The Greensboro City Council is holding a special in-person meeting on at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in order to award an economic incentive to an unnamed (Boom Supersonic) entity.

This will be the second huge economic development announcement for the area in two months.  The official announcement that Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina was coming to the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite was at the beginning of December.

And there is at least one more major economic development announcement coming in the near future that Amazon is building a 2-million-square-foot fulfillment center at 238 Ritters Lake Road between Randleman Road and South Elm-Eugene Street.  The new Amazon fulfillment center, which has not yet been officially announced, although it has been unofficially talked about, will employ an estimated 2,000 people.

The City Council meeting on Jan. 26 is interesting not simply because of the major economic development announcement that will bring at least 1,750 jobs to Piedmont Triad International Airport, but also because it is the first in-person meeting of the City Council since April 2020.

The City Council met virtually from April 2020 through March 2021 and then went to hybrid meetings where most of the City Council and city staff were in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber, but councilmembers, city staff and the public had the option of participating in the meeting virtually.  In November, Mayor Nancy Vaughan chaired a meeting virtually for the first time.  The other eight members of the City Council were at the dais, but Vaughan was not.

In August 2021, the City Council took a step back to virtual meetings because of the increase in COVID-19 cases, but in November returned to “hybrid” meetings in the council chamber.

The last meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 18 was held virtually but not because of COVID-19; the reason was snow and ice.

However, on Jan. 26, City Clerk Angela Lord stated in an email, “This will be an in-person only meeting.”