2019-04-02 P & Z Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Administrator/Engineer's Report P&Z Committee — April 2, 2019 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Anoka County Regional Economic Development(ACRED) Committee I attended a Marketing Committee meeting recently and got up to speed on the committee's initiatives. We will be working on creating some promotional videos, expanding on our Broker Event and developing a Business Retention and Expansion strategy. We encourage everyone to visit the group's website and take a look around. 12gp, //www:,,,a�io�acc)uaity u..cccss.crr6y/. Minnesota Technology Corridor The MN Tech Corridor group met again, this time to talk transportation needs. County Engineers from both Anoka and Washington Counties got together along with the cities in the corridor. The meeting was very productive, and should lead to some synergy between transportation plans from the two counties and all the cities. Good conversation was had, as well, about the future of interstate access points along both 35E and 35W. Economic Development Authority The EDA reviewed an outline of our proposed Business Loan and Grant program, reviewing interest rates,loan maximums and other terms. We are planning an open house to introduce the program to businesses in a few months once we have finalized our program and secured the necessary funds. The decisions on funding will come before the City Council for final consideration. The EDA also reviewed the concept of a downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District and affirmed the City Council's approval for the home inspections. The City Council and EDA will need to work with our finance director and financial consultants to determine if a TIF district should be operated by the City Council or EDA. Rebranding The Rebranding Committee held a kick-off meeting on Tuesday, March 26 and has a follow-up meeting scheduled for April 2. The committee consists of Mayor Paar(CC), Jim Weatherhead(EDA) and Nick Twohy (P&Z). Mr. Twohy has a background in marketing and has been a part of over a dozen rebranding exercises. He was able to lead the group through the initial stages of that process, which will culminate with a worksheet that conveys all of the elements of our brand. The committee will seek final input on this document from other stakeholders. Then, we will work with a graphic designer to take those attributes and values and put them into a logo and tag line. Finally, the committee will outline how and where the brand is to be used.