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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-28-19 MINUTES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Regular Meeting February 28, 2019 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair Jolley at 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Simmons, Wilson, Bernhj elm, Butterfield, Cordes, Craig, Jolley Members Absent: None Also Present: Adam Kienberger, Community Development Director 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. ROLL CALL 4. APPROVE AGENDA MOTION by Craig, second by Cordes to approve the Agenda. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 5. CITIZEN COMMENTS/PRESENTATIONS 6. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by Craig, second by Wilson to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Meeting Minutes (January 24, 2019, Regular Meeting) b) Received Monthly Financial Statements APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS 8. DISCUSSION ITEMS a) Annual Organizational Items This item includes approving the EDA by-laws, the meeting schedule, acknowledgement of the official newspaper, and election of officers. MOTION by Craig, second by Bernhj elm to nominate Hannah Simmons as chair. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by Butterfield, second by Bernhjelm to nominate Steve Wilson as Vice-Chair. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by Wilson, second by Bernhjelm to approve the EDA by-laws, the meeting schedule and acknowledging the Dakota County Tribune as the official newspaper. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. b) Open Meeting Law The EDA was provided with information on the open meeting law. c) 2019-2021 Strategic Plan for Economic Development Priorities and Work Plan The EDA Strategic Plan contains five outcomes: - Expand and diversify the tax base - Encourage development that brings additional goods and services to Farmington - Promote the economic and physical health of older sections of Farmington EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 2 - Effectively communicate information about the EDA within city government, to the community and to people and businesses outside of Farmington - Conduct the business of the EDA to maximize its effectiveness Staff asked the EDA to prioritize these items. Member Simmons thanked staff and the consultant for their time on this. It is a very actionable document. Member Bernhj elm felt the two that align the most with what the city council is working on this year are the communication piece and the economic and physical health of older sections of Farmington. The city council has already started the communication piece and there has been discussion about joint EDA and council meetings or EDA, council and planning commission. To get those booked the first six months of this year would be helpful. The Highway 3 Corridor Plan is already in progress and it would be nice to put some focus on that. It aligns with discussions the council has had about downtown Farmington and enhancing the space by the Rambling River Center. Those two pieces align the most with council and are reasonable action steps we can take within the next year. The rest is ongoing work and things that we can set strategic goals around. Member Wilson recommended starting at the top and walk through each one to see if there are any comments. He asked if staff will keep the status column updated and include it in every meeting packet. Staff stated this document is to have a more efficient tool to communicate the status of the items. The plan itself will always be included in the packet and this list of objectives will serve as a working document to provide updates. Member Craig agreed with that idea so it isn't out of sight, out of mind. It is good to keep it in front of us and will keep us on task. Member Butterfield stated the couple items that are further along such as the Highway 3 corridor, has gone through some public comments and the Rambling River Center Plaza is a step or two ahead of that. Those are the most concrete things going on to spur economic development. He felt those would be the focus of this group. Member Craig mentioned the one item we are dealing with for the plaza is funding. The council is trying to come up with creative solutions. It would be a real benefit to downtown on so many levels, but the funding is an issue. Member Butterfield asked if it was identified in any of these items where the EDA could identify funding mechanisms or do community outreach. Member Bernhj elm noted it is not included in this list yet, because there are still high level discussions taking place. One of the things council discussed was this group taking an active role in meeting with our larger business partners in the community about do they have growth plans in this area, what are their struggles, do they need the support of the EDA or the city council. A lot of those conversations could lead into partnering with them on some of these projects whether it's from sponsorships or community outreach. That could be an action item that falls into the communication bucket. We need to identify who some of those big businesses are and get some face time with them for some meaningful discussions. It has been some time since the city has done business outreach. It has fallen on the Farmington Business Association or the chamber. EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 3 Member Jolley suggested taking one section at a time over the next few meetings and comment on it rather than the entire document overall. We should keep our eye on the goal which is to address these issues we deemed as important. Each time we take an action on an agenda item, we should think about where it fits in these objectives. Member Simmons clarified we still want the entire plan in the agenda at every meeting. Member Wilson had comments with a third of the items, so he was fine addressing them by item. Member Simmons started with the first item, expand and diversify the tax base. Member Wilson spoke regarding creating strong relationships and lines of communication with local businesses to identify opportunities for the EDA to enhance success and encourage expansion. A business assessment has a shelf life of about three years. Member Simmons noted we have not done a needs assessment in the past. We find out after they left that they were having problems. She would like to see examples of how other cities have surveyed their businesses. Member Butterfied stated coming in with a new strategic plan and identifying objects, starting early with getting feedback directly from the businesses seems like we would want that information to determine how we steer the rest of the plan. That should be done early. Staff stated the closest thing we have done was a community survey, but questions were not specific to this topic. Member Bernhjelm was not in favor of a survey and getting responses. It does not go indepth enough to get the answers