Community Development
Helping communities turn local priorities into stronger places, new investment and long-term opportunity.
Program Details
Central Pines works with local governments and regional partners to strengthen local economies and communities. We connect planning, funding, technical expertise and regional coordination to help communities identify priorities, build on local assets and move important projects from ideas to implementation.
That work looks different across the region. Fast-growing communities, smaller towns and rural areas face different opportunities and pressures. Central Pines provides the capacity, research and partnerships to help each community respond to its own needs while connecting local work to larger regional goals. CPRC’s current program specifically emphasizes resilient economic growth, strategic asset-building and capacity for communities of different sizes and contexts.
Regional Economic Development
Building prosperity through a shared regional strategy
Central Pines serves as the region’s designated Economic Development District, connecting local communities with federal economic-development resources and coordinating a broader strategy for regional prosperity.
The region’s comprehensive economic development strategy, Strength in Numbers, provides that shared framework. Central Pines maintains the strategy, tracks progress and helps translate regional priorities into local projects and funding opportunities.
Services At a Glance
Explore The Details
Program Services & Information
Program Services & Information
Plan for Growth & Investment
Connect local priorities with regional strategy, data and investment to help communities plan for sustainable economic growth.
Economic Development Strategy & Planning
Economic development works best when local priorities connect to a broader regional strategy. As the region’s designated Economic Development District, Central Pines helps communities identify opportunities, use data to make decisions, develop projects and connect with U.S. Economic Development Administration resources. Central Pines also maintains the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, or CEDS, which provides a shared framework for long-term economic prosperity and resilience.
How Central Pines Helps
Access Funding
Connect local projects with EDA resources and help communities develop stronger funding opportunities.
Use Data & Research
Provide regional research and analysis that help communities understand economic conditions and make informed decisions.
Build Local Capacity
Provide planning and technical assistance on needs ranging from downtown development to workforce and economic resilience.
Community Revitalization & Development
Strong communities depend on more than economic growth alone. Central Pines works with local governments and community partners on place-based projects that connect investment with housing stability, neighborhood vitality, infrastructure and the long-term needs of residents.
That work can mean helping a community develop a strategy, coordinating partners around a specific corridor or neighborhood, or adding the capacity needed to turn outside funding into real improvements.
Building Property Resilience Along Durham’s Fayetteville Street Corridor
Central Pines is partnering with Hayti Promise Community Development Corporation and the City of Durham to connect residents with resources that can improve their homes, reduce energy costs and protect property for the future. Current initiatives include home energy improvements, residential solar, property legal services and property-tax navigation.
Put Sites & Business Tools to Work
Turn underused property and regional business programs into practical tools for redevelopment, investment and economic competitiveness.
Brownfields & Site Reuse
A brownfield does not have to be a heavily contaminated industrial property. It can be a vacant factory, an old service station, an underused commercial building or another site where real or perceived contamination makes redevelopment harder.
Central Pines helps communities reduce that uncertainty and move properties toward productive reuse. Its regional brownfields work combines planning, environmental assessment, site prioritization, funding strategy, stakeholder engagement and redevelopment tools.
| Stage | How Central Pines can help |
|---|---|
| Identify | Build site inventories, identify priority properties and use community and site data to focus efforts. |
| Assess | Help communities pursue environmental assessment and reduce uncertainty around potential contamination. |
| Plan | Connect redevelopment strategy with community priorities, stakeholder outreach and available funding. |
| Move Toward Reuse | Connect communities with cleanup financing, technical resources, peer support and redevelopment tools. |
Additional Brownfields Tools & Funding
Additional Brownfields Tools & Funding
Piedmont Triangle Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund
Loans and subgrants can help eligible communities, businesses and organizations address cleanup costs that stand between a brownfield property and redevelopment.
Brownfields Redevelopment Toolkit
A practical StoryMap developed with Brownfields Consortium communities to help municipalities and other organizations understand the redevelopment process and build local strategies.
