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Home My WebLink AboutEDAC Meeting Minutes - Downtown Subcommittee - 01-20-11Economic Development Advisory Committee Downtown Subcommittee Minutes January 20, 2011 `HNk °�� DRAFT Present: Terry Gutowski, Mary Viereck, Sandi Fleck, Adam Blahnik, Deno Howard, Frank Boyles. The Committee agreed to devote this meeting to reviewing each objective and prioritizing as (A) actionable, (N) non - actionable, (1) informational and (NA) not applicable. CODE ENFORCEMENT: 5 of the 44 businesses interviewed stated that code enforcement was an issue and offered the following comments: N "None of my business expressed concerns regarding this issue." A "Get rid of eye sore houses downtown (2 people)" A "Farmer's Market- need to enforce clean up (dog and garbage on downtown streets)." A "Develop south side of Main." • "Be helpful to business owners; open for the business to call on them when concerns." N "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." I "Reactive rather than proactive enforcement -1 out of 8." • "Equal enforcement of regulations — different businesses treated differently." • `Be consistent/fair in ordinances 3 people)" I "Trying to attract new businesses- setbacks and sewer costs driving new businesses away." POLICE ENFORCEMENT: 8 of the 44 interviewed businesses had police enforcement concerns and offered the following comments: • "1 of my businesses interviewed is a bar, and expressed concerns regarding the 2:00 a.m. parking ban. Since the bars are open until 2:00 a.m., the ban should be pushed back an hour or so." • `Bars next door, bottles/bodily functions on doorstep of business." • `Be helpful to business owners; open for the business to call on them when concerns." • "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." • "There is a bar across the street from her business and people stand outside and smoke and use bad language- tends to scare away some of her customers." I "Need to enforce ordinances equally!" N "Police enforcement was not an issue with these businesses." A "Parking restrictions not applied equally." L: \1l FILFS \l l EDAC\Minutes\minutes - Downtown Subcommifte - 0120 11.doc COMMUNICATION / EDUCATION: 19 of the 44 businesses interviewed stated that taxes were too high and offered the following comments: I "Only 1 business owner expressed that the taxes have increased substantially during the 12 ears that he had been in business in Prior Lake." I "6 were renters, 4 owners —0 of 10 didn't say anything about property taxes" A "Communicating and educating on how and why certain commercial properties (businesses) have different taxes when they exist in the same zone (Deerfield) and have essentially the same square footage." A "2 own, 4 lease. All said taxes were high! 3 out of 4 who lease would buy property here, but said taxes are too high. One said if they expand, it would be more affordable elsewhere. `Outrageous' was one comment" A "Lease - Reduce taxes to help bottom line." I "Lease - Lower taxes during economic downturn." I "Own— Lower taxes to help bottom line." I "3/3 interviewed who owned building. 0/3 interviewed who leased space!" I "All 3 owners said high taxes. All 3 renters — didn't know of taxes and didn't care!" I "Taxes were the predominant issue with one businesses stating that a business could just go `Down the Hill To Shakopee' and pay far less taxes." PERCEPTION OF CITY 19 of the 44 businesses expressed concerns regarding "the city trying to say no" and offered the following comments: A "2 of the businesses that I interviewed expressed concerns regarding this. 1 business owner stated that the planning committee may be overly protective of the lake, city inspectors are too strict, which can act as a roadblock. Another business owner stated that Prior Lake was very friendly to businesses when he first started business over 30 years ago, but that changed to almost `anti- business'." A "The City needs to promote more diverse businesses in town and look at a broader perspective: promote Arts Department, Theater and other businesses." A "Market City of Prior Lake & businesses." N "Provide more community support." I "City makes it hard to expand because of restrictions." NA "No Information Available." NA "No Contacts." A "Want to have more outside activities per year now there is a limit on the number of outside events that a place can have. Outside events are popular, especially in the summer, because people can smoke outside." I "Neither business felt the City was business