Montgomery County, Maryland, Builds Community Engagement into its Strategic Plan
Montgomery County, Maryland, Builds Community Engagement into its Strategic Plan
Montgomery County (MD) Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) is leading the development of a countywide economic strategic plan. The plan is currently underway and is structured across six key phases: project initiation and discovery; data and economic assessment; stakeholder and community engagement; development of the vision, goals and strategic framework; implementation planning and metrics; and the drafting and finalization of the plan, anticipated in March 2027. We asked Danny Chavez, MCEDC’s Vice President of Business Development, about the emphasis on community engagement in the plan and best practices in general. Here is what he had to say.
- MCEDC has made stakeholder and community engagement an explicit part of its strategic-planning process. What have you learned so far from that engagement that you might not have learned from economic-development professionals and business leaders alone?
Business leaders and economic-development professionals naturally tend to evaluate a strategy through the lens of competitiveness, talent, sites, cost, infrastructure, industry growth, investment and the ability to win projects. Residents and community stakeholders bring another essential lens: how growth is experienced day to day.
That perspective forces us to connect the macroeconomic strategy to more immediate questions. What does growth mean for opportunity? Will local businesses benefit? What does it mean for a commute, a neighborhood, or quality of life? That feedback has reinforced for us that a strong economic strategy cannot only explain how Montgomery County competes; it also has to explain why that competitiveness matters to the people who live and work here.
- When you talk about community engagement in economic development, what does that mean to you?
To me, community engagement means making sure economic development is something we do with the community, not simply for it. Our role is to understand what a community values, where it wants to compete, and what outcomes matter most, then translate that into an economic strategy that can deliver with our expertise as economic developers.
The strongest strategies do more than generate jobs and capital investment. They strengthen long-term competitiveness, expand opportunity, and create a clear connection between economic growth and the people who live and work in the community. Engagement is how we make sure those objectives stay connected.
- What does meaningful engagement look like versus simply communicating what an EDO is doing?
Communication tells people what an EDO is doing or working on. Meaningful engagement gives people a real opportunity to help shape how we do it.
That means asking the right questions early, listening when priorities or concerns differ from our own assumptions, and being willing to adjust our approach when the feedback is actionable. It also means closing the loop – showing people what we heard, what changed and why. When people can see that their input was genuinely considered, engagement becomes a partnership rather than a box-checking exercise.
- Why is community engagement becoming increasingly important to economic development?
Economic development has become more complex, and the decisions we make increasingly intersect with workforce, infrastructure, land use, public resources, small business and quality of life. Jobs and investment remain fundamental, but the durability of those outcomes depends on whether a community understands the strategy and sees a connection to its own priorities.
Engagement makes us better at the work. It gives us better information, creates alignment earlier, reduces surprises and builds trust around projects and initiatives that may take years to produce results. I do not view community engagement as separate from economic competitiveness; it is part of building and executing a strategy that can last.
- Who should economic developers consider part of the “community”?
The community is the entire economic ecosystem. That includes residents, businesses of every size, entrepreneurs, elected and appointed leaders, educational institutions, workforce organizations, nonprofits, real estate and infrastructure partners, that shape how a place grows.
Economic development does not operate in silos, so our definition of community cannot either. If we want to understand how an economy is functioning – and where the opportunities or barriers are – we need perspectives from the people and organizations that experience it from different angles.
- What are the most effective ways you've seen EDOs engage people who don't normally participate in economic development conversations?
The first principle is simple: go to people rather than expecting them to come to us. We cannot design engagement around the convenience of the EDO and then be surprised when we hear from the same group of participants every time.
That means meeting people where they already are, using multiple ways to participate and framing the conversation around issues that are relevant to them. Most residents are not thinking about “economic development” as an industry; they are thinking about jobs, opportunity, their commute, their business, their neighborhood and quality of life. Engagement becomes more effective when we connect the conversation to those realities and make participation easy.
- How do you make people feel that their input is genuinely valued rather than simply collected?
You have to demonstrate that the input mattered. That does not mean every recommendation will become policy or every concern will change a project, but people should be able to see that their perspective was seriously considered.
For me, that means identifying the themes we heard, translating the actionable ones into strategy where appropriate, and being transparent about what can and cannot change. Then we need to close the loop. When people understand how their input influenced a decision or why a different decision was made, this builds credibility and turns engagement into an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time exercise.
- How do you translate economic-development terminology, investment, jobs, tax base, workforce, site readiness, incentives, into issues that residents can understand and care about?
Our job is to translate economic development strategies into outcomes people can see and understand. We should never assume that residents speak our industry language, and frankly, they should not have to.
Investment is not just a capital-expenditure number; it can mean a company expanding, new customers for local businesses, and a stronger tax base. Workforce is about whether residents can access the education, training and skills that lead to better opportunities. Site readiness is about whether a community can compete for a project without avoidable delays. And incentives are public investments, so we should be able to explain in plain language what is being committed, what the community receives in return, and why the investment makes sense.
The most important question is always: what does this mean for the community? If we cannot connect the terminology to jobs, opportunity, local business growth, public services, infrastructure or quality of life, then we have not explained the economic-development case well enough.
- How can economic developers build trust before they need the community's support for a controversial project?
Trust has to exist before the controversial project arrives. You cannot build it for the first time at a public hearing or when you suddenly need support.
That comes from consistency, being visible, communicating clearly, following through on commitments and being transparent even when the answer is complicated. When a difficult project does emerge, our role is not simply to “sell” it. We need to present the business case honestly, explain the potential benefits and tradeoffs, surface legitimate concerns and work with the company and public partners to respond to them.
Credibility comes from being clear about what we know, what we do not know and what commitments or conditions matter. Over time, that consistency is what allows an EDO to have difficult conversations without starting from zero trust.
- Has anything you've heard from the community challenged an assumption that economic developers had going into the process?
Yes. One assumption economic developers can make is that the value of a strong project is self-evident because the jobs, capital investment or tax impact are compelling. Community engagement is a reminder that residents may evaluate the same project through a very different, and much more immediate lens.
We may see long-term investment and job creation; a resident may first ask what it means for traffic, whether local businesses will benefit, whether the jobs are accessible to people here or how the project will affect quality of life. Neither perspective is wrong. Our responsibility is to understand both and build a strategy that connects them.
That has reinforced how we think about success: not only in terms of the projects we win, but in how effectively those wins translate into broader economic opportunity and long-term value for Montgomery County.
- Can you give me a specific example of something that will be different in the final strategy because of community input?
One concrete way that community feedback should show up is in how we define and communicate success. The strategy will still need to hold us accountable to core economic-development outcomes, quality jobs, capital investment, business growth and a more competitive economy, but it also needs to connect those outcomes to the issues residents experience directly, including access to opportunity, local business participation, workforce pathways and quality of life.
For me, that is an important shift. It forces us to pressure-test the strategy through both a competitiveness lens and a resident lens, and to be clearer about not only what growth we are pursuing, but why it matters and how we will know it is creating value for Montgomery County.