Upstate Together
Upstate South Carolina is a 10-county region with 1.3 million people, rich in economic opportunities, community assets and history. The Upstate is home to 27 colleges and universities, including a major public research university and a number of advanced manufacturing companies and other leading innovative firms.
Since 1970, the Upstate’s population has grown by over 60% from 800,000 to 1.3 million. The Upstate is expected to reach a population of 1.6 million within the next 20 to 25 years.
The Upstate is in the center of the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion. Within about 200 miles of the Upstate, there are over 23 million people, 16 major research universities and 2 national labs.
Despite this history and projection of dynamic growth, the Upstate does not yet have a way for cities and counties to coordinate and plan for our growth. Until recently, the Upstate had not begun a process of regional thinking, planning or cooperation. The Upstate Alliance—our regional economic development marketing organization—was organized in 2001 to promote the region. All 10 counties, as well as five cities, are members and support the organization financially. Seventy percent of the organization’s funding is provided by the private sector. This initiative provides a strong grounding for further comprehensive regional integration.
There are three main drivers of economic development and prosperity today: a strong, progressive business environment, innovation and a high quality of life. The Upstate enjoys the strengths of each of these, but in order to build on these strengths, it is imperative that we as a region begin to think, plan, and act in a coordinated manner. If we don’t, we could easily be threatened by uncontrolled and uncoordinated growth.
Specifically, the objectives of the Upstate Together initiative include:
- Unifying and integrating the 10-county region—based on our core values and our regional vision—by building a strong understanding of our regional connectivity and our common destiny.
- Building a sustainable platform for effectively addressing issues and opportunities on a regional basis.
- Successfully addressing some initial regional issues.
Upstate Together has engaged Fregonese Associates to guide and assist us in this process. The firm has successfully assisted a number of leading regions in this approach, including Salt Lake City Region, Central Texas, and South Louisiana.
Working together, our region can discover our unifying regional vision and establish an effective regional planning organization and momentum.