Building Carlsbad Together: Different Roles, Shared Goals

By Jeff Campbell, Carlsbad Department of Development

As Carlsbad has continued its positive growth over the last two decades, there has been increasing activity for everyone involved. With more recruitment efforts being employed and new businesses coming to the community, everyone working at various agencies has seen new responsibilities.

Let’s explore the roles of two of the more prominent businesses in these efforts: the Carlsbad Department of Development (CDOD) and the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.

As Carlsbad has continued to grow, questions occasionally arise about the roles of the Carlsbad Department of Development and the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. While both organizations are committed to a strong and prosperous community, they serve different purposes and measure success in different ways.

The primary purpose of the CDOD is to attract new businesses, support business retention, and encourage entrepreneurship. We want to see job creation. Long-term economic growth is measured in job creation and retention, and also the creation and retention of wealth for people and businesses.

Further, economic development encapsulates capital investment, housing, workforce, infrastructure, and site development. This ultimately leads to tax enhancements and a better quality of life. The private sector is where the jobs are created, but CDOD’s role is to create the conditions that better enable businesses to compete and thrive. We fulfill this role by core activities of business recruitment, retention and expansion, and business creation and entrepreneurship.

The Chamber of Commerce’s primary role is to advocate for and support existing local businesses. Its focus is on fostering a positive business climate, building networks, and helping businesses of all sizes succeed.

Chambers often act as a unified voice for local business owners, promoting fair regulations, and organizing networking and educational events to benefit their members and the community.

Ground Breakings and Ribbon Cuttings: Bringing Business to Life

Recently, the CDOD has put together three different groundbreaking events for three different businesses. We held one for the new River View Apartments, one for Carlsbad’s first Discount Tire, and one for a local business consolidating its media headquarters at the Cascades.

Those three events covered the residential, retail, and entrepreneurial industries. All of the boxes are checked: new business, job creation, business retention, entrepreneurialship, and better quality of life. When the CDOD has a groundbreaking, it represents the work we have put into achieving our organization’s goal for our community.

Congruently, the Chamber of Commerce has held several ribbon-cuttings recently for businesses in Carlsbad: a local retail clothing store, a community recreation and wellness center, and a new airline company providing service to Carlsbad.

All of these businesses have opened their doors to the public, and the Chamber of Commerce helps to support their continued growth. In addition, the Chamber checks off its remaining box by inviting the community to events such as the recently renamed Carlsbad Hall of Fame and the recent Hawgfest, where several local businesses set up booths.

At its simplest, we all want to see our city grow and thrive. The CDOD focuses on creating conditions that encourage investment and long-term economic growth, while the Chamber focuses on supporting and promoting businesses operating within the community. Both organizations contribute to a stronger local economy through distinct yet complementary missions.

While the Carlsbad Department of Development and the Chamber of Commerce measure success in different ways, their goals are deeply connected. The CDOD drives economic growth through investment, job creation, workforce development, business expansion, and community development projects. The Chamber strengthens the business climate through member engagement, business promotion, advocacy, and community events.

Together, these efforts create a cycle of growth—where economic development generates opportunity, and Chamber engagement helps businesses and the community thrive. When both organizations succeed, Carlsbad succeeds.

Working Together to Build Our Community

While the roles seem distinctly defined for both the CDOD and the Chamber of Commerce, there are times and projects that call for a unified approach. Both organizations want to see long-term success for Carlsbad. And as such, both organizations often collaborate to amplify their impact in attracting investment, building talent pipelines, and driving community growth.

A recent example involved a proposed policy change facing one of the community’s largest employers, Solado Isolation Mining Contractors, LLC (SIMCO), the company that manages the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The proposed change would be harmful not only to employees at the site, which is approximately 1,300, but could also impact the overall mission of the WIPP project to dispose of transuranic (TRU) waste.

WIPP handles materials contaminated with radioactive isotopes that have atomic numbers greater than uranium. This includes items such as clothing, tools, and other debris from nuclear defense activities. The change would limit the number of shipments WIPP would dispose of, making sites across the nation uncleaned. And the number of people employed would likely drop as well, harming people who rely on their jobs to support themselves and their families.

The CDOD and Chamber of Commerce got together and organized members of both organizations to attend and speak out against this proposed change in order to keep the safe mission of WIPP intact. By working together, organizing scientific talking points, and having a multitude of people attend the meeting in person and online, the voice of our community was loud and clear that we not only support the WIPP mission but stand behind all of our family members and friends who work at the site on a daily basis.

Our two organizations also come together each year to visit with elected officials at the city, county, state, and national levels. By working together with members of both the CDOD and the Chamber, the voice becomes louder and more impactful as a unified front. At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our community. We get there by working on our defined roles with varying techniques and strategies, and by being a collective voice when needed to be heard.

CDOD occasionally hosts networking and informational events, but their primary purpose differs from traditional business networking. These gatherings are designed to connect employers, developers, educators, elected officials, and community stakeholders to exchange ideas, discuss opportunities and challenges, and foster collaboration that supports long-term economic prosperity.

Although valuable relationships are formed, the focus remains on advancing community and economic development goals rather than promoting individual businesses.

While CDOD collaborates with businesses of all sizes, its primary role is not focused on marketing individual companies, generating sales, or promoting specific businesses. Rather, CDOD works to strengthen the broader economic ecosystem by attracting investment, supporting workforce development, improving infrastructure, and creating conditions that enable businesses across the community to succeed and grow.

Further, CDOD advocates in policy at the local, state, and federal levels to create the right policy environment for overall business attraction and retention.

Working together, CDOD and the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce facilitate growth for individuals and businesses, which, in turn, enables our overall market and community to expand to new heights.