NORTH CHARLESTON - The future is "agurbs." They are small communities outside metro areas with attractive characteristics that make them prime for growth.

More and more people want to move to agurbs to escape the rat race feel of cities, and they are growing more than twice as fast as metro areas, said business development consultant, Jack Schultz.

If 11 women can turn a shrinking Washington mill town - with no German residents - into a Bavarian village attracting more than one million tourists a year, the possibilities are endless for rural South Carolina communities, he said.

Schultz, CEO of an industrial development firm that fosters business development in small towns, spoke to about 300 rural community leaders from across the state Tuesday at the South Carolina Rural Summit, telling them how to stimulate economic growth in rural areas.

The S.C. Department of Commerce organizes the annual event to spur discussion and provide networking opportunities for leaders in rural areas throughout the state.

It all begins with a "can-do" attitude, said Schultz, author of "Boomtown USA, The 7 1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns."

While resources such as colleges or hospitals are valuable to spurring economic growth, they are not necessary, he said. "It's how people approach problems."

The women of Leavenworth, Wash., had seen the thriving mill town of 5,000 people deteriorate to a struggling community when the sawmill shut down.

As thousands left, the women rallied the town together with parades and meetings and began giving their shops Bavarian makeovers.

Now the town has 40 Bavarian families living there, and the Audubon Society built a bird sanctuary right outside the town because of all the tourists coming to visit.

Closer to home, Schultz described Mooresville, N.C., as a town that feared it was investing too much in its textile mills. The town sold its hospital and used the money to transform Mooresville into Race City USA - even though there was only one race team there at the time. Now, about 50 teams are headquartered there and 150 companies are making racing supplies.

Although the 1999 closing of Burlington Industries significantly hurt the town, it has other resources to fall back on and hasn't been devastated, Schultz said.

Mooresville is now Lowe's Home Improvement's newest corporate campus, a decision made because of the quality of life there, Schultz said.

Quality of life is attracting many to the agurbs, and it is a trend that Schultz said will become more popular as Internet business becomes more prevalent. Entrepreneurs will be able to start small businesses from anywhere with the Internet, and won't have to live in big cities.

Communities need to differentiate themselves to attract people seeking the small town lifestyle.

"When people look at where to raise a family, it is the extra things you do," he said. "People are transforming their lives and finding the where of their happiness."

Block out the naysayers and the curmudgeons who say it's never going to happen, he said. But make it happen. There is not enough money for communities to pay for services without support from a business property tax.

"It's a loser game to be in a bedroom community."

 

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