CityView Magazine

ing resources to accomplish the tasks needed for the region," said Greg Taylor, the Executive Director for the Fort Bragg Regional Alliance. Since 2005 the team has worked to take into account the "We are a regional organization that tries to leverage exist- lor. "We are seeing some of those benefits over time." Three successes the Alliance is proudest to claim are the many factors pertaining to the expansive growth that has al- ready taken place and the growth that is yet to come in the re- gion. The Alliance has put together many initiatives, partner- ships and collaborations to promote our region over the last few years and to draw in business for the defense industry. From the beginning, funds were leveraged from the De- effort to market the region as the "All American Defense Cor- ridor"; launching the NC Defense Business Association; and the workforce platform known as PipelineNC.com. Taylor said the Alliance partnered with Fayetteville air- partment of Defense and from local governments and the Alliance created a comprehensive regional growth plan that identified numerous issues to tackle. At the top of their lists port authorities and obtained resources from the Office of Economic Adjustment to conduct a study that showed that we have the demand to support the flights. Doing the legwork was a huge undertaking, but it netted a direct flight from Fay- etteville to Washington, D.C., which will significantly ease the travel burden for military folks, many of whom travel to the nation's capitol at least three to four times a month. The Alliance was also involved in the early stages of the The communities surrounding Fort Bragg will continue to grow and thrive with initiatives put into action like those of the Fort Bragg Alliance. were things like housing, roads and schools — the things that people need to live in a community — and the Alliance acted as a catalyst on these issues. Some Fayetteville business people are now questioning the less-than-expected economic development and ancillary growth BRAC has brought to the region and are wondering if our area overestimated the economic impact of BRAC. Taylor is nonplussed by their criticisms. "That kind of growth was not expected to occur in the be- ginning," Taylor explained. "We were told it would take three to five years aſter FORSCOM stood up last September [for the full impact to be felt]." June 10 marks the first an- niversary of the opening of the headquarters build- ing for U.S. Army Forc- es Command, better known as FORSCOM, on Fort Bragg, which provides a work environ- ment ernment employees, many of whom have recently moved into our area. Taylor says the ar- rival of these newcomers has yielded many gains for our region. "It's showing up in the numbers. Fayetteville/Cumberland for TK ##### gov- 62 | May/June • 2012 transportation initiatives to coordinate federal and state money allocated to transform the Murchison Road corridor. The Murchison Road bypass will soon be completed through Skibo Road. "Just this morning we got the approval from the Office of Economic Adjustment for the matching funds to complete the redevelopment of Bragg Boulevard, more commonly known as the quarter development plan," said John Harbison, Deputy Director for the Fort Bragg Regional Alliance. A well thought out plan has to be implemented to manage where the traffic will be direct- ed to gain access to Fort Bragg from Skibo Road, Murchison Road and Fort Bragg Boulevard. "FORSCOM wants to County has one of the better housing markets, with the aver- age income being higher than other areas, commented Tay- dent Obama recently asked for two more rounds of Base Rea- lignment And Closure (BRAC), one in 2013 and one in 2015. Transportation becomes a major factor when military of- it will become increasingly important as Presi- might not seem important to everyone, While this transportation piece ican Freeway?" close Bragg Blvd. through the base at the Spring Lake end which stops a major artery," said Tay- lor. "So how do we do that if a person needs to travel to Spring Lake but are not using the All-Amer-

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