we want. She would rather set up meetings and ask the same questions of each person we meet with. It builds the relationship versus just asking them to fill something out. You could dive into their answers more while sitting there with them. The city stopped doing surveys two years ago because it was costing a lot of money and the survey results don't tell a different story every two years. Member Butterfield stated however we do this, getting information from the businesses is critical. Member Bernhjelm noted this will not happen overnight. She would like to put a plan in place with a target list of who we would like to speak to, break it up amongst the EDA members to have those meetings, but work together to decide what those conversations should look like and what questions we want answered. Member Craig recalled members wanted to do something more action oriented where we feel we are making a difference. This would be a good way to do that. Member Simmons suggested this be an agenda item at the next meeting. She would like to know how other communities are doing this. We need quantitative data that comes from a survey because we want small businesses who are not going to take the time to meet, to feel as valued as our big businesses. We should spend the time people wise to go into the big businesses we can get dollars from. Member Bernhjelm asked in terms of the promotional materials, is that something staff could circulate to the EDA. Staff noted we have the website as a platform for our programs. We have moved away from doing any type of print piece. The item to review and update promotional items refers to the website and looking at other tactics to disburse information. The business retention and expansion EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 4 (BR&E) is what we have referred to as the business visits. Staff can pull together materials that other communities are doing, and has ideas that could be unique to us through the website and promotional materials. Member Simmons moved on to the second objective, encourage development that brings additional goods and services to Farmington. Member Jolley noted we have a good deal of interest in Vermillion River Crossings. What we don't have is any activity going on there. She felt it would be good to communicate to the public that these things are in the works and they will happen. It would be good in some venue to periodically assure residents it is going to happen. Member Bernhj elm noted council has talked about having talking points so that whether it is commissions or council or staff and we are getting asked those questions, that we all say the same thing. We can control the message better. The city administrator was going to work on this. Member Craig agreed we do need to do a better job of communicating and controlling the message. Member Jolley was not saying it needed to be an EDA function, but it needs to be a message that we promote. Member Simmons was glad to see the message in the city news guide about Hy-Vee, Aldi and Taco Bell. Even if we do that every time, it will help. Member Jolley asked what is happening with the downtown redevelopment plan and the plaza space. Member Craig said council is trying to figure out financing. Staff stated there are no plans for any physical construction to take place this year. Member Simmons asked, and members agreed, to add the Rambling River Center Plaza to the action list. Member Bernhj elm noted there are two big projects the council has been tossing around; whether it is the plaza or the ice arena. There have been proposals to do major upgrades in either of those. There isn't funding for both of the projects or even one project. The council broke down the plaza, for example and said can we take phase one and fund it with three sources. Whether it is internal funding, through EDA contributions or city contributions, or do we actively seek sponsorship of certain areas and the third bucket was grant money. Nothing has taken off yet and is still in the planning process phase. Part of it is we would have to increase the tax levy to get something like that done. No one wants to do that when there are other projects that need to be funded. Member Jolley found it frustrating that we are involved in things and raise the hope of the community and invite them in to give their opinions and then it gets put on the shelf because we didn't figure out the funding when we first decided we were going to do this. This is one of many things that is great to talk about, but we don't have the money. Maybe this shouldn't be on our docket. Let's don't start things we can't finish. It is frustrating to the community. It's too much talk and not enough action. Before we talked about that plaza we should have had a six to seven year plan. Member Simmons agreed with her comments. She wants to see the plaza on the action list, because anything she voted to fund, she wants an update on. In this case, she has not heard anything about the ice arena outside of the council meetings, whereas we did have an open house for the plaza; a very public interaction. Member Craig stated the council has talked about having more joint meetings with the commissions to give some clarity on issues. EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 5 Member Wilson stated having served on the council, there is a difference with strategic planning and public/private activities that go on in a government setting versus a company. He doesn't think that because we haven't started something, it's a lost cause. The downtown committee he was part of a few years ago, even though there isn't funding, there is value when investors are asking about plans for the area. He agreed that having it on the list as something we have taken a strong financial interest in is worth having it out there. Member Cordes noted the next two items talk about highway 3 and he agreed that should be one of our top priorities this year. Member Craig said once a plan is laid out, it will take 10 to 15 years because it will take re-zoning, code changes, etc. and that will take time. This plan is laying a foundation for the future of what we want highway 3 to look like. It will not change now. Member Jolley understood a work plan needs to be in place before the project can be done, but she would like to see some benchmarks being made; some progress from year to year. We need to be careful we don't plan more than we can accomplish. We know our funding and how we are going to spend it. One example is the downtown facades. We had the money, it was doable and we see results. With some of these projects we have not looked far enough down the line. As far as the plaza, we can't afford it so why tease the public that we can do this. Member Simmons asked if anyone would like to see anything deleted from the rest of the actions. There were no deletions. She asked if anyone would like to see any additions. She would like to see updates on the Rambling River Center Plaza added and she would like