01-23-08 EDC Meeting Minutes - Unsigned

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EDC Minutes January 23, 2008 Page 3 of 5 component would be for the City to develop some kind of"marketing tools" for itself. He also thought becoming a part of organizations to find out what our City will bear as far as businesses. Mayor Harpstead noted the Council received a report from an outside consultant regarding the TCAAP housing market outlook. He noted, according to the report, there is double the demand for housing for the capacity of that land. He also noted he thought the City does not have any professional documents ("marketing materials") to distribute that relays our community to others. We now have demographic information that we can use to develop marketing materials. He reviewed some highlights from that housing report which shows our city is a great asset and also that we have a hole in housing needs. Mayor Harpstead also noted in regard to the Comprehensive Plan update — the Economic Plan portion ended up being tactical rather than strategic. Asst. City Administrator Simon indicated staff will be working on rewriting the Economic Plan portion of the Comprehensive Plan to be more strategic. He noted a better understanding of our market place will help our business community. Ed Van Holtum said the group should just work without the recession talk hindering our thinking. • Asst. City Administrator Simon noted he thought parcels for development within the City should be identified. He also noted that he saw that a project for Gateway Signs for the City had previously been worked on by the group and wondered if the group has an interest in making that a priority. Rob indicated he thought the City should "set the table" for businesses to take advantage of opportunities. He thinks the most readily available parcel is the former City Hall property. He also noted the Chesapeake site is a site that should be available. Mayor Harpstead asked if"setting the table" meant to develop a list of available developmental properties with their zoning designations so we can tell interested developers exactly what is available within the City. Rob noted understanding the zoning of a particular property would be helpful; as well as providing economic tools necessary to redevelop property. Mayor Harpstead thought we did that for the Chesapeake property and wondered if we can do that again for future opportunities. City Planner Lehnhoff indicated adding a little predictability to the zoning process would be helpful. For example, everything in B-3 and B-4 is so stringent that they have to have Council review for even some as little as adding a door. Mayor Harpstead noted that a lot of non-controversial planning cases are now on the Consent Calendar. He also thought that we, as a City, need to do one thing and succeed at it. He does not • believe the old City hall property would have a city-wide agreement on success as much as the B-2 zone would.