For decades overshadowed by the growth of the Charlotte and Raleigh regions, the Triad has grabbed bragging rights with a string of economic recruiting successes that, according to mayors, intensify challenges for the Piedmont area.
“I love talking to my business colleagues from Charlotte and Raleigh now because there’s a new term, and it’s called Triad envy,” Greensboro businessman Doug Copeland said. During a panel discussion earlier today, he asked the mayors of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and Burlington to address problems at risk of intensifying with the potential for California-based JetZero to create more than 14,500 jobs over the next decade.
Announced earlier this month, JetZero’s plan to assemble next-generation planes at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport ranks as the biggest job commitment in North Carolina’s history. Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina in Liberty hired 1,200 people last year, less than a quarter of its projected employment of 5,100. Boom Supersonic and Marshall USA are preparing to commence operations at PTI, eventually employing more than 2,000 people.
Already grappling with a lack of housing across price ranges and adequately trained workers, the mayors said their cities must improve cooperation with state leaders, private developers, universities and technical colleges to prepare for the new jobs. Billions of dollars in spending are going to be required to keep infrastructure apace with development, they said.
“Collaboration is the key,” Burlington Mayor James Butler said. While he and the other mayors don’t talk daily, he said, “our staffs are engaged daily. And I think that’s the most important thing. Infrastructure planning is going to be really, really important.”
Extending the availability of water and sewer services is critical to open land for development while increasing the density of housing inside of town limits, according to the mayors. They said their governments need to cut red tape in permitting and other steps that slow projects and frustrate developers.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said Greensboro is embracing its role to become “the utility provider for this region. And it’s going to be expensive.”
As an illustration, running water and sewer services to the Toyota site cost Greensboro $180 million, Vaughan told the meeting of the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association, which hosted the panel discussion.
“If you’re talking to your legislators, I would ask you one thing, and that would be to support the city of Greensboro when it comes to water and sewer, that we need funding so that we can continue to be the regional provider for this area and to help us grow that housing base,” Vaughan said. She added that federal funds may be needed.
“Water and sewer is key to all of this,” she said. “None of these announcements would be made without water and sewer. When you talk about keeping your foot on the gas, we have to make sure that we have safe, clean drinking water and that we also have enough sewer capacity.”
Planning for solid waste disposal is going to require Winston-Salem to start the possible 20-year process of permitting a new garbage dump. “Nobody really wants a landfill in their area,” Mayor Allen Joines said, “but we’ve got to think about that going forward.”
Collaboration with community colleges and public schools to improve “the talent pipeline” is critical, according to Vaughan.
“We want to make sure that it’s our residents who fill those job,” she said. “We want to raise our standard of living. We want to make sure that people who live in the Triad can have the American dream.”
As the region adds jobs, the advance of artificial intelligence is going to eliminate others, according to High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson.
“While we’re looking to prepare for the jobs that we see coming in, we also have to somehow think about the displacement of jobs that we’re used to having,” he said. “While that’s a challenge, it also presents opportunities” for giving the Triad a competitive advantage over other regions.
Winston-Salem’s Joines urged economic recruiters, “don’t get complacent because you got to continue to have that pipeline full or at least semi-full of new projects coming along.”