friendly and both felt it went out of it's way to say no to business requests." A "Partnership with business. PROMOTE. If services are dropped, people will leave." I "A lot of committees and NO action." A "All, with the exception of one downtown business, had a negative impression of how the city was handling business priorities and future development issues. They also felt that they were often an afterthought in the list of things to do or people to look out after, improving city interests first and business interests second. Kind of a double standard so to speak (p araphrasin g)." L: \11 FILES \11 EDAC\Minutes\rninutes - Downtown Subcommittee - 0120 11.doc SIGNS 23 of the 44 businesses stated that signage is an issue and offered the following comments: I "2 of the business owners interviewed expressed concerns about poor signage. However, both of these business owners rented, and some of their angst was directed at the owner of the building for not providing for adequate signage." A `Be fair across the board- be consistent for all businesses." A "Need larger signs to attract business downtown." I "Let businesses be able to promote themselves in a realistic manner with signage." A "Signs and sandwich boards are needed downtown." A "Why some signs are ok and others aren't and how specific locations of signs for buildings with multiple businesses located within them can be addressed." A "Unanimous - need BIG sign to designate "Downtown" - where is it ? ? ? ?" A "Allow options. Needs to be friendly to businesses -or businesses will go elsewhere. I "Consumers will go elsewhere if signage poor." A "Concerned with the size of sign (what was being used was smaller than preferred) and the location that it could be put. This particular business resided in a multi -use building with other businesses and wasn't visible from the Co Rd. Wanted a bigger sign in abetter location." DOWNTOWN PARKING: 19 of the 44 businesses interviewed stated that downtown parking was an issue and offered the following comments: A "Of the 5 business interviewed, 1 business was south of County Rd 21 and the other 4 north of 21. 3 of the businesses interviewed are located in the Edelweiss Bakery building and all 3 of these business expressed that parking was a major issue, and the biggest problem for their business in downtown Prior Lake. The other business is located on the north end of downtown, and no concerns were expressed regarding parking." A "Parking lot/ramp would be nice." A "Downtown activities take up customer parking (Farmer's market, Downtown Dazzle, Car Shows." I "5 out of 6 said horrendous." A "Must have parking to attract new business. All day parking (office) in prime downtown areas make it difficult for people to stop and shop." I "City requires too many parking spaces to allow expansion." A "Downtown needs more parking area" A "Install parking meters to limit parking time." A "Need to have handicapped parking sign by VFW." A "Downtown parking is terrible and we need to address it with a big parking lot!" A "Parking was noted but not at the top of the list for my businesses though one complained about the famers market and how it took away from their parking." I "Shared parking with the multi - business tenant but really didn't have any issues with parking." L: \1l FILFS \l l EDAC\Minutes\minutes - Downtown Subcommifte - 0120 11.doc DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT: A "Some businesses not appropriate for downtown; more retail needed." I "City should support the Chamber of Commerce." A "Not thrilled about bridge or round -a -bout -- -keep the downtown as one." NA "What has changed in the last decade as far as working with the businesses ?" A "Keeping south and north main street together- don't cut it apart." A "Getting more businesses in downtown area" A "Need to focus on the south end of downtown!" A "Grants to downtown businesses for expansion or growth." The Committee agreed to have the Scott County Assessor, Mike Thompson, attend an upcoming meeting with the EDAC and businesses for educational purposes. The Committee agreed to work on the following items: Short term: 1. Taxes — educational efforts in newsletter, Cable TV, Website, meeting(s) with Scott County Assessor. 2. Signs — provide information about new options under the ordinance. Long term: 1. Code Enforcement— consistency. 2. Police enforcement. 3. Parking in downtown. Ongoing: 1. Perception of City. The meeting adjourned at 8:38 am. L: \1l FILFS \l l EDAC\Minutes\minutes - Downtown Subcommifte - 0120 11.doc