As Town Administrator for close to 18 years in Greenville, located in Outagamie County, I was sad to see that the County was thinking of leaving the East Central WI Regional Planning Commission (ECWRPC) and its unique planning partnership with the counties of Winnebago, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Shawano, Waupaca, Menomonie and Waushara.

In my experience ECWRPC has long been a voice of rationality, wisdom and taking the larger view when analyzing our region's land use, planning and economic development issues. Because of their regional viewpoint they are able to ask local communities to think bigger, outside-the-box, and consider the longer-term and broader impacts of decision-making.

This strange move by Outagamie County seems to fly in the face of all we've learned about the importance of working together and supporting each other as a region in the Fox Cities over the last 20 years. We have generally avoided the pitfalls of an insular and protectionist approach to planning and economic development in our multi-County area, and accomplished many significant projects demanding regional support.

The importance of our larger regional connectedness and mutuality may be best illustrated by commuting statistics for the 5-County Interstate 41 Corridor of Outagamie, Winnebago and Fond du Lac, Calumet and Brown, available most recently in 2014 census data showing:

1. More than 86,000 workers crossed County lines within this region for employment in 2014;

2. 97,568 workers were commuting to jobs in this 5-County region from outside these Counties; and,

3. Of the 381,109 workers that held jobs in the I-41 region in 2014, 26% lived outside this region.

We've also learned over time that businesses are less interested in community boundaries when locating a new investment and more concerned about the existence of adequate regional amenities that will allow for: good transportation mobility for their products and people; a large enough pool of talented and educated workers to sustain their businesses into the future; and, a recognized quality of life that is safe, friendly, innovative and offering some natural resources to play in nearby. Sure, individual community land prices are important but without the existence of enough regional economic strength, little major investment is likely to be made in any local market within the region.

These points were hammered home in the most recent large-scale economic development planning study (2018) done in our region by TIP Strategies out of Austin, TX and partially funded with Defense Department money leveraged by ECWRPC entitled, Driving the Future: A Strategy for Fostering Collaborative Economic Development Along the Interstate-41 Corridor.

TIP Strategies focused in on the 5-County area along the I-41 Corridor, including 4 currently within the ECWRPC, Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet, Fond du Lac and Brown. They created a Strategic Plan and an economic development roadmap to help our region move forward.

In light of Outagamie County's current decision to withdraw from the ECWRPC, I think it is important to revisit some of the key study recommendations made after an extensive review of our regional assets, comparisons with national best practices, in-depth personal interviews with 20 key business and public sector leaders and multiple roundtable discussions with 48 stakeholders from government, education, private and non-profit sectors. A copy of the TIP Study has been posted on my web site www.wi2communityconsulting.com/Papers/Publications page for those interested in taking a closer look at other key proposals for our region.

The following quote from the TIP Strategies study addressing the importance of regionalism in planning and economic development work stood out for me, " Regionalism, or regional collaboration, is an important economic development concept and mindset based on the principle that working together toward a common purpose is more efficient and effective than competing or operating in a vacuum...Regionalism requires not just cooperation, but true collaboration, alignment of values, and leveraging of resources. Regionalism cannot be overemphasized as a useful tool for advancement of the I-41 Corridor." (Page 22)

My understanding is that 36 appointed Commissioners from the eight Counties make up the decision-making body that directs ECWRPC. If change is needed within the organization then I would hope that they could work together to collaborate, innovate and re-invigorate activities, rather than supporting separation and distance between counties in our region.

There are very few organizations like ECWRPC that bring together County officials, municipal officials, local planners, DOT reps and gubernatorial appointees from an eight-County area to discuss how to find solutions to important public sector problems. I hope we don't lose our opportunity to continue to explore the possibilities that this consistent and unique dialogue might create, by taking our ball and going home.

As we move into an economic future filled with new and unknown technological advancements, we will certainly need strong regional organizations like ECWRPC, functioning at their highest potential in order to help us navigate our way to success and sustainability.

As an Outagamie County resident, I would fully support my tax dollars going to support ECWRPC regional planning efforts and if you agree please contact your County representative or the County Executive to let them know.