to see a tactic and future discussions on expanding the facade grant program to include not only downtown, but highway 3 businesses and she would also like to see an action added around tactics to increase utilization of the CDBG program. These items most closely tie to promoting the economic and physical health of older sections of Farmington. The Rambling River Plaza could fall under encourage development. Staff noted regarding the façade program, right now the program guidelines are specific to the downtown as a strategic initiative from the downtown redevelopment plan. Member Simmons noted these are items to be discussed at future meetings. Member Simmons asked if there are any edits to the remaining objectives on the list. Member Wilson stated under communications, he does not see the value of having the Director's Report as a public newsletter. Staff noted this came out of the desire to communicate more of the work of this body to the public. The agenda packets are internally focused. Right now, in the quarterly city news guide we have a section on community development. So the question is whether the Director's Report has value as a monthly communication tool that can be viewed publicly. Member Bernhj elm felt the more places you can post something the better. So whether it is in the agenda, the website or the news guide, the goal is to hit the same message to as many people as possible. Member Simmons suggested using it to communicate what we are doing. We can have this as an agenda item to discuss it further. Member Simmons asked staff if the EDA should select two items to discuss at the next meeting or take some time to digest the comments. Staff suggested EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 6 concluding this topic and we can prepare the minutes and get a better understanding of the main points. We can set the March agenda from that. 9. DIRECTOR'S REPORT a) February Director's Report A ribbon cutting was held at River's Edge Dental in January. Highway 3 Corridor Plan - We had our consultant team at the Community Expo to solicit comments. Many people provided feedback. The consultant is working on putting this into buckets the public sees. We are working on when we will have the next joint meeting of the EDA, city council and planning commission. Member Butterfield stated when he was first thinking of joining the EDA was when the downtown redevelopment plan was at the Expo. The consultants were there to show a vision of what the plan is. It is disheartening that it was three years ago that it was receiving public comments and a big report of doing things and hearing the discussion today of what that is and now we are on to a new plan and the plaza is at the same point. So three years from now, what will be the new plan? He asked what is the next step of the Highway 3 Corridor Plan, when it meets the public, and at what point in the public eye is the position with the downtown redevelopment plan and all the other competing financing forces the city has to deal with. Staff explained the outcomes from these plans don't necessarily have dollar signs attached to them. So let's identify what those are and implement some of those we are continuing to deal with whether it is the downtown plan or the marketing plan. We are starting to see some things come out of the draft stages of the highway 3 plan that are more actionable whether it is the city code rezoning, land use, internal things that don't cost anything. The next step is identifying things that do have dollars associated with them. Riste lot update—This lot is owned by the EDA and is located behind the Exchange Bank building. We have been approached by a church that would like to purchase that building and the Riste lot. A requirement is to have an appraisal done,to determine the fair market value. We have a letter of intent from the church for an offer of$20,000, which triggered us to have it re-appraised. The fair market value is now $34,000. Staff has been communicating with the church because with their offer, the EDA would lose money. A revised letter of intent has been received from them for$25,000. The city attorney is recommending that staff continue to negotiate an offer the EDA would accept and work through a contract for private development versus accepting a letter of intent. Staff suggested not accepting the $25,000 offer. With the fair market value of$34,000 and the EDA's repayment obligations to the block grant program of 76.9%, the breakeven point is $26,146. There would also be closing costs, etc. Staff asked if the EDA is comfortable with breaking even with all our costs in, or making money, or subsidizing an end user, but the EDA would have to tap our general fund dollars to pay back into the block grant program. Member Butterfield asked what their end use is and would they be applying for other city grants to do that so the city would be hit twice. Staff replied potentially yes. Because we don't have anything formal from them, other than an offer, we have to consider any other mechanisms that tie any sale of that property to them from the EDA to their acquisition of the Exchange Bank building requiring them to combine the lots. EDA Minutes(Regular) February 28,2019 Page 7 Their proposal was to use it as an outdoor gathering space rather than building on the lot. Staff asked if the EDA is comfortable going back to them asking for more. Members agreed at the very least we need to break even or even more if they are using another grant and they are not using the lot to drive the tax base up. We would take a loss on all three levels. If they were to apply to the EDA to make improvements to the Exchange Bank building after they close on the lot, that is good to preserve a historical building,but does that tie into or influence a decision by the EDA to sell a piece of real estate that is attached to that. Member Jolley stated the building transaction needs to be resolved, then we move on to the Riste lot. If they want to apply for grant money, we cannot get the cart before the horse. We could potentially end up selling that lot, the sale of the building will fall through and the lot will sit there like it is. Member Bernhj elm agreed we want that building to be sold and get some traffic downtown as long as we break even and have a contingency they are getting the building with the lot. Members agreed. Staff provided miscellaneous articles. A CDA foreclosure report was provided and the quarterly Open to Business report was provided. The finance director will attend the March EDA meeting to provide a financial update. Member Bernhjelm asked that the finance director talk about what the council has been reviewing with having a five-year plan. It would be valuable for the EDA to see how areas are underfunded over the next five years to get a bigger story. 9. ADJOURN MOTION by Cordes, second by Wilson to adjourn at 7:54 p.m. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, C�wtl��a Muller Cynthia Muller Administrative Assistant