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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07 15 2013 EDA Minutes 4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes July 15, 2013 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice President Choudek called the meeting to order at 4:06 p.m. Present were Kenney, Choudek and Chromy; Hedberg arrived at 4:22 p.m. Also present was Executive Director Boyles, Community & Economic Develop- ment Director Rogness, Treasurer Erickson, Community Development Specialist McCabe, Bill Henry and Lloyd Erbaugh. 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION BY KEENEY, SECONDED BY CHROMY TO APPROVE THE AGENDA WITH THE ADDITION OF A DISCUSSION ON THE EDA VACANCY UNDER OTHER BUSINESS. VOTE: Ayes by Choudek, Keeney and Chromy. The motion carried. 3. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES MOTION BY CHROMY, SECONDED BY KEENEY TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF JUNE 17, 2013. Ayes by Choudek, Kenney and Chromy. The motion carried. 4. CONSENT AGENDA No consent items were listed. 5. REMOVED CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS No items were removed. 6. PUBLIC HEARING A. Revised Business Subsidies Policy. Choudek: opened the public hearing. She summarized that the hearing was to hear public comment on proposed changes to the city’s existing Business Subsidies Policy in order to make in conform to minimum state statute requirements. McCabe: summarized the changes being proposed by city staff, which had been previously discussed by the EDA in June; changes would align the policy with minimum state requirements for reporting require- ments, among other items. The EDA’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for final ac- tion. MOTION BY KEENEY, SECONDED BY CHROMY TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. Ayes by Choudek, Kenney and Chromy. The motion carried. MOTION BY CHROMY, SECONDED BY KEENEY TO RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE REVISED BUSINESS SUBSIDIES POLICY TO THE CITY COUNCIL. Ayes by Choudek, Kenney and Chromy. The motion carried. 7. OLD BUSINESS A. Local Business Incentives Policy (Draft). Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Phone 952.447.9800 / Fax 952.447.4245 / www.cityofpriorlake.com Rogness: summarized a new policy that would supplement the Business Subsidies Policy in terms of ad- dressing all other local public financing incentives below the $150,000 threshold. Boyles: asked the EDA to consider its decision to implement another policy in light of the city’s “business friendly” initiatives. Keeney: asked about how a report should be made to the public; he wants to make sure that there are no secrets related to city subsidies. Choudek: cautioned that this type of information could create tensions by listing business names related to those who received city incentives on an annual basis. Keeney: felt that an incentive should easily stand up to the “light of day” by clearly explaining the rationale for a business getting a local incentive, including why some businesses may have not received incentives. Boyles: suggested that there may be a compromise as to how the information gets disseminated, such as the city’s website rather than the newspaper. Chromy: prefers a summary report to avoid too much detail. Keeney: reminded other commissioners that this is being done for the public good; he also suggested that the policy and objectives of this policy should support leverage public dollars in target locations, to build a critical mass of development, and to help achieve long range goals. Hedberg: recommended that staff make some additional changes to the policy based on this discussion and to bring it back to the next meeting as a consent item. 8. NEW BUSINESS A. Quarterly EDAC Update. Henry: reviewed activities undertaken by the EDAC during the past three months, including such topics as business forum responses and business retention surveys. Boyles: emphasized how the EDA and EDAC need to be in sync with each other. Hedberg: asked Henry to consider expanding the surveys to home-based businesses. Chromy: said that the EDAC should be a link from the city to the business community, and that it should host events and network; they also may want to consider having an SMSC liaison. B. Amended EDAC Bylaws. Copies of the proposed bylaw changes were not fully available, so this item was continued to the August EDA meeting. C. Downtown Initiatives. Rogness: reviewed some downtown activities, the first one being interest expressed by a local dentist to build a new office in the downtown area; the preferred location is at the northwest corner of Arcadia and Colorado, which would include some city property added to a residential lot. EDA Commissioners: agreed that the interested party should contact the residential property owner first without city involvement, and that a minimum 2-story building needs to be constructed with useable space on both floors. Rogness: updated the EDA on the future extension of Arcadia from Colorado to Pleasant; one of four property owners has expressed interest in selling to the city. EDA Commissioners: agreed that the City Council needs to first adopt this extension as part of the 2014- 2018 Capital Improvement Plan before the EDA would consider its support for the start of property acquisi- tion. Rogness: asked for input on further actions to work with the Monnen’s to support the demolition of the ex- isting house on Erie Avenue. EDA Commissioners: requested staff to evaluate possible public parking stalls along the east side of Erie Avenue that may help support the city’s desire to improve that area near the vacant house. 2 Rogness: informed the EDA that Summit Mortgage has purchased the old Sinclair Station site at the northwest corner of Main and Dakota, to be remodeled into an office building. Rogness: identified a new effort to organize downtown business through the creation of a Downtown Busi- ness Association. Hedberg: said that he as attended some of their meetings, which also included efforts by the Chamber to incorporate them in some way within that larger organization; however Hedberg noted that only about ten percent of all Chamber members are retail store-front businesses. He said that this new group will be more promotional in nature with room to grow and evolve. D. 2014 Budget Discussion – EDA Tax Levy. Erickson: reviewed the proposed 2014 budget and tax levy for the EDA, showing $158,532 in revenue and $150,571 in expenses. The proposed levy would be $150,000 with additional revenue coming primar- ily from Technology Village leases. Erickson noted that this item is for discussion only; a final decision will be made by the EDA in August. EDA Commissioners: discussed the budget as being reasonable based on last year’s budget and expec- tations for 2014. 9. OTHER BUSINESS A. Draft August 19, 2013 Agenda. Rogness: reviewed the draft agenda for the EDA’s next meeting August 19, including the continuation of items from this meeting. B. EDA Vacancy. Rogness: said noted that a written response had not yet been received by Morris; however, due to his ver- bal message and absences from meetings, the EDA should move forward with the process to replace him. Boyles: reviewed the replacement process with the Commissioners. Chromy: agreed to be the EDA representative on the screening committee. 10. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY CHROMY, SECONDED BY KENNEY TO ADJOURN THE MEETING. With all in favor, the meet- ing adjourned at 6:46 p.m. ___________________________ Frank Boyles, Executive Director 3