Foreign Trade Zone
Companies that rely heavily on imported or exported goods may be able to reduce costs and simplify portions of their international supply chain through Foreign Trade Zone #93.
Central Pines serves as the grantee and administrator for the Research Triangle Area Foreign Trade Zone, helping businesses understand whether the program fits their operations and navigate participation. Potential benefits can include duty deferral or reduction, exemptions on certain re-exports, consolidated customs entries and more streamlined logistics. Actual benefits depend on a company’s operations and current federal trade rules.
Learn More about the Foreign Trade Zone
Learn More about the Foreign Trade Zone
Who it serves
Businesses importing or exporting goods within the approved FTZ #93 service area
Potential value
Customs-duty savings or deferral, consolidated entries and supply-chain efficiencies
Central Pines’ role
Program administration, business guidance and coordination with the Foreign-Trade Zones program
Build Local Capacity & Access
Give communities the additional capacity and connections needed to carry projects forward and expand access to opportunity.
Grant & Project Administration
Securing funding is only one part of delivering a successful community project. Local governments may also need capacity to manage requirements, coordinate implementation and keep funded work moving.
Central Pines provides grant administration support for a range of local projects. Recent economic-development reporting describes work involving downtown revitalization, sidewalks, community service buildings and flood-mitigation improvements, particularly where local governments do not have enough internal capacity to administer awarded funds on their own.
| Funded work may include | Central Pines’ role |
|---|---|
| Downtown revitalization | Administration and implementation support |
| Administration and implementation support | Grant administration and coordination |
| Community service facilities | Support carrying awarded funding through implementation |
| Flood-mitigation projects | Administrative capacity for funded resilience improvements |
Digital Opportunity & Community Access
Internet infrastructure alone does not guarantee digital access. Residents also need affordable service, appropriate devices and the skills to use technology confidently.
Central Pines coordinates digital-opportunity work across its seven-county region, helping local governments understand gaps, align broadband and adoption strategies and connect residents with resources that support employment, education, health care and access to essential services.
Regional Goals & Strategies
Reliable Access
Expand availability of dependable high-speed internet.
Affordability
Help communities address cost barriers that can keep available broadband out of reach.
Devices
Connect residents with the technology needed to participate online.
Digital Skills
Strengthen the knowledge and confidence needed to use digital tools effectively.
Explore Digital Opportunities by County
Explore Digital Opportunities by County
Frequently Asked Questions
Understand the organizations, plans and processes behind regional transportation decisions.
What kinds of community and economic development projects can Central Pines help with?
What kinds of community and economic development projects can Central Pines help with?
Central Pines works with local governments and regional partners on needs ranging from economic-development strategy and community revitalization to brownfields, project administration and digital opportunity. If a project crosses several disciplines, Central Pines can also help identify the right combination of staff, partners and resources.
What is an Economic Development District?
What is an Economic Development District?
An Economic Development District is a federally recognized regional organization that coordinates economic-development planning and helps communities connect with U.S. Economic Development Administration programs. Central Pines is the designated EDD for the region and oversees its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
Can Central Pines help us develop an economic development strategy?
Can Central Pines help us develop an economic development strategy?
Yes. Support can include research and data, local and regional planning, project development and technical assistance. Central Pines can also help communities understand how local priorities relate to Strength in Numbers and potential federal economic-development resources.
How can Central Pines help with a brownfield property?
How can Central Pines help with a brownfield property?
Support can begin before cleanup. Central Pines can help communities identify and prioritize sites, understand assessment and redevelopment needs, pursue funding and coordinate a strategy with property owners and other partners. Eligible cleanup projects may also qualify for financing through the Piedmont Triangle Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund.
Is the Foreign Trade Zone only for large companies?
Is the Foreign Trade Zone only for large companies?
