The "Contact Us" button in the Left Column will now process your feedback with an Economic Development Board Identification.
The
purpose of the Economic Development Board is to assist
the City Commission in its efforts to support existing
business and industry and to attract new business and
industry into the City of Oak Hill, so long as the
business and industry will promote a good image of the
City of Oak Hill. It is intent of the City Commission in
establishing the Economic Development Board that the
Economic Development Board shall act in an advisory
capacity to the City Commission.
Oak
Hill has traditionally prospered from a thriving
commercial and sport fishing industry because of its
strategic geographical location in the northwestern
corner of Mosquito Lagoon of the Indian River Lagoon. It
has over three miles of waterfront running parallel to
the Intercoastal Waterway. Today, these waters are still
known as some of the most productive waters in the state
and are rated Class II. Some people declare Oak Hill as
Home of the Gator Trout. Today, however, only
recreational fisherman are enjoying the bounty because
of the statewide net ban, adopted by Constitutional
Amendment in 1994, which dealt a severe economic blow to
Oak Hill's commercial fisheries-based economy and to the
economy of Oak Hill.
Since
the net ban, four important programs were successfully
implemented by the Economic Development Board (EDB).
Efforts of the EDB with a lot of help from the County
and State resulted in the development and aquacultural
clam-raising project in cooperation with the NOAA. This,
in part, led to the City of Oak Hill being named
Florida's Outstanding Rural Community of the Year in
1995.
Secondly,
Oak Hill applied to the State of Florida and was
successful in Oak Hill being declared an Enterprise Zone
in 1997. This required a great deal of work just to
prepare the application. Only Oak Hill and a small area
of Daytona Beach on Mason Avenue have been so designated
in Volusia County. Oak Hill has had to develop an
Enterprise Zone Development Agency (EZDA) which operated
in cooperation with, but independent of, the City.
Therefore the EZDA operates in the same way with the EDB.
The
City also applied to the state to be a designated a
Waterfront Florida Community. This state program was
started in 1997 and only three Florida Communities of
those that applied would be accepted every two years.
Oak Hill came in 4th in 1997, applied again in 1999 and
was accepted. This program also required a relatively
large committee and was severed from EDB.
The
4th project the EDB worked on was the creation of three
Industrial Parks. Each of these parks in now occupied
but there is more space in each of them. You can get in
touch with the EDB by contacting City Hall at (386)
345-3522.
