Planning for development needs to balance and address the needs that exist locally. For example, low-income residents require opportunities that match their skills and available resources to generate household income. At the same time, the opportunities being created may, in fact, impinge on some other aspect of the community deemed beneficial. Planning attempts to balance these values and the choices made in advance of change. Wealth generation provides a defining characteristic of community economic development.
Wealth encompasses all things that individuals and communities value.
This often includes jobs and income creation, conservation of natural resources, and maintenance of a community s cultural heritage. Often times, wealth generation is associated with economic growth. Wealth generation, in the broadest context, is far more focused on development. Development begins with strategies that address needs of local residents and attempt to deal with change in a different fashion. In the broadest context, community economic development planning is a process of helping communities analyze their problems while exercising as large a measure of autonomy as is possible and feasible.