Jul 17

Jul 17 Addressing The Bottleneck Of Business In Prince George’s

A Former Brig. Gen Turned Voice In The Business Community Addresses Economic Opportunity Challenges In The County

By Raoul Dennis

In a brief but direct presentation at the July 9th meeting of the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable, former Brigadier General John Teichert, now chair of the Community Advisory Council, first offered recognition of what many already knew: There is a near-strangling bottleneck in the process of approving new business opportunities in Prince George's County.

“Get off a metro train at any stop in the DMV,” said one major business developer recently, who asked to remain anonymous. “There is retail business as far as the eye can see. There are shops, restaurants, and services surrounding that metro station. But this is not true in Prince George's County. Why is that? What is the problem? What will it take for us to figure this out? And how much are we all losing in the time that it takes for that to happen?”

First, Teichert painted the picture. The Community Advisory Council was tasked with studying the economic landscape and the opportunity.

“We have a couple of recommendations to share with this body based on our findings. Let me start with two key findings that play into those recommendations,” he said.

“First, Seven of the top 1% [of the wealthiest] counties in the nation are in the immediate vicinity of Prince George's County,” he said. “Southern counties that are top 1% of wealth are in the immediate vicinity here, which means that there's a lot of stiff competition for economic outcomes that include businesses, business growth, and job growth. Those things tell us that we need to make sure that we step up our game in that competition.”

The former Commander of Joint Base Andrews went on to say that the business growth pace has stagnated.

“The second one is one that we should all hang our heads in shame with, a little bit. Some of the economic development leaders have called this the county of no. Here's what I mean by that. If you want to start a business or you want to create jobs, then you look at zoning, permitting, taxes, fees, regulation, and everywhere you turn, it is no, no, no, no, and no.”

Solution: Monitor, Report and Act.

“Here are two recommendations. Recommendation number one, a comprehensive assessment of policies, processes, regulations, taxes, and fees to assess them against anti-growth or pro-growth metrics to make sure that we become more competitive,” Teichert advised.

Secondly, we need a body of economic development stakeholders. There isn't one that exists in this county that meets on a monthly basis to solve problems. We need specifically economic development experts who are mandated to meet monthly to start solving problems, again, to flip in a competitive environment from anti-growth to pro-growth.”