Promote a Strong Business Community
Strong businesses
We ALL have a role in keeping our business community strong. There are some things I think we each need to know about how and why it makes Cypress such a great city to live,
The City Staff and City Council members have worked very hard to build strong partnerships with our business community. As we look to the future we want to continue developing these strong partnerships. I was pleased to see that the City filled the position of Community Development Director, which had been vacant for nearly a decade. This is an excellent step in the right direction to further invest in our long-term innovative planning and well thought economic development strategies to increase prosperity and quality of life for our residents and businesses.
We want to remain a business-friendly community. We established a 600 acre business park in the 1980s when Darrell Essex was our City Manger. This sets Cypress apart from all of our neighbors in terms of our ability to generate financial resources to care for our community. We don’t have a utility users tax. We also intentionally don't have a planning commission. It is actually prohibited in our City Charter. This quickly gets business proposals in front of City Council and speeds up the process for businesses who want to invest in our community. All of these elements work together to attract business to our beautiful City.
We want to continue building our partnerships and look for ways to support the strong comeback of our business community as we come through the pandemic. Now more than ever we need to catalyze job creation, private investment, and revenue generation in Cypress. We need to bring additional tax revenue from businesses that enhance our community and provide citizens with new employment opportunities.
I would like to reestablish the Business Retention, Attraction, Creation and Expansion program (BRACE) This once thriving program for the 25 largest corporation in Cypress is presently inactive. Our small business program Assist, Grown Education, Network and Thrive (AGENT) should also be restarted. These very low-cost programs will help us to build and strengthen the communication and collaboration our community and businesses need to thrive in this challenging time and beyond.
And remember - as local residents we have a tremendous impact on business within our City. Shop locally! Support our local businesses and help them to thrive.