Diversify Douglas County’s Economy by Building Shovel-Ready Sites
Douglas County doesn’t lack potential. What we lack—too often—is readiness.
When a manufacturing firm, logistics operator, wood-products innovator, food processor, or clean-tech supplier starts looking for a new home, they’re not searching for a community with “great ideas.” They’re searching for a site where they can break ground fast, connect to utilities, hire locally, and start producing. If we want family-wage employers to choose Douglas County, we need to compete on the one factor that consistently decides deals: how quickly a site can be developed.
That’s why one of the most practical ways to diversify our economy is also one of the least flashy: investing in core infrastructure to create shovel-ready industrial sites.
What “shovel-ready” actually means (and why it matters)
Oregon already has a clear definition of what modern employers expect. The State’s Certified Shovel Ready Program is designed around the idea that sites should be “market-ready” and available for development within 180 days or less.
That 180-day timeline isn’t a random benchmark. It reflects a reality of site selection. Companies increasingly operate on tight schedules, and the communities that win are the ones that have already done the hard work: zoning, due diligence, infrastructure planning, and pre-development engineering.
Business Oregon also describes an industrial site certification approach that “captures and identifies a path to development within 90 days.” The message is simple: speed and certainty attract investment.
The bottleneck is infrastructure, and we can fix it
Across Oregon, local jurisdictions repeatedly report the same obstacle: they have land, but they can’t afford the infrastructure to prepare it—roads, water, sewer, and electrical service.
That’s the heart of the issue for Douglas County, too. It’s not enough to point to an empty parcel and say, “We’ve got space.” If that space requires years of utility extensions, unclear permitting, or costly unknowns (wetlands, environmental conditions, off-site transportation improvements), many employers will move on before we even get a meeting.
Shovel-ready investment is how we turn “available land” into competitive land.
A practical plan: make readiness a countywide priority
If we’re serious about diversifying our economy, we should treat site readiness like we treat public safety: something we plan for before we need it.
Here’s what that looks like in real terms:
1) Pick priority sites and fully fund the “last mile” infrastructure
Water, sewer, stormwater, access roads, and utility capacity are often the deal-breakers. The goal should be a short list of priority sites where we intentionally close those gaps first.
2) Do the due diligence up front—so businesses don’t inherit surprises
A shovel-ready site is not just pipes and pavement. It’s clarity: known conditions, defined development steps, and reduced uncertainty.
3) Partner aggressively to bring in outside dollars
Oregon has tools designed specifically for this. For example, the state’s Regionally Significant Industrial Sites (RSIS) program reimburses approved site improvement expenditures using a share of state income tax generated by new jobs on those sites (with statewide reimbursements capped annually). This is exactly the kind of model rural counties can use to tackle big, upfront costs without putting everything on local ratepayers.
4) Treat “site readiness” as an economic development utility
Just like we maintain roads and water systems for residents, we should maintain a pipeline of job-ready locations for employers. Businesses don’t wait for us to catch up. If we want stability, we have to stay prepared.
This is what economic diversification looks like on the ground
Douglas County’s own industrial development framework explicitly defines “economic diversification” as expanding “many and varied” employment opportunities so that a decline in one sector doesn’t destabilize the whole county—and it calls for cooperation to share resources to make that happen.
Investing in shovel-ready sites is how we make that definition real.
It doesn’t abandon our existing industries. It strengthens them by bringing in complementary employers: secondary wood products, advanced manufacturing, cold chain logistics for agriculture, small-to-mid scale fabrication, value-added processing, and the kinds of suppliers that keep money circulating locally.
The bottom line
If we want better jobs, we have to build the conditions that make “yes” easy for employers, and that starts with infrastructure.
A shovel-ready strategy is not a slogan. It’s a measurable commitment: sites prepared, utilities extended, timelines shortened, and risk reduced. And when we do it right, we send a clear signal to the market:
Douglas County is open for business—and we’re ready to build.