No. Businesses within the FTZ #93 service area may be eligible to participate. The greatest benefit generally depends on the volume, type and flow of a company’s imports and exports, so Central Pines can help businesses determine whether the program makes sense for their operations.
What is the difference between project administration and grant assistance?
What is the difference between project administration and grant assistance?
Grant Assistance focuses on identifying funding opportunities and strengthening applications. Grant & Project Administration provides capacity after funding is secured or a project is underway, including coordination, administration, reporting and implementation support.
Where can I find digital opportunity resources for my county?
Where can I find digital opportunity resources for my county?
Central Pines maintains regional digital-opportunity information along with county-based resources for its seven-county region. These materials help communities and residents connect with broadband, affordability, device and digital-skills resources.
Resources & Guides
Explore strategies, reports, toolkits and program resources related to economic development, community revitalization, brownfields, digital opportunity and local planning.
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Planning Together for a Secure Regional Water Supply
The Triangle Water Supply Partnership brings local governments and water systems together to plan for reliable, sustainable water supplies across a fast-growing region.
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Understanding Environmental Justice in the Triangle
Explore regional research that helps local governments understand where environmental burdens and community vulnerability overlap across the Central Pines region.
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Building a Regional Climate Action Plan
Central Pines is coordinating an eight-county climate-planning effort to identify practical strategies for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and supporting long-term regional action.
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Strengthening Homes and Property Along the Fayetteville Street Corridor
Explore home energy, solar, property legal and tax-relief resources supporting residents and property owners along Durham’s Fayetteville Street Corridor.
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Using Foreign Trade Zone #93 to Support Global Business
Learn how Foreign Trade Zone #93 can help qualifying businesses manage customs costs, streamline international trade and strengthen regional operations.
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Financing Brownfield Cleanup Across the Piedmont Triangle
Explore loans and subgrants that can help eligible communities, organizations and businesses overcome the cost of cleaning up brownfield properties.
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Turning Brownfield Sites Into Community Opportunities
Learn how Central Pines helps communities identify, assess and plan for brownfield properties so underused sites can move toward cleanup, reinvestment and productive reuse.
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Connecting Local Priorities to Regional Investment
Central Pines connects local governments with regional economic strategy, data, technical assistance and federal economic-development resources through its role as the region’s Economic Development District.
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Counts, Estimates and Projections — A Primer from NC’s State Demographer
Population counts, estimates, and projections each serve a different purpose. Karyl Fuller’s primer explains when local governments should use U.S. Census counts, North Carolina’s official population estimates, and the State Demographer’s projections.
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Growth & Planning in the Central Pines Region
This power point is an overview of the history of transportation planning in the Central Pines Region. See how the region has changed and grown over the last century and projections for future growth. This presentation was given at the 2024 Regional Day for newly elected officials. View Power Point…
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Planning for Resilience Across Chatham, Johnston, Lee and Moore Counties
A regional vulnerability assessment and project portfolio identify practical actions for reducing climate and natural-hazard risks across Chatham, Johnston, Lee and Moore counties.
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Planning for Last Mile Initiatives
There is not a “one size fits all” model for implementation of micromobility and microtransit initiatives. Each of our local government members have special needs and face complex challenges. However, micromobility and microtransit modes are rapidly expanding to help cover “the last mile” and provide an option to communities who…
Connect With Our Community & Economic Development Team
Not sure where your project fits? Start with our Community & Economic Development team. We can help determine whether your need involves economic development planning, brownfields, foreign trade, project administration, digital opportunity or another Central Pines service.
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Brendan Martini
Planner I
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Colin Fox
Community Development Coordinator
Related Services & Programs
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Environmental Protection
Regional planning, technical assistance and collaborative programs that help communities protect natural resources, improve water quality and prepare for changing environmental conditions.
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Emergency Management & Resilience
Planning, coordination and technical assistance that help local governments prepare for emergencies, reduce risk, strengthen resilience and recover from disasters.