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The region’s last comprehensive economic plan, drawn up in 2010 by the old Regional Chamber and Growth Association, was largely shelved when that group fell into leadership turmoil.

The results aren’t good. Metro ӣ����Ƶ’ gross domestic product grew 5.2% between 2010 and 2018, just one-fourth as fast as the national economy.

Now the new ., formed by merging the Regional Chamber with four other civic organizations, has remedied the failure to plan. It is circulating a draft of the STL 2030 Jobs Plan, an ambitious 10-year effort to create jobs, rejuvenate ӣ����Ƶ’ urban core and promote entrepreneurship.

The group is soliciting public comments at online forums on Dec. 7, Jan. 7 and Jan. 12, but planners have already talked to more than 100 area residents.

The plan begins by recounting ӣ����Ƶ’ many challenges, including political fragmentation, racial division and slow population growth. That combination of factors, it says, has created “a culture of scarcity where growth is perceived as a zero-sum game that rewards only a few places at the expense of others.”

That’s an unusually downbeat introduction for a business-funded plan, but Bruce Katz of New Localism Associates, the plan’s lead author, said that’s where interviews with ӣ����Ƶans led him.

“They feel like the fractured nature of the metro area means that the city and region has not performed as well as it should have, and clearly there’s unanimity that too many people have been left behind,” he said. “Usually these plans do start with the opportunity set first, but the challenges were so well presented, I thought it was more honest to start with that.”

The dramatic economic swings caused by COVID-19 complicated efforts to set numerical goals, but Katz believes planning becomes even more important in turbulent times.

“The economy is being so completely scrambled by this pandemic,” he said. “Cities like ӣ����Ƶ that can harness their energies and make investments can leapfrog on some critical indicators.”

Like the Regional Chamber plans of the early 2000s, the new document lists industry clusters where ӣ����Ƶ has a competitive advantage: advanced business services, biomedical and health, advanced production, aerospace and auto manufacturing and transportation and logistics.

The plan recommends bold initiatives, such as launching an advanced manufacturing innovation center and a national center for location sciences, to make those sectors even stronger.

To address the region’s challenges, though, the plan makes inclusive growth its “north star.” The message is that growth won’t solve the region’s problems unless it benefits all parts of the community.

To that end, the planners envision asking corporations, universities, local governments and other institutions to take a “STL pledge.” They would commit to hire local residents, invest in the central city and buy from local suppliers, including minority-owned businesses.

Creating a support network for minority entrepreneurs is another goal of the plan. placed ӣ����Ƶ last among 50 large metro areas for the size and longevity of its Black-owned businesses, and that should be unacceptable for a region with so much economic muscle.

Many other things about ӣ����Ƶ’ recent performance should be unacceptable, too, but that’s what happens when you fail to plan.

As Valerie Patton, Greater ӣ����Ƶ’ head of diversity, equity and inclusion, puts it: “Not having a strategy is leading to continued segregation, fragmentation and chaos … but a well thought out plan is a road map to success.”

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