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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-15-07 EDC Meeting Minutes CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AUGUST 15, 2007; 7:30 AM CITY HALL -- 1245 WEST HIGHWAY 96 I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Chair Kunkel called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Chair Bruce Kunkel, Ed Von Holtum, Rob Davidson, Community Development Director Karen Barton, Dale Beane, Ed Werner, Ray McGraw, Nancy Kneeland, Jim Paulet. Absent: Chris Ashbach III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - JULY 18. 2007 The minutes from the July 18, 2007, meeting were approved with the following corrections: . Change spelling of Ed Von Holtum's name to "Von" rather than "Van" throughout document. . Page 4, line 9, change "site" to "sit". IV. Draft Business and Finance Policv Discussion Prior to today's meeting, Community Development Director Barton emailed a draft of the Finance Policy which incorporated changes requested from the last meeting. She indicated she envisions the City Attorney and the City financial consultants to review the document before it is presented to Council. She also indicated the Finance Committee may review the document as well. The Mayor suggested putting some kind of notation in the City-wide policy that acknowledges there is a separate finance plan in place for the TCAAP site. Chair Kunkel began review ofthe draft document: Section 1: Mayor Harpstead suggested a word change in the last line from "encourage" to "enable", Section 2: Mayor Harpstead asked for more clarification on suburban development. Community Development Director Barton indicated it's intentionally left vague. Jim asked where design principles are indicated in the document. Mayor Harpstead suggested we include these principles as an appendix and reference the appendix within the document so that the principles can be changed without affecting the main document. Chair Kunkel indicated in Paragraph "H" there is use of the word sustainable and wanted a definition of this term. Community Development Director Barton said it refers to being pedestrian & transit friendly, the use of green building techniques, preserving open space, smaller building footprints by building "up". EDC Minutes August 15,2007 Page 2 of6 Ed Von Holtum indicated his displeasure with building "up" as it is not esthetically pleasing. Nancy asked if we should address the building "up" issue. Community Development Director Barton said the zoning ordinance would address this issue. Section 3: Mayor Harpstead suggested taking "TIP" out of the title and also to moving E, H, I, and N to the end as he feels this would help the developer focus on the proj ect rather than the overhead associated with it. Community Development Director Barton said this list came from other business finance policies and it's out of the TIF statute and indicated the items the Mayor suggests we move are talked about later in the document. Ray asked for clarification of the document and asked if we are offering financing only, or if we are offering TIP financing specifically. Community Development Director Barton indicated the whole document addresses different subsidies and not just TIP subsidizing. Community Development Director Barton said by using the word "may" in this section it protects the City. Jim asked if Ehlers will be reviewing the document and Community Development Director Barton reiterated that yes they would. Rob asked if we are talking about a TIP policy only. Karen reiterated this document encompasses varied financing. Jim asked if grant financing carries restrictions. Community Development Director Barton indicated all grants are different and they do have restrictions. The Mayor pointed out that this policy may not be able to cover the EDA because they are a separate legal entity. Community Development Director Barton indicated this policy is a guiding policy and is not meant to be a directive. Ed Von Holtum indicated from his experience EDA's become active when there is a lot going on in a City. The Mayor pointed out that at this time, the Council and EDA are comprised ofthe same people. Section 4: Ray suggested using wording such as "TIF or other financing assistance" so that we encompass other financing. Nancy suggested language in this section should reflect "new" applicants. Rob noted that the word "must" is used in the second sentence and is concerned that if the City finds a proj ect that is not consistent with the document but the City is interested in the project, would the City's hands be tied as far as financing. He would prefer to get eliminate the word "must". Nancy noted finance applications must be consistent with the document so she thought "must" should stay. Community Development Director Barton indicated the Finance Policy can always be amended if necessary, but the Comprehensive Plan is meant to be a plan for to guide the city's development over the next 10-20 years. Rob asked if this document is meant to be encouraging or restrictive and he thought by using words like "must" it makes it seem restrictive. Jim reminded the group that this document would not come into play unless the applicant requests financing from the City. Ed Von Holtum said the policy seems broad to him so there are a lot of openings for applicants to qualify for this financing. The Mayor thought "must" in Paragraph "c" is something the City is legally required to do any way so he thinks it should stay. Ray asked why we have "minimums" rather than "desires". The Mayor said we have "minimums" because we do have state requirements that must be followed. Jim said he sees the document as protecting the City as well. Nancy suggested adding language that indicates that Council review may be required. Ray noted as well that he doesn't see anywhere in the document that the application has to be approved by the Council and he suggested adding words that any application must be approved by the Council. The Mayor indicated he is EDC Minutes August 15,2007 Page 3 of6 concerned that adding Council preliminary review as a stipulation because the Council already has to review and approve so many things. He indicated he would like to have a "middle ground" on that, of course Council will make the final review and approval. Mayor Harpstead asked how "housing" fits under "A" in this section (Page 3). Community Development Director Barton suggested changing language that takes out "commercial and industrial". Jim suggested removing "would"; however the Mayor thought it made sense to leave it. Under "B" and "C", the Mayor suggested removing "or" in the second to last line because he wants the applicant to be required to give the information indicated. The Mayor asked for clarification of "independent underwriting" and wants to use "evaluation" instead (last line of "C"). The Mayor suggested asking our financial consultants to broaden this section. Under the "Minimum Qualifications" section, Ray suggested "or" be included. Under "Desired Qualifications" Mayor Harpstead suggested a minimum ratio of 1 to 2 be used and to change the section number to 5. Rob asked if there is a minimum dollar amount that would qualify for the use of TIP. The Mayor indicated it is very costly to use TIP for a small project. There was discussion on how much it costs the city to set up a TIP district. The Mayor noted that there is a scoring sheet at the end of this document for applicants. Chair Kunkel thought by leaving the 1 to 2 ratio in the document it allows the Council to have ultimate control over it. The Mayor said the City gets 21 % of the property tax money collected. He indicated he needed clarification of the 1 to 2 ratio and how much the City would actually get. Ray noted that under the "Desired Qualifications" section, each paragraph starts out with the word "TIP" and he thought it should be replaced with "TIF and other financing". Mayor Harpstead requested the word "normally" be removed from most of the document. Section 5: Mayor Harpstead thought "strategy" needed to be qualified with public financing; also, under "C", at the end, a lawyer should be added. Chair Kunkel pointed out that the word "TCAAP" needed to be removed throughout the document. Also, under 6E & 6F, he suggested language "as required by law" rather than stating an actual percentage. Under the second "F" section, the Mayor suggested adding "closing as soon as they can" because it puts the money back in the General Operating Funds as soon as possible. Also, under 7, the italicized paragraph, remove the word "shall" and replace it with "should" and spell out HACA. Chair Kunkel asked if the group wants to review the document again before sending it to Ehlers. Community Development Director Barton suggested that the changes be made to the document and then to send the document to the attorneys and then bring it back to the group after their review. Jim wondered if the TCAAP policy and this public financing policy are really different, if that will be a problem in the end. Mayor Harpstead indicated he thinks that is not a problem, because the TCAAP framework refers to following the TCAAP document on not this general city financing document. Nancy suggested sending the document to Ehlers before sending it to Jerry Filla. Chair Kunkel requested that the financial consultants add references to tax abatement and bonding grants. EDC Minutes August 15,2007 Page 4 of6 Scorecards: The Mayor indicated there are two separate report cards - one for housing and one for commercial. He said most of the evaluation criteria seemed job-based and indicated we already have a disproportionate amount of people working in the City and not living here as opposed to both working and living in the City. Community Development Director Barton suggested adding language regarding "job retention." Mayor Harpstead indicated that currently the City is under pressure to maintain neighborhood businesses. Ed Von Holtum noted that he polled 5 residents and said two of the younger residents he polled wanted more of the "chain store" type businesses. He said of the 3 older residents polled, they were more concerned with keeping the neighborhood businesses rather than pulling in "chain store" type businesses. Rob expressed he thought if the City had a vision for the character of a neighborhood, the residents could then buy into it. Community Development Director Barton said Arden Hills definitely has an aging population right now and the Mounds View School is suffering right now because of it. She indicated the City needed to maintain the school by attracting younger residents. She indicated the median age of residents who attended the recent Comp Plan meeting was 61. The Mayor said we need to give credit and point value to development beyond just creating jobs. The services this City needs do not require high-paying jobs. Chair Kunkel suggested seeing what other cities had for a grading report card. Community Development Director Barton noted that a lot of other cities do not have a grading report card. Mayor Harpstead said this grading