CEDAR HILL – Last year the City of Cedar Hill was recognized as one of the top 10 places to live by the New York Times based on jobs, climate safety, and racial diversity. To keep the good feeling going earlier this month the Cedar Hill City Council and Cedar Hill Economic Development Corporation adopted the EDC’s strategic plan for 2023 to 2025. Both the City Council and EDC board voted unanimously on the plan with City Council member Place 6 Clifford Shaw the only councilmember not in attendance at the meeting.
Henry Florsheim, Cedar Hill’s Director of Economic Development said, “One of the key pieces we’re working on right now is adding marketing staff to our economic development team.”
The economic development strategy includes six goals to see the plan successful. This includes developing a targeted business attraction strategy with a look at specific businesses and types of businesses appropriate for the city as well as developing marketing campaigns for the specific targets.
The plan also outlines developing key areas in Cedar Hill with master plans for each area including Downtown, West Midtown, Loop 9 Corridor, and the Hospital District while also considering incentives for development and adjusting codes to accommodate desired development.
The strategy will look at activating green spaces with a master plan for such while identifying potential land for acquisition to accomplish this goal.
Also highlighted is the importance of developing a business retention and expansion program and developing support programs for woman- and minority-owned businesses.
Enhancing tourism efforts in the city will play a key role in the success of the strategic plan with a look at adding hotels and a conference center. In order to attract tourists the goal includes enhancing social media, developing key marketing campaigns, and developing regular content including video and articles to attract attention for the city to meet its economic development goals.
Florsheim said a job description has been posted on the Cedar Hill website for the addition of marketing staff to build the team for the three-year strategic plan implementation.
Over the past year, the strategic city has seen several EDC “catalytic projects,” come to fruition. These wins include High Point 67, which will transform Cedar Hill’s southern industrial zone into a 180+ acre master-planned industrial campus. This area will also be a cornerstone to the future Loop-9 corridor and is expected to generate more than $75 million in capital investments, $100 million in new taxable value, and support the creation of hundreds of jobs in Cedar Hill.
The city has also completed phase 1 of the Downtown Complete Streets project; construction has begun on the Lake Moreno mixed-use project in historic downtown; the city has broken ground on the new library, museum and signature park in midtown; Balcones Trail was dedicated in November 2022 with a three-mile trail that highlights the natural features of the Balcones Escarpment and connects more than 3,000 acres of nature preserves and open space that includes Cedar Hill State Park, Cedar Mountain Nature Preserve, and Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center; and Texas Health Resources has purchased property in Cedar Hill with plans to develop a medical facility there.
Florsheim concluded “I am currently building out the timeline and implementation plan [for the 2023-25] strategic plan; that will probably be complete by the end of January.”
