The GCEDD Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is designed to identify regional needs, project development and funding priorities, and goals for the 13-county region. The CEDS is a living document and can be quickly adjusted to adapt to dramatic changes in regional and local economies such as business and job loss associated with natural disasters or loss of a major employer.

The CEDS provides a framework for evaluating project grant applications by the GCEDD and Economic Development Administration (EDA) regional office in Austin, Texas.  When a local government or other eligible applicant prepares an application for EDA grant funding, one of the critical steps in evaluating a grant application is to determine if the project is consistent with the CEDS and will address regional priorities, goals, or needs. The EDA heavily weighs project applications that align with the CEDS and have GCEDD support.

The EDA heavily weighs project applications that align with the CEDS and have GCEDD support.The GCEDD updates the CEDS at least every five years. The GCEDD updated the current CEDS in late 2008 immediately following Hurricane Ike to include disaster recover as a regional priority and again in July 2009 after new staff was hired to review the document and update socio-economic data provided within the CEDS document. The next CEDS update is planned for 2012 when the GCEDD will work to align the CEDS with the HUD Sustainable Communities planning effort, currently being led by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, GCEDD and 22 other consortia members.

The current CEDs is available for viewing and downloading <<HERE>>