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ARDEN HILLS EDA MEETING – April 22, 2024 2 Secretary Perrault described the various tools that could be utilized which include engaging directly with the Pace site owner, its representative or developer, and financing options such as TIF. He asked if the EDA would like City staff to be proactively involved regarding pursuing redevelopment of the site and noted the Comprehensive Plan calls for a small area plan to guide future development. He then indicated that City staff did not have the bandwidth for a large-scale project due to other workload but conversations regarding smaller scale tactical projects could be had. He stated he could work with the City’s financial advisor to provide options for the EDA to consider. Commissioner Holden indicated there is a white paper that was adopted by the City Council which outlined options, and she asked if there was a copy of that available. Secretary Perrault stated he did not have a copy of that document in front of him. Commissioner Holden asked if he knew of such a document. Secretary Perrault stated yes, he believed there was such a document. Commissioner Holden commented about why recreate the wheel if that information already exists? President Grant said since there is already a document in existence, that should be distributed to the Council. Secretary Perrault replied he certainly could do that. He stated also the point of tonight’s discussion was to possibly take a more proactive approach by having City staff engage with the site owner or developers to spur development on the site, or did the EDA wish to wait for requests to be submitted to the City from an outside party. Commissioner Holden reiterated the white paper referenced the different tools available to the City, noting the problem with the Pace site was the property’s ownership. She asked when the current lease with Pace was going to be up because right now the owner was collecting monthly rent from them. She noted the lease ending could be as early as this fall and said the property owner has no incentive to fill the site as long as they are receiving monthly rental payments from Pace. She stated there would be more opportunities once the lease expires because right now, the owner will not let anyone perform a study to see how much pollution was on the site that needs to be remediated. She said it would be irresponsible to send interested parties in that direction without knowing what the remediation costs are as that would be like a bait and switch. She agreed this was a wonderful project location but it seemed irresponsible to her to move forward until the Pace lease was done. Commissioner Rousseau noted the parcel was 2.3 acres and she stated that she also was interested in knowing the lease end date. She said the EDA could then come up with a plan and see if there was greater interest and also the City could see if the owner or developer would be interested in working with the City. She stated that in the meantime, the white pages could be reviewed. Commissioner Monson commented that the timeline seemed to line up well for the EDA to catch up on the white paper. She noted there were questions such as does the EDA want to be proactive? What do they want and how can they incentivize and figure out how to work with the landowner? She understood decisions made by the property owner are driven by economics, which was very normal. She said she would like to come up with ideas or plans that the EDA would like to see and if development could be incentivized, they should do this before the lease runs out. Once the lease runs