A presentation on the accomplishments and goals of the Chautauqua County Department of Planning concluded with a debate regarding if the Planning Department is focused on the right topics to address economic development.

Recently, Mark Geise, Deputy County Executive for Economic Development and county Industrial Development Agency chief executive officer; Rebecca Wurster, Planning Coordinator; Nate Aldrich, Economic Development Coordinator; and Dave McCoy, Watershed Coordinator, provided an overview of the department’s work and accomplishments in 2024 and their 2025 work plan to the county legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee.

Last year, the county Department of Planning focused on advancing 54 priority projects in alignment with the department’s 2024 work plan; completed four plans and studies; administered 12 mandatory projects, boards, and committees; and facilitated 13 community outreach initiatives in planning, economic development, and watershed throughout the county. In addition, the county Department of Planning was awarded five grants totaling over $3.38 million to assist with funding targeted projects.

The presentation lasted about 40 minutes.

Afterward, members of the committee were invited to ask questions.

Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, requested he be able to respond uninterrupted, which he was given. He then went on for about 10 minutes critical of what he believes the presentation lacked.

Larson began noting that Chautauqua County is one of the poorest counties in the state and has continued to lose population.

“Our population declined from 140,000 in 2000 to 126,000 in 2020. It’s documented that our employment declined about 14,000 people in the last 15 years, from about 68,000 down to about 56,000,” he said.

Larson noted that in the presentation by the Planning Department there was not a single mention of job creation.

“To not acknowledge our situation is a big mistake,” he said.

During the presentation, there was talk about new proposed housing developments in various areas of the county. Larson questioned the need.

“There’s 14,000 fewer people in this county than there was 20 years ago,” he said.

He also questioned plans for the Planning Department to create some new murals, even though they aren’t going to use county tax dollars.

“Quality of life stuff that doesn’t lead to jobs is important, like parks and trails and so forth, but the priority should be on investing county resources … and other public resources in rebuilding the economy of this county, so there’s jobs for young families,” he said.

Geise disagreed with what Larson thought the presentation should have.

“Asking the question of ‘how many jobs are you going to create next year,’ it’s impossible to know. It all depends on what happens in the economy,” he said.

Geise also pushed back on the notion that the county Planning Department creates jobs.

“The Economic Development Division under the Planning Department, their mission really isn’t to create jobs directly. That can be an outcome of some of the other planning work,” he said.

The county IDA, which is not overseen by the county legislature, has some tools, Geise noted, including tax incentives, but even those tools are designed to help support companies.

“We’re not creating them (jobs). We’re supporting companies with every tool we have so they can either relocate here and create jobs or expand what they currently have,” he said.

Larson did applaud Geise on the efforts to create new additional shovel-ready sites, which can attract businesses in the future.

Larson also called on the Planning and Economic Development Committee to “have some of its own concepts, objectives, goals and measurables that the county executive can use in the ’26 budget planning.”