Business View Civil & Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 11

95 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 that will attract new business and promote education and job growth. Collier explains, “If you look at Pendleton Pike now, it’s a leftover from the 1970s and ‘80s military base. There’s a lot of used car lots, pawn shops and other type of things, so you don’t get the same flavor that you do in the rest of the city. But the Trades District Initiative already has major investments occurring in the neighbourhood of $40-50 million right now. When it’s done, it will totally change what Lawrence looks like and it will drive private investment to the area. I think that will start to change Lawrence dramatically over the next 10 to 15 years.” All this work is critical for Lawrence’s economic growth. As Dan Zuerner, the city’s Director of Economic Development shares, “Lawrence is being pursued extremely heavily, not only for residential development, but for business development, just because of our proximity and how progressive we are with our economic development efforts. But coming along with that, we have to have capacity for those utility increases. We’re at a point where those things have to happen so we can continue to grow exponentially.” LAWRENCE , INDI ANA