JEDCO

History of Jefferson EDGE

In 2000, JEDCO completed a community based five-year economic development strategic plan, The Jefferson EDGE. It was adopted as the parish’s official plan for guiding its economic growth. In 2004, JEDCO began updating the EDGE for an additional five years, focusing on physical projects as well as policies to generate jobs and economic growth. This process was completed in August 2005; however, less than a week later, Hurricane Katrina hit and its aftermath shifted the needs of the parish. Parish and business leaders met to craft a business recovery strategy that would be incorporated into the Jefferson EDGE 2010 plan.

In 2008, as the recovery was well underway, the process of updating the EDGE plan began once more. The Jefferson EDGE 2020 was released in 2009 and included detailed plans for addressing quality of life issues critical to the future of Jefferson Parish. In 2012, after the effects of the national recession and the BP oil spill were clearer, the economic development element of the EDGE 2020 was updated and additional action items were incorporated into the plan.

In 2009, when the Jefferson EDGE 2020 plan was first developed, Jefferson Parish was still focused on the needs of disaster recovery. Several years had passed since Hurricane Katrina made landfall, yet the Parish’s future was very much unclear. Community and business leaders wanted the EDGE to encompass a broader set of issues that were of critical importance to the future of Jefferson Parish: Beautification, Crime Abatement, Economic Development, Public Education, Fat City Redevelopment, Flood Protections, Hospitals & Health Care, and Insurance. In the ensuing years, JEDCO and the parish have made significant strides in addressing the needs identified in these areas.

In the last several years, there have been significant shifts in demographic and economic conditions as local, national, and international markets have changed, and the Parish seeks to respond and adjust accordingly. In this context, JEDCO decided that an update to the EDGE 2020 – one that refocuses efforts on current economic development opportunities – was necessary to maximize JEDCO’s impact on the Jefferson Parish economy over the next five years.

Click here to see the Jefferson Edge Progress Report video.