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2024-10-26 Economic Development Commission Packet-� SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE EDMONDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION RETREAT The Edmonds Economic Development Commission will meet on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 9 a.m. The purpose of the meeting is for a retreat meeting of the Edmonds Economic Development Commission. The agenda is attached. The meeting will be held in a hybrid format. PHYSICAL LOCATION: Room 123 — Frances Anderson Center 1 700 Main Street, Edmonds, WA 98020 REMOTE MEETING/ZOOM INFORMATION: https://edmondswa- aov.zoom.us/i/87962483072?Dwd=NmaJ6BUvHu9STni1 hRQvsJP2FtP990.1 Meeting ID: 879 6248 3072 Passcode: 297674 The public is welcome to attend the meeting. Posted/Emailed: October 24, 2024 POSTED: City Hall Public Safety EMAILED: The Herald The Edmonds Beacon Myedmondsnews.com City Council Ine. 1 gyms SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA Edmonds Economic Development Commission RETREAT Saturday, October 26, 2024 9AM - 12PM HYBRID MEETING The Economic Development Commission members will be meeting in person and/or remotely for this meeting. The public may join at the physical location or join through zoom. PHYSICAL LOCATION: Frances Anderson Center — ROOM 123 1 700 Main Street, Edmonds, WA 98020 REMOTE MEETING/ZOOM INFORMATION: https://edmondswa-gov.zoom.us/i/87962483072?pwd=NmaJ6BUvHu9STnilhRQVsJP2FtP99p.1 Meeting ID: 879 6248 3072 Passcode: 297674 9:00 AM Call to Order 1. Roll Call and Recognition of Approved Absences 2. Approval ofAgenda 3. Approval of September 18, 2024 Meeting Notes 4. Audience Comments (3 minutes per person) 5. EDC Retreat a. Opening Remarks — Mayor Mike Rosen b. Efficiency Exercise — Kevin Harris i. EDC Values and Interests ii. Identifying Project Criteria c. BREAK d. Level Set — Matt Cox e. Building a Roadmap — Allan Townsend £ Next Steps — Matt Cox 6. Adjourn 12:00 PM Next Regular meeting: November 20, 2024, 6 PM CITY OF EDMONDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MEETING September 18, 2024 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Matt Cox, Chair Allan Townsend, Vice -Chair via Zoom Nicole Hughes Darrol Haug Carrie Mandak Natalie Seitz Kevin Harris Kate Nolan — Student Representative COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Nick Perrault —excused Pete Spear - unexcused LIAISONS PRESENT: Chris Eck, Councilmember, ex-officio — via Zoom David Preston, present in lieu of Commissioner Killin's absence Ryan Crowther, Chamber, ex-officio via Zoom LIAISONS ABSENT: Selena Killin, Port Commissioner, ex-officio Lee Hankins — Planning Board, ex-officio GUESTS: Shane Hope, Acting Planning & Development Director Roger Pence STAFF PRESENT: Todd Tatum, Director CCED via Zoom Megan Luttrell, Program Coordinator CCED Economic Development Commission meeting called to order by Matt Cox at 6:01 p.m. Call to Order 1. Roll Call and Recognition of Approved Absences: Nick's absence is excused. Pete is also absent 2. Approval of Agenda: Allan motions to add the Comp Plan Delay to the top of the agenda; Natalie seconds; motion passes. 3. Approval of August 21, 2024, Meeting Summary: Natalie would like to add context to her statement in Item 5 to read: She points out that, the mitigation plan for other districts may reduce the benefits of TIF in areas where large population increases are anticipated like Highway 99. For instance, it could be a risky tool to use around the Hwy 99 due to the MFTE area and subsequent delay in revenue. Natalie moves to approve the addition to the meeting summary; Matt seconds; motion passes. Natalie motions to approve the meeting summary as amended, Nicole seconds, motion passes. 4. Audience Comments: Roger is here to get reacquainted with the Community Renewal Areas. Comp Plan Delay — added in Item 2: Shane shares that there was a presentation to Council last night. It was acknowledged that staff is about a month behind in the process, much to do with staff turnover, the consultant delays, legislative changes and getting Shane up to speed. There is still a good trajectory to get the draft EIS and a draft Comp Plan issued by the end of the month. There is still time to make changes, there will be a 30-day review period. With the heavy workload of Council and staff, it could be challenging to have this done DRAFT Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission September 18, 2024 Page 1 by December 31st. If it is submitted no more than a couple of weeks late, the impact is unlikely to be significant for the city; if it is delayed much later than that it could impact the City's ability to receive state grant funding. Kevin thanks Shane for stepping up and coming back and asks about Shane's comments regarding the Comp Plan not being high level enough. She explains because this is a 20- year plan, and not a strategic plan, she's gone over goals and policies, the level of detail is too much for a comp plan. She's asked for them to be pulled out and restructured as implementation strategies rather than policies. She will take a redline version to Council to so they can see the changes. Natalie asks about the 30-day comment period