card also helps to facilitate discussions with potential developers. Ed Werner said he had some previous stats that said of the 13,000 people working in Arden Hills, less than 3,000 lived here as well. He said he would find this information and send it to the group. The Mayor thought if the demographic of a 5 mile radius was conducted, we might find that there is a great ratio of residents living in Arden Hills and working within this 5 mile radius. Mayor Harpstead said under the "Housing" section, he needed clarification and suggested a "saddle curve" be used. Community Development Director Barton said the sentence ratio needs to be flip-flopped (it was worded wrongly). The Mayor suggested a ratio of 50-50. Nancy said low income housing can be incorporated into a development. The Mayor noted that he liked the Heritage Development in North Minneapolis where low income housing is in the mix of the development without anyone particular property having to stay that way. The point he is making is he doesn't want one building, or one particular unites) designated as low income. Dale asked if there is any reason the scorecard uses both a letter and a number grading system and wondered why we can't use just numbers. The group agreed to just use numbers for grading only. EDC Minutes August 15,2007 Page 5 of6 V. Next Business Retention Event A. Set Date: B. Location. C. Agenda. Bruce asked for date suggestions. The conversation strayed from the topic and a special meeting date was set to discuss the next business retention event. Ray expressed his concern with new business retention in the I-FLEX district and thought the group needed to meet with the St. Paul Companies and find out what their plans are for that property. Also, find out which companies in the I-FLEX district are not in compliance. He said he wants to find out what "they" want to do rather than what "our group wants them to do" and offer some bonding to improve that area. He thought if we show an interest in that area that it might help. He commented that surrounding communities do not have this type of district to offer. The Mayor indicated one of his concerns is the B2 General Business District because there are no guidelines or restrictions for this district. He noted that the City has only 4 "objectives" for the B2 areas. He indicated that all other districts have some type of special provisions. He indicated he would suggest the City put a moratorium on the B2 District until the City can provide provisions for it. He noted the moratorium would not affect the Wellington Development plans as they are already are in the door with their plans. Community Development Director Barton said a moratorium caunot be declared without the City having a specific plan and reason for it, and that it can be for a maximum of one year. The Mayor reminded the group that they can recommend this moratorium to the Council and the Council is the one that actually would put it in place. Nancy suggested asking Jerry Filla's advice on this moratorium to make sure the City is not being put in a bad spot with respect to the Wellington development. Rob suggested a review of zoning in the entire area be incorporated into the moratorium process Ed Von Holtum said he thinks the recommendation of a moratorium is definitely needed. Rob said in general he is not in favor of moratorium, but he does agree there are issues in the area of B2 and beyond. Nancy asked if a moratorium would prevent the Holiday Inn from repairing their parking lot. Community Development Director Barton said this is not a construction moratorium; therefore, it would not prevent them from repairing their parking lot. Rob asked if there are alternatives to a moratorium. Nancy inquired if a moratorium can be placed on specific sites. Community Development Director Baron reminded the group that moratoriums caunot be site specific - that it has to include an entire district. Dale indicated he is not in favor of moratoriums as well. Dale indicated he has outgrown his building, but does not have specific plans at this point. Jim asked if time limits can be included. Community Development Director Barton indicated moratoriums can be set for an initial maximum of one year, and then be extended if necessary. EDC Minutes August 15, 2007 Page 6 of6 Nancy asked about doing a moratorium for 6 months. Mayor Harpstead indicated the City is very stressed with many projects already and thought forcing this topic within 6 months might be too much to ask. Community Development Director Barton said the moratorium can be set for one year and the City has the authority to end it sooner. Ed Von Holtum said he feels we have not formed a vision for that area yet and maybe having a moratorium is a good thing because of this reason. The Mayor suggested that the special provisions noted for the B-3 District be included in the B-2 District. Community Development Director Barton noted any changes would have to go through the Planning Commission first. Ray noted he agrees with the moratorium and made a motion to recommend it for a period of one year. This motion was seconded by Ed Von Holtum. Opposed to the motion were Dale, Rob, and Ed Wemer. The motion passed. VI. Council Update No update due to time constraints. VII. Other Business No update due to time constraints. VIII. Adiournment The meeting as adjourned at 9:23 a.m. "13ruce Kunkel, Chair NEXT MEETING The next special meeting ofthe EDC is scheduled for August 22, 2007 at 7:30 a.m. The next regular meeting ofthe EDC is scheduled for September 19, 2007 at 7:30 a.m.