Employer retention and business regulation improvements are the top priorities in a plan by a local organization to improve the area’s business climate.
For the first time, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce has released an official list of public policy goals for the next two years.
“Over the next several months, we’ll be pushing for economic growth, focusing on recruiting and retaining employees,” Chamber President and CEO Aaron Nelson said.
Nineteen goals are listed on the agenda to improve the business community through means like building and maintaining infrastructure, improving access to customers and increasing participation in the business community.
Briggs Wesche, general manager of A Southern Season and member of the chamber’s board of directors, said employer retention is also an essential part of the agenda, and many of the public policy goals will overlap. By solving problems in one area of commerce, the chamber will move closer to meeting goals in other areas, she said.
For example, creating simpler and more business-friendly approaches to sign ordinances will contribute to entrepreneurs’ ability to expand their businesses and hire more employees, she said.
“It’s interconnected,” she said. “In the end, we’re all in this together.”
The purpose of the agenda is to make Chapel Hill an environment where people want to open a business, said Joel Levy, who serves on the chamber’s economic development and public policy committee that drafted the agenda.
The committee plans to partner with various coalitions to bring employers into the area.
