recommended strategies - Hardee County

o Need to actively enterprise/advertise the available resources (i.e. Land)
o Have to look at ways to increase your population
• Must grow your population first, business will follow
• Build incrementally, it will not all develop at once
• Put the community on the map (effective advertising, web searches, information distribution)
• Look at your existing and targeted demographics and then pursue those types of business and
industry that fit that model
Creation of jobs/new business (local incubator)
o What types of businesses do you want/not want? Is there language in your comprehensive plan and
land development regulations to either encourage or prohibit specific uses?
Community Comment/Issue:
Hardee County is an easy place to come and build
Current demographics are not attractive to businesses looking here; too many socio-economic issues (low per
capita income, teen pregnancy, etc.)
Population could double and we would never know it
What businesses do you think
would be the easiest to attract?
What the coasts don’t
have and cannot attract
(Peace River/tourism)
Hunting leases
o Issue: but don’t
want them open
to the public;
keep private
Off-road
vehicles/UTV/motorcyc
le facilities (primitive
areas to ride, not tracks)
o The State has
RTP grants
available for the
development of a facility
Business and industry looking to locate here will bring additional, spin-off and supporting businesses (hotels,
restaurants, suppliers, etc.)
What is your Vision? What are your ideas of where you want to go in the future, looking forward?
• Diverse mixture of agriculture, phosphate, healthcare, manufacturing, industrial
• Growth but not a loss of historic ties/ties to agriculture
• Crop diversification
• Agriculture, retirees, light industrial, shopping/entertainment
• Maintain and preserve the natural resources
• Build facilities to support better connectivity
• Higher education/co-op/vo-tech opportunities
• Mixture of agriculture, retirees, light industry, corporate offices, tourism/Peace River
• Huge job creator/industry but also enhance what we have; diversify and expand agriculture, expand and
enhance healthcare
• Retirees/baby-boomers; they bring dollars to spend and health care needs
• Increase in schools
• Opportunities to improve; need to look at all aspects and not exclude certain opportunities on the front end
• Less commute equals less dollars having to spend on transportation, more money to spend elsewhere
• “Middle of nowhere but close to everywhere”
• Focus and capitalize on what we have (resources, land, transportation, infrastructure)
What are the priorities?
• Agriculture
• Diversification/opportunities
• Mining and post mining (need to address what happens to land after activities)
• Light industry
• Tourism
• More business friendly
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