Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-30-08 EDC Meeting Minutes - Unsigned Ae EN HILLS CITY OF ARDEN HILLS,MINNESOTA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION APRIL 30,2008 7:30 AM CITY HALL-- 1245 WEST HIGHWAY 96 CALL MEETING TO ORDER Chair Von Holtum called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Chair Ed Von Holtum; Asst. City Administrator Noah Simon; Nancy Kneeland; Jim Paulet; Rob Davidson; Mayor Harpstead. Absent: Chris Ashbach, Ed Werner, Brenda Holden, Bruce Kunkel and Dale Beane. APPROVAL OF MINUTES—FEBRUARY 26, 2008 The minutes from the March 26, 2008,meeting were approved as printed. • OLD BUSINESS EDC Member Status: Asst. City Administrator Simon indicated Deal Beane has been contacted regarding his status on the EDC and wishes to be removed from the committee. Repeated attempts have been to contact Chris Ashbach to inquire on his status. To date, no reply has been received. Asst. City Administrator Simon will prepare a motion to remove Dale Bean and Chris Ashbach from the EDC. Asst. City Administrator Simon has contacted the President from Anchor Bank who has expressed interest in serving on the EDC. He has also been appointed to the B-2 Steering Committee. Asst. City Administrator Simon asked how the group wants to move forward with the interested applicant. Mayor Harpstead expressed he thought it was appropriate to move forward with appointing this applicant to the committee. Chair Von Holtum will call this applicant and based on his recommendation will then move forward with appointing this applicant. Chair Von Holtum will contact Councilmember Holden to inform her on this possible appointment. Chair Von Holtum asked the groups opinion of the candidate interviewed at the last meeting. It was the groups opinion that they would like to suggest he serve on a different committee with the City rather than the EDC because of inexperience with the area. Noah noted we currently have 3 openings. He suggested looking athte B-2 Steering Committee for possible EDC candidates. EDC Minutes April 30, 2008 Page 2 of 5 Mayor Harpstead noted that the next City newsletter will include a paragraph soliciting members for various committees including the EDC. Business Incentive Policy: Stacie Kvilvang could not attend this meeting and Assistant City Administrator Simon asked the group if this item could be postponed to the next meeting. He indicated feedback has been received from the Finance Planning and Analysis Committee (FPAC). He indicated he will forward the FPAC comments to the EDC members for their review. Assistant City Administrator Simon noted he has made numerous calls to New Brighton to request a copy of their business subsidy policy and has not receive anything information of substance to date. Mayor Harpstead indicated the feedback from the FPAC was the policy seemed to be dealing with two different items at once and that it wasn't real good dealing with either item. He noted the policy should have a statement of philosophy in addition to the requirements of state law. FPAC felt the policy was more confusing than helpful. Assistant City Administrator Simon reminded the group the policy is still in draft form. The policy has been written by Stacie Kvilvang and another individual who is a lawyer and noted he sent Ms. Kvilvang the FPAC comments to analyze and incorporate into the document. Nancy indicated she doesn't believe the policy to be anywhere near final. Rob expressed he thought what Ms. Kvilvang was trying to craft was a policy to provide the City with the most flexibility. Mayor Harpstead noted the FPAC acknowledged the City does have incentives for small businesses that it could start using. Chair Von Holtum inquired as if Ms. Kvilvang will address FPAC with the concerns they raised. Assistant City Administrator Simon indicated she would be doing so at their next meeting. Gateway Signs: Assistant City Administrator Simon met with Mr. Derek Hames regarding the various draft designs of the Gateway Signs. He has also searched for the documentation from the past that indicated where the proposed sign locations have been set and could not find any documentation on this. Assistant City Administrator Simon noted the cost of the draft sign designs is $20,000/each and inquired if the group wants to proceed with these draft designs and ask Council for money in the budget or if they would like to have Mr. Hames design a sign to fit the $10,000 budget. Rob expressed if the City is not going to do the signage right then they should do it at all and he was in favor of going to Council to ask for more money for these signs. Assistant City Administrator Simon noted the draft signs are 10' long and 20" deep, but he did not have the height measurement. Mayor Harpstead said he is in agreement that the City needs to do some things to dress up the community and make it a better outreach to others as they travel through. He indicated he has concerns with the signs the size of the Shoreview gateway signs. He suggested some possible locations that might be a good fit for gateway signs such as EDC Minutes April 30, 2008 • Page 3 of 5 off of 694 (near the Bethel University Campus); the southwest corner of the City (around the Cleveland Avenue area); going north on Snelling Avenue as you are leaving Roseville; on County Road E and Lexington Avenue. Nancy indicated even in regard to the B-2 are, there has always been confusion as to where Arden Hills and Shoreview boundaries are located. Mayor Harpstead