WHAT MAKES
Richmond
COUNTY SPECIAL?
Add up all the positives and it’s easy
to see the county has it all
By Robert Leininger
T
he answer to the question of what
makes Richmond County special is
simple: It’s got it all!
“Richmond County is blessed with an
abundance of great natural resources and
open, available land,” explained County
Manager Bryan Land. “We have all of the
needed pieces of the puzzle for economic
development: great infrastructure, roadways,
etc. You can travel in any direction with ease
from Richmond County by utilizing our
great highway system. We have an abundance
of water available. Additionally, rail, natural
gas and power are in abundance throughout
Richmond County,” he emphasized.
And to understand this bold statement, one
needs to look at the history of the county, and
how past leaders took the initiative to ensure
future growth.
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
It’s hard to plan for the future. Are you really
going to need that $50 you just put in your
savings account 10 years from now? After all,
a pizza and a movie tonight would be a lot
more fun.
It’s even harder to plan for the future if
you’re a government spending taxpayer’s
dollars. Voters want bang for their buck,
and spending thousands of hard-earned
greenbacks on a piece of land that nobody
seems to want isn’t going to reflect favorably
at the polls.
But luckily, some pretty business-savvy
residents of Richmond County, who also
didn’t mind volunteering their time to help
run local government, were planning for the
future back at the turn of the 20th century.
Richmond County combines the
convenience of the city with a
country living environment, as
shown by this residential property
on the outskirts of Rockingham.
“Richmond has 5 industrial parks that are
all nearing capacity and a sixth is in the
early planning stages,” explained County
Administrator Bryan Land. “And most of the
land these sit on was purchased 20 to 30 years
ago by the county for use down the road.”
The decisions made by these forward-
thinking county commissioners 20-25 years-
ago make Land’s job today a lot easier.
“The main goal is to bring jobs and
investment into Richmond County,” said
Land. “We run the county like a business.”
What that means simply is that whatever
project is enacted makes money for the
county in the long-run, thus lessening the tax
burden on the individual resident. Since the
land for the business parks was purchased
many years ago, the price paid is a fraction of
what it would be to be today. And that means
everybody wins–the tenant and eventually
the taxpayer.
THE COUNTY MANAGER AS REAL
ESTATE DEVELOPER
In Richmond County, Land wears a lot
of hats in his role overseeing the 20-plus
departments that fall under his purvey. But
he’s not a pencil-pusher. A good day for Land
is being out in the field, looking at property
that might be useful for the county down
the road or meeting with a potential new
business that is looking to relocate and wants
the best deal Richmond County can offer.
How Richmond and many other counties
attract new business is usually through
existing business/industrial parks. For
example, Land just secured a long-term lease
on a parcel with a shell building in a park the
county owns.
The county had already invested in the
property development (building roads,
bringing in utilities, ensuring proper zoning
and site preparation) when they opened
the park. They then went one step further
by putting up a shell building so that the
potential renter could quickly and easily
move in.
“To construct a shell and have it on the
market is about a 9 months turnaround,”
said Land. “That’s having it ready to go for
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