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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA <br />ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION <br />MARCH 2, 2016 8:00 AM <br />CITY HALL -- 1245 WEST HIGHWAY 96 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />1. UNFINISHED AND NEW BUSINESS <br /> <br />A. Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) Recommendations <br /> <br />Community Development Director Hutmacher stated there would be an additional meeting <br />with the EDA in the future in order to discuss further recommendations. <br /> <br />Chair Erickson stated that some EDA members appeared to want additional clarity on the data <br />included in the BRE Report. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Bachler indicated City staff would be meeting with Jonathan Weinhagen of the <br />St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce (SPACC) to discuss the recommendations in detail and to <br />obtain further recommendations for next steps. He said that staff would request that SPACC make <br />additional revisions to the report based on the comments provided by the EDA. The revised report <br />could then be provided to the EDA at a future meeting. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Bachler outlined the four key recommendations of the report as follows: <br /> <br />Transit Advocacy – Proposal to extend the Snelling Avenue Bus Rapid Transit corridor <br />into Arden Hills. Recommend the City invite Metro Transit to an EDA work session to <br />discuss what they are considering in terms of transit in the area. <br /> <br />Workforce Training – City staff to meet with local technical and community colleges <br />with job training programs to obtain valuable information that could be passed on to local <br />businesses in an effort to assist them in meeting their workforce needs. <br /> <br />Tracking Growing Businesses – City staff to create a system to check in regularly with <br />growing businesses to determine the status of their needs. <br /> <br />Continued BRE Program – City staff to put system in place to identify a targeted list of <br />businesses to visit each year. Coordinated effort with local Chambers and GreaterMSP. <br />Potentially share data with regional and state databases. <br /> <br />A discussion ensued regarding these four main recommendations. <br /> <br />A list of action steps to further the goals for each recommendation was created as follows: <br /> <br />