaders and the planners and the practitioners in the room and asked them to take bold, innovative solutions to tackle the problem, because it is something which is going to be all hands on board. It's not something that's going to be solved by just one entity or just one organization. This is going to be a statewide effort. And I think if we get that right, then there's nothing stopping us.

Tim Fulton 31:25Okay, Padmini, thanks for your time.

Padmini Roy-Dixon 31:29It was a sheer pleasure. Thank you.

Tim Fulton 31:40And thank —

Tim Fulton 31:44— you for listening to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite public servant. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.