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2021 06 08CHANHASSEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING JUNE 8, 2021 Chairman Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Sanford, James Ebeling, Eric Anderson, and David Kressler. MEMBERS ABSENT: Kathleen Donovan. STAFF PRESENT: Laurie Hokkanen, City Manager; Bob Generous, Senior Planner; Jake Foster, Assistant City Manager, Elise Ryan, Mayor. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: APPROVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MINUTES DATED MAY 11, 2021 Member Sanford made a note on page 6, and clarified a point he was trying to make. He asked to amend the minutes as he was talking about striking not only parking stalls, but also the paved surfaces. Member Sanford moved, Member Ebeling seconded, to approve the Minutes of the Economic Development Commission meeting dated May 11, 2021 as amended. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. City Manager Hokkanen requested that Chairman Anderson take item D1) Presentation of Strategic Plan prior to C1) Business Feedback Survey Discussion this evening. Chairman Anderson agreed and welcomed Mayor Ryan. NEW BUSINESS: PRESENTATION OF CITY COUNCIL STRATEGIC PLAN Mayor Elise Ryan noted she and Ms. Hokkanen have been going around to the Commissions to present the strategic plan. Many times Councilmembers and Staff receive questions about the direction of the City and at the beginning of the year a consultant was hired and brought the City through an extensive strategic planning process. They did a SWOT analysis, independently answered questions, attended a two-day seminar with City Council and department heads, and came up with the strategic plan which consists of Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Priorities. They laid out a roadmap for everyone to follow going forward and Mayor Ryan noted they have gone through many changes in the past two years and it was very important for this next leadership group to get on the same page to move the City forward. She said the strategic Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 2 plan is a living document and does not just get put on a shelf but is something the Council will be reviewing on an annual basis and is what City Staff operates against when they are putting department plans together. City Manager Hokkanen noted there is a webpage where one can download the Strategic Plan and walked the Commissioners through the Mission, Vision, and Values. She noted going forward, innovation will be a big part of what they do. As it relates to the work of the EDC – Ms. Hokkanen said “if you have an idea, talk to us about it.” She noted it may not work out, the rules in place may be good rules that they want to adhere to, but they want to be known as a place that is happy to have a conversation, do brainstorming, and take on something that has potential. For example in the food truck ordinance, historically Chanhassen had a pretty pat stance on food trucks and had not looked at it in a long time. Going through the EDC and the Planning Commission gave a lot of good feedback for changing that. It was noted at the Planning Commission that it is a great opportunity to test and learn. Ms. Hokkanen shared that is the philosophy they are all trying to live now, that it is okay to try things. She also highlighted engagement, noting they want to provide opportunities for residents to connect to the community, each other, and the natural environment. She showed the strategic plan summary on screen and explained the five strategic priorities: Financial Sustainability, Asset Management, Development and Redevelopment, Operational Excellence, and Communications. She shared some desired outcomes in Development and Redevelopment, which includes diversity in new development, for example multiple types of development and at least three types each year. The second desired outcome relates to the fact that Chanhassen is running out of green space to develop and in order to stay vibrant, keep the tax base up, keep the amenities, they will need to do redevelopment that is consistent with the City’s vision. Ms. Hokkanen stated they want to revisit the Downtown Vision Plan, recommit, make tweaks, and identify roadblocks to redevelopment. Finally, she noted they want new, innovative places and spaces. Again, if someone has an idea, talk to them and they will see if they can make it happen or if it makes sense for the City. Chairman Anderson asked Ms. Hokkanen and Mayor Ryan where they want the EDC focusing their time. Ms. Hokkanen replied the ways that the EDC will add value will be in the Development and Redevelopment. A couple of other areas may be in Operational Excellence as they want to develop Customer Service standards and practices, conduct efficiency improvement projects, and how the City can be more friendly to businesses and developers. The next step for the City is to take these Strategic Initiatives and build out a plan for how they will execute each of them with timelines and a work plan. She noted they have purchased software called Envisio which is built specifically for governments to track strategic planning and comes with built-in scorecards, dashboards, and automated reporting capabilities. If there are things that the EDC really wants to track, they can let Mr. Generous or Mr. Foster know and they can build some of those reports to come to the Commission quarterly. Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 3 Member Sanford said regarding accountability, are there projects assigned to specific Staff members? Ms. Hokkanen replied yes. The Envisio system is color-coded and people will be able to follow and see if they are on track, experiencing disruption, or if they have failed to meet deadlines. Member Sanford said when they say “redevelopment consistent with our vision” and he looks back to the vision it references vibrant businesses. He asked if that is the focus of the vision for redevelopment and the EDC. Ms. Hokkanen noted in this context it refers more to some of the plans they have such as the Comprehensive Plan, the Downtown Master Plan, and a less specific use of the term “vision.” Member Sanford clarified the EDC should be looking at the Comprehensive Plan and the Downtown Master Plan and that is the vision they should be talking about. Ms. Hokkanen replied yes, and they have not mapped that timeline out but is something she envisions the Commissions and City Council will be doing. Member Ebeling noted the Downtown Master Plan is very broadly written as there are not a lot of targeted things to measure. Perhaps they will have to talk about more targeted, measurable objectives as they go through it. Mayor Ryan thinks looking at it again will be very valuable with new priorities, new Members, new Council, new Staff, and as they are focusing on innovation a lot has changed so it may be a good time to look at the Downtown Vision Study again. Member Sanford asked if the goal for walkability will remain a big piece. Mayor Ryan replied yes, the walkability in the City is a huge priority. Chairman Anderson noted it might be helpful with the Downtown Vision Plan to have a separate session coinciding with other Commissions to talk through those common objectives they may want to look for. Ms. Hokkanen agreed and noted they have an Urban Land Institute (ULI) joint session on their calendar in August as they want to be grounded in reality. ULI will come in with a panel and give the City some of that grounding; then there will be an opportunity for all three Commissions (Planning Commission, EDC, and City Council) to dialogue so everyone is moving in the same direction. Member Sanford is curious about reconciling ordinances with the Comprehensive Plan goals; he asked if they are looking at zoning or what they are looking at there. Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 4 Senior Planner Generous said it is reconciling, it is asking do the ordinances permit the City to implement the Comprehensive Plan or does it provide obstacles. Mayor Ryan added they want people to know they are open for business and are open to considering ideas. As Mr. Generous said in reconciling ordinances, there are certain restrictions or zoning regulations where someone may look and say it is zoned one way so they cannot do anything, or there is an ordinance so they cannot do anything. She clarified what they are saying is that they want to make sure everything has been reviewed so that that it is open and available for consideration. Member Sanford said if they want to encourage certain types of development, are they looking at the zoning as incentivizing some people in certain types of developments? Ms. Hokkanen is not sure they will use zoning as a way to encourage types of businesses to come, but they will be looking at what tools the City has and which ones the Council is interested in using, such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), or a bank of sewer and water credits. Member Kressler thinks it is a really important point that Council is willing to look at ordinances and is a direction they can make a lot of progress on. Member Sanford asked about the discussion on the SWOT analysis and noted trust is listed as a big issue, both internal and external. Mayor Ryan replied there is a general mistrust of government and how things are decided, so they know they must continue to gain trust with residents through engagement and communication. Trust in terms of Staff and Council was a conversation about some of the challenges previously and that at this point they are all here to support each other and grow together. She thanked the Commission and said if they have any questions or comments to reach out. OLD BUSINESS: BUSINESS FEEDBACK SURVEY DISCUSSION Senior Planner Bob Generous noted from a Staff position they give the survey to people that come in and work at City Hall asking how the interaction went, what went well, what did not go well, and how can it be improved. Chairman Anderson stated there are people who may do business that are staying away or they are not hearing from them, and then there are existing businesses. He asked how they can nurture those who are in the City and make sure they are happy and don’t leave. Member Ebeling agrees and thinks they tailor the survey or feedback separately for those. He thinks the City may know who some of the potential businesses are and need to figure out what they need to ask them. Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 5 Chairman Anderson asked if they use the Chamber of Commerce to help identify current businesses. Mr. Foster thinks a way of potentially attracting or retaining businesses is building a reputation as a City that they are good to work with and easy to work with. The way to do that may be reaching out to people who have gone through this development process to find out how they can improve. Member Sanford thinks it would be interesting to get some feedback from businesses regarding the Downtown Plan about what they may like to see. He sees it as not just reactive but proactive in asking what the businesses want and need from the City to help their business grow. Chairman Anderson suggested asking the top 10 businesses how they think the City is doing and if there are things they should do differently, whether the businesses want to expand, stay in the City, etcetera. Then there are the groups of smaller businesses, the incubators, job-creators. Mr. Foster asked the Commission how they would like to administer these surveys. Member Kressler noted there would be two different viewpoints, one from a business that creates jobs and another from a business that creates jobs and provides a service. He thinks they may get different answers from those and wondered if there is a way to tailor questions to each. Mr. Foster noted they can create forms on their website so perhaps they could ask questions and provide a blank for open feedback. They could share the link to the form via email. Member Ebeling wondered about the feedback Ms. Aanenson receives organically from developers and whether they could track some of that. Chairman Anderson asked if they have talked to any other cities that have done this with their businesses to find out what has been effective and what has not. Mr. Foster replied last fall he spoke with someone in Chaska as they were doing roundtable discussions. They could explore something like that and he can reach out to other cities, as well. Member Ebeling thinks the face-to-face dialogue is way better than any survey. He noted the Open House they hosted was not a failure, but only five businesses came through. Member Sanford thinks they may need to have a topic of interest but the roundtable is an interesting idea. He said it might be interesting to hear from residents about what services and businesses they want to see in the community as it would be worth understanding, as well, although that may be a Planning Commission area. Mr. Foster said if they are looking for feedback from residents and business owners, FlashVote, which the City is implementing, would be a great tool when they get there. Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 6 The Commissioners discussed utilizing the Chamber of Commerce or the Rotary Club to assist in reaching out to business owners for the survey. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATION: None. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION: CDA COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATES MAY 14, 2021 Mr. Generous noted there is a one-page document to let them know what the Community Development Agency (CDA) has out there to assist businesses. He noted they are a great agency, which is part of Carver County Community Development. He stated they do housing and redevelopment. Chairman Anderson asked when they were referencing the Strategic Plan doing a CDA project, would they partner with the CDA on that? Mr. Generous stated for the Lake Place Development they received a grant for the project to assist with storm water improvements because the underground systems are very expensive. He believes they received $75,000 to assist that. Mr. Foster noted it seems like the biggest function of the CDA is the grant making, helping, processing, and identifying piece. Mr. Generous just received the housing performance score survey from the Met Council for 2020. He noted there is an “ALOHA amount” that each community needs to spend on affordable housing and Chanhassen exceeds that because the CDA has taxing authority in Chanhassen and gets about $600,000 a year to help towards the housing programs. Member Sanford asked regarding the Carver County Youth Employment program, who is being recruited, employees or businesses? Mr. Generous would think it is the agency trying to get businesses that have employment opportunities. He asked if the Commission would like to finish their strategic plan review since the City is working on its strategic plan. He noted they have the strategies, objectives, and timelines and they could tie it more closely to the Council’s strategic plan. Chairman Anderson suggested at the July meeting, they talk through what is important to the EDC and what they want to bring up when they meet with the Planning Commission and City Council. Member Sanford thinks the place that really affects the EDC is the Development and Redevelopment. He does not think they should make a plan until after hearing what the Planning Economic Development Commission – June 8, 2021 7 Commission and Council have to say. He suggested looking at what they would like to see and stated the Downtown plan would take a tremendous investment. The Commission decided to put it on the agenda for the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT: Chairman Anderson adjourned the Economic Development Commission meeting at 8:07 p.m. Submitted by Bob Generous Senior Planner Prepared by Kim Meuwissen Office Manager