Distance No Barrier For Students’ Partnership With Nevada City

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Nevada City, nestled on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada north of Sacramento, is about 450 miles from the University of Southern California campus.

But that didn’t even slow down the work between Nevada City city officials and the team of USC Price School of Public Policy students as part of the third Sunstone Economic Development Challenge @ USC Price. The challenge is a semester-long project culminating in a final report pitch contest that took place in April.

Commitment by the students and City Manager Sean Grayson and Assistant City Manager Lon Peterson, along with modern technology, more than made up for the distance.

“It really was no issue,” Peterson said. "They came here for a few days, and we toured them around. We had multiple meetings with Zoom technology. The team was very responsive.”

The four-person team was made up of Mandeep Ladhar, Rolby Seneus, Laura Walton and Zion Grant-Freeman.

City Manager Grayson worked in Southern California for a number of years, and was familiar with USC’s Public Policy school and the Challenge program. He said he wanted to see how the program would work for a small rural town a significant distance from campus.

The answer?

“It was great,” Grayson said. “We interfaced with them a number of times, and they really came through… Even if we can take a piece of their recommendation and make it work, it’s a win.”

Nevada City is an historic mining town now dependent mostly on tourism. There are slightly more than 3,000 residents, including a vibrant community of artists and musicians. But the heart of the city is the historic district, dating back to the 1850s. Nevada City is known as an arts community and is part of the Grass Valley-Nevada City Cultural District, a state-designated program that promotes the region's arts and cultural assets to drive tourism and economic development.

A large historic community center/entertainment venue in Nevada City called The Foundry was in the process of being taken over by the city while Team Nevada City was studying ways to spur economic development. It was natural that the focus would be on The Foundry, Grayson said.

“We have about 200 businesses,” he said. “We don’t have a stoplight; the speed limit is 25 mph all over town. We’re surrounded by state parks. When they started, we were kind of all over the map, but the focus narrowed down quickly.”

“We pivoted to the Foundry because of the situation with the city taking it over,” Peterson added. “They (Team Nevada City) integrated their plans with the Foundry.”

Efforts to activate the Foundry are prime examples of public-private partnerships (P3) on a small scale – the city provides the venue and marketing assistance; artists of all types serve the public and in turn improve the city economy. Grayson and Peterson are working through the students’ recommendations to decide which parts to implement.

“It was a good experience – very fruitful,” Grayson said. “I would recommend the program to any city.”

Cities interested in being part of the 2026 Sunstone Economic Development Challenge @ USC Price should fill out the Client City Intake Form. Contact Ryan Phong, the program advisor, at Ryan.Phong@SunstoneCities.com for any questions. For more information about Sunstone Cities’ services, go to https://sunstonecities.com/.

About Sunstone Cities

Sunstone Cities is an economic development consulting firm that helps local government leaders unlock economic development, new business formation, and job growth. We partner with municipalities to identify and capitalize on opportunities for revenue growth and investment, relying primarily on expertise in creating Public-Private Partnerships (P3).