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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02 27 2014 EDAC minutes 4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 CITY OF PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES – February 27, 2014 1. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 7:35 a.m. in the Wagon Bridge Conference Room at Prior Lake City Hall. Members present: Bill Henry, Greg Schweich, Lloyd Erbaugh, Mike Stout, Annie Sheehan-Kerber, Jim Mahoney, Thane Tande and Michelle Choudek. Members absent: James Ford, Mark Petersen, Sandi Fleck, Bernie Carlson and Wade Larson. Staff present: Casey McCabe. 2. Approval of Meeting Minutes. a. January 23, 2014 MOTION BY HENRY and SECOND BY SCHWEICH to approve the January 23, 2014 meeting minutes as submitted. Motion adopted unanimously. 3. Old Business a. Commercial Vacancy Tracking Sheet Update McCabe: reminded the committee that the EDA previously requested city staff work with the EDAC to track commercial vacancies in the community and make the information available on the City of Prior Lake website. Mr. McCabe informed the committee that staff sent a letter and property information sheet to property owners and real estate agents representing 22 Prior Lake commercial and industrial properties that staff is either aware of a current vacancy or a vacancy existed within the past 12 months. McCabe: reviewed a spreadsheet which provided available lease space information for 15 properties and stated the list of available commercial and industrial properties will be added to the Economic Development page on the city website. Mr. McCabe’s contact information will also be included if other property owners and brokers wish to list their available lease space. Stout: recommended the EDAC inform the public of the available commercial vacancies and suggested we include this topic in the next edition of the Prior Lake Business Pages e-newsletter. b. Business & Industry Forum Follow-Up EDAC Members: reviewed the current status of the Business & Industry Forum action items. Committee members discussed a business owner’s request for two-hour parking in the Rock Creek building parking lot. McCabe: stated the Traffic & Safety committee reviewed the request and did not support two-hour parking in the Rock Creek parking lot because they felt the parking demand would only shift to another location of downtown and it would create enforcement demands on the public safety department. EDAC Members: felt the city could improve downtown parking by providing directional signage which may help alleviate some of the downtown core parking demands. 1 McCabe: stated staff will present a parking signage report during the March 27 meeting for EDAC th consideration. The EDAC may choose to send a recommendation to the EDA recommending parking signage. Mr. Rogness will be meeting with the Prior Lake Downtown Business Association (PLDBA) in March to discuss parking. Mr. Rogness will also discuss possible public parking signage with the PLDBA. EDAC Members: also discussed the timing of the closure at Main Avenue and CR 21, which Scott County has proposed for 2015. Mr. McCabe stated the City Engineer, Larry Poppler, will be attending the March 27 meeting to discuss downtown street project timing with the committee. th EDAC Members: directed staff to propose alternative language for some of the action items as an effort to develop more actionable tasks. EDAC Members: reviewed the action item related to working with the Prior Lake Downtown Business Association (PLDBA). Sheehan-Kerber: will contact Mike Reichow, President of the PLDBA and may attend an upcoming meeting of the PLDBA to determine if there are opportunities for the two organizations to work together. Choudek: suggested the EDAC request the PLDBA provide an annual report to the EDAC each year. 4. New Business a. Discussion of EDAC Focus, Goals or Issues for 2014 b. 2040 Vision & Strategic Plan Meeting Erbaugh: introduced items 4a and 4b and suggested they be reviewed together. Mr. Erbaugh asked the committee what ideas or goals should be focused on in 2014 to promote business growth and community growth. EDAC Members: discussed one of the 2014 goals, which is to develop a communication or marketing piece to promote the positive steps taken by the City of Prior Lake and its committees and advisory committees. Committee members discussed the scope of the communication piece asking if the committee was asked to develop a marketing strategy or full community branding strategy. EDAC members felt a community branding project may be too broad and complex. EDAC Members: reviewed a committee goal to work with the Scott County First Stop Shop (FSS) and SCALE to achieve goals. Ms. Choudek was asked to provide an update of FSS goals and activities during the March 27 meeting. th c. Prior Lake Business Pages EDAC Members: briefly reviewed three possible article topics for the Prior Lake Business Pages e- newsletter. Committee members recommended information related to the commercial and industrial property lease vacancies be included in the e-newsletter. Staff will email a copy of the proposed articles to all EDAC members for review and comment prior to publishing. EDAC Members: recommended a link to the Prior Lake Business Pages be added to the City of Prior Lake website. 5. Other Business a. Staff Updates i.Greater MSP Meeting Follow-Up McCabe: informed the committee that Greater MSP held a business retention and expansion meeting in Prior Lake City Hall, which was attended by city staff and three EDAC members. Mr. McCabe noted that Prior Lake was the only community in Scott County with an active BR&E program. ii.Prior Lake Marketing Packet Update McCabe: updated the EDAC on the activities of the Marketing Packet Subcommittee. Mr. McCabe stated the subcommittee is meeting again on March 12 to review the latest draft th community marketing packet. Mr. Erbaugh stated a draft document will be presented to the EDAC for review during the March 27 meeting. th iii.Duco Exemplo McCabe: informed the committee that Jeff Schwingler has relocated his Thrivent Financial office to the Rock Creek Office Building and has also established Duco Exemplo. Duco Exemplo is a community meeting space located on the 3 floor of the Rock Creek Building. The space is rd made available for all community and non-profit organizations free of charge. b. Member Ideas/Recommendations Choudek: invited all committee members to Onsite Engineering’s presentation at Science Night Live on March 13. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Prior Lake High School auditorium. th Stout: suggested the EDAC invite representatives of commercial areas around the community to future meetings so the committee will have a better understanding of the issues facing the separate areas. Sheehan-Kerber: recommended the committee create a calendar of upcoming events and meeting attendants. Stout: commented on recent discussions among business leaders related to community events. Mr. Stout stated there is confusion over what is a city approved event or city endorsed event and questioned how an event becomes city supported or endorsed. Mr. Stout felt the city should consider establishing a policy related to city support of community events. Erbaugh: asked Mr. Stout to draft a note related to the questions he raised for the Mayor and City Manager. Stout: felt that if the EDAC was not going to conduct BR&E interviews in 2014, it is still important to remain in contact with the businesses and recommended the EDAC complete a survey. Another option is to continue with the BR&E surveys in 2014. This will be discussed in greater detail during the March 27 meeting. th 6. Next Meeting Date. The next regular meeting of the EDAC will be on March 27, 2014. 7. Adjourn. MOTION BY HENRY and SECOND BY MAHONEY to adjourn the meeting. Motion adopted unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m. Submitted by: Casey McCabe