ABSTRACT
All spatially based economic development, whether it’s local, urban or regional, is based on a long US set of public policies that started with the earliest Colonial experience when toll roads, canals, and bridges were built by locals in response to the need to move local goods to market. The fledgling Republic when it was only 13 colonies entered almost immediately on policies designed to develop each colony and each town maximizes its economic form. The early American Republic embarked on policies and programs to assist local areas shape markets. Local towns formed a variety of organizations from farmers unions to merchants clubs to promote their communities or crops. Finally, the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the building of the railroads in epitomize national policy promoting local economic development as the nation moved from Colony to nation. This same pattern was followed with national policy reinforcing local development with the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 as well as later projects through the Depression and post-World War II eras.