requested to have Mr. Hames design what a$10,000 sign would appear like so the committee would have an idea. Assistant City Administrator Simon noted there would be a cost involved for Mr. Hames' time in designing more draft designs and wondered if the City wanted to spend for this item. The Mayor suggested different type of signs could be required depending on the area they are located, but thought they should all have a consistent look. Chair Von Holtum proposed waiting for the B-2 Steering Committee to develop the B-2 plan and ask them to discuss signage as well. Assistant City Administrator Simon said he would like to go back to Mr. Hames with a set of parameters to base his designs off of and would wait for suggestions from the B-2 Steering Committee. Jim asked bout the status of the re painting the entire water tower with the Arden Hills logo identifier on it. Mayor Harpstead noted this item is being included under the 5-year CIP. Assistant City Administrator Simon indicated it sounds like the committee would like to table this item until the B-2 Steering Committee finishes it's work and he would then come to the EDC with their ideas on signage. After this, he would then go to Mr. Hames for design mock UPS. Rob suggested the group work on prioritizing possible sign locations. Mayor Harpstead suggested figuring out site criteria would be a good first step. The Committee agreed to discuss sign site criteria next on the agenda. Assistant City Administrator Simon asked the committee if they would want to consider some type of signage or community identification on top of the actual roadway — such as painted or inlayed into the road. Mayor Harpstead an area such as where County Road D crosses the freeway could be a possible location for this type of City identification. The committee was in agreement to have Assistant City Administrator Simon develop ideas for community identifiers such as street painting, crosswalk painting, etc., and bring this to the next meeting. Welcome/Informational Packet: Assistant City Administrator Simon requested this item be moved to the next meeting of the EDC. EDC Minutes April 30, 2008 • Page 4 of 5 • Site Sign Criteria: Mayor Harpstead suggested the following site criteria be used when deciding on possible gateway sign locations: traffic volumes, available easements, attractive backdrop; and benefits and cost sharing of the immediate businesses. He noted the B-2 Steering Committee has a traffic consultant and asked that those consultants indicated their suggestion of where these signs should be placed. He also indicated that traffic volume data can be obtained from the Mn/DOT website and asked that Assistant City Administrator Simon bring forth this data for the next meeting. The committee agreed to accept the site criteria that Mayor Harpstead suggested. NEW BUSINESS No new business items were discussed. OTHER BUSINESS: Nancy asked the group for an update to the business recognition idea. Assistant City Administrator Simon reiterated from the last meeting the group is suppose to alert staff whenever they know of a businesses accomplishment in the community or other noteworthy item. He would the take care of acknowledging the business from there. Jim asked about the status of the economic development section of the Comp Plan. Assistant City Administrator Simon indicated he has asked the group to send comments on the draft section and he would work with City Planner Lehnhoff to incorporate those comments into the section. Assistant City Administrator Simon indicated he would send out the draft section again to committee members for their comment. Comments need to be received as soon as possible as the Comp Plan is moving forward as the Council has reviewed most of the document already. Mayor Harpstead noted the importance of the Comp Plan and noted it is used by the MetCouncil, neighboring cities, the community of individuals that live and work in the City, and for grant application purposes. UPDATE ON COUNCIL Mayor Harpstead updated the committee on the status of the City Administrator hiring process and noted it has been narrowed down to one candidate. He noted all candidates had significant experience and it was nice to see this caliber of applicants. The B-2 Steering Committee was formed and names are being added to this group. A number of public meetings will be scheduled in the future and he encourage the committees participation in these meetings. • EDC Minutes April 30, 2008 Page 5 of 5 • Land O'Lakes approached the City about a sidewalk between their properties on Lexington and requested the City's support. The Traverse Bus. Ctr. is working on moving forward with a groundbreaking date. He suggested the committee members drive down Round Lake Road to view all businesses in this area. TCAAP is moving forward with putting together the Master Development Agreement negotiating team. The access discussion is behind in schedule but is slowly moving forward. Financing of the project is in discussion. Density discussion ensued. Future EDC Meeting Dates: The Mayor noted having the meeting on a consistent basis is helpful for member attendance. The group discussed what schedule would work best and agreed on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 a.m. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:01 a.m. Minutes approved by: Ed Von Holtum, Chair Noah A. Simon, Asst. City Administrator NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting of the EDC will be Wednesday, May 21 at 7:30 a.m.