The Anna Economic Development Corporation voted to adopt the 2025 community development and economic development strategic plan (Resolution 2025-10-13) at its Oct. 2 meeting.

Joey (EDC staff) described the plan as the EDC’s first formal strategic plan developed with Catalyst Commercial in 2020 and said the board’s current strategy emphasizes transitioning fully into commercial development to build sales and property tax revenue. “The goal now is to transition a 100% into commercial development, which is what we're after, for the EDC and the CDC,” Joey said.

Why it matters: Staff and board members said the plan lays out seven core goals including organizational infrastructure, marketing, recruiting medical services, downtown activation, and protective design standards for business park development. Board members said the plan supports long-standing priorities such as recruiting hospital and medical services, attracting truck-stop or travel-center development where appropriate, and improving downtown amenities ahead of a planned library opening.

Staff report highlights: Selena and Natasha (EDC staff) summarized recent outreach and events. Items they reported included the Sept. 26 Kroger Marketplace groundbreaking, attendance at the Yardley Town Center ribbon cutting, collaboration with Isenberg on downtown stakeholder feedback, attendance at the Texas EDC investor summit, and multiple real-estate and predevelopment meetings. Natasha said the EDC’s social media and newsletter subscriptions have increased as the team promotes Anna at regional industry events.

Board discussion and public-tracking request: Board members asked for more detail on specific action items in the plan and suggested a public-facing project tracker or dashboard showing stages of active projects (for example: “ground broken,” “development ongoing,” “opening”). Staff said a program-of-work and timeline could be produced and noted that some items are ongoing while others are multi-year priorities.

Formal action: A motion to approve item 5b (Resolution 2025-10-13) was made and seconded; the board approved the resolution by voice vote.

Next steps: Staff said it will continue implementation work, pursue targeted recruitment (including healthcare and retail), refine downtown zoning and historic-district standards with planning staff, and consider producing a public project tracker or high-level timeline for the board’s review. The transcript does not list a specific implementation timeline for each action item.