and if gathering 50 signatures to petition a 45-day comment period would be acceptable. She also asks if there will be a public hearing. Shane is not aware of the number of signatures, but the public hearing will be held within 15 days of the closing of the comment period to allow for another opportunity to provide comments. Shane's staff is putting together a couple scenarios for how the timeline might shake out. 5. Community Renewal Areas: high level review of the urban revitalization tool — Shane Hope Shane presents a PowerPoint presentation sharing a high-level explanation of Community Renewal Areas (Attachment A). Carrie asks what having a Community Renewal Plan does for the City? Shane explains that it opens opportunities for grants and funding and public/private partnerships. It also gives the board the opportunity to act. It allows municipalities to work directly with private developers to develop a plan and/or strategy to move forward with a project. Kevin asks about the historical draft Community Renewal Plan and the option of updating that document. Shane has not spent time getting reacquainted with it, but Council would need to be supportive. It's too late to add it to the current Comp Plan Update but it could be amended next year to add this in. Shane adds that this piece would fold into the Economic Development Element section. Kevin speaks to the Commission's desire to help with this. Community Renewal Plan gives a structure to the community renewal process. It must be approved by Council and meet state requirements. Nicole asks what engagement looks like; it can be driven by both the City and the private side partners and based on local circumstances. Darrol adds that this can be a tool to control what you would like to see in an area of the community but can also be used to control what we don't want to see in an area of the community. Natalie explains she has yet to understand how the city is addressing the anti -displacement policies within the Comp Plan. She shares that she feels this is a tool to aid in anti -displacement policy. She adds that she feels no action is a detriment to the city and community. Where are staff resources are being spent and is anti - displacement a priority of the city. Todd adds context by explaining case studies in both Community Renewal Areas and Tax Increment Financing. Natalie would love to see an area of focus in the comp plan/EIS call out areas of blight. She would like to see this body present Council with a letter to support the notion if it's not folded into the current update. Carrie asks for clarification of what the process looks like. Policy is only one angle, there needs to be research to back the recommendation. She feels that there is more work to be done before a recommendation is presented to Council. Natalie clarifies that she wants to see the CRA called out as a policy in the comp plan. Council members would like to see this discussed at a possible joint meeting with the EDC and Council. This is a hot topic at the Council level right now. David calls out eminent domain as a possible issue causing more displacement. Natalie does not believe that will be a significant issue. Nicole asks if there is support for a Special Meeting if it's deemed necessary due to the timeline constraints for the comment period of the Comp Plan. Matt agrees a Special Meeting could be necessary and would like to entertain the idea of joint meeting with Council. DRAFT Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission September 18, 2024 Page 2 6. EDC Retreat: a. Scheduling: A Doodle Poll was sent out and October 26th is the date that has the most available participants. Megan will investigate locations: 1. Asian Services Center is the first choice 2. Library or FAC 3. Ballinger Senior Center 4. Meadowdale Clubhouse 5. Wade James Theater Pre -Retreat Warmup Discussion: i. Desired outcomes — what do we want to walk away from the retreat with ii. Vision -building: Matt asks if the current mission is accurate. Nicole suggests prioritizing what should be worked/focused on. Carrie shares that vision building could take the entire time. Natalie shares a written statement. The Comp Plan workgroup worked through the EDE goals and policies well and that could be a place to start. Kevin feels developing criteria to center priorities around would keep the group accountable to priorities. Kate suggests making sure everyone understands equitable disbursement. Darrol shares that the Mayor will be looking into new revenue sources. Focusing ideas and regenerating ideas that have been identified in the past by the EDC would be a prudent area to focus on and to develop recommendations. Matt explains that his and Allan's vision for the retreat is to develop criteria to drive the priorities of the EDC going forward. The focus is not to dive into specific projects. Allan adds the expectation of retreat will be more introspective. How do we do a better job of being a commission? What do we do well? What do we not do well? Matt would like to hear what's working, what's not working? Kevin suggests leveraging the expertise of the Commissioners to train the other Commissioners. Nicole points out how do we overlay our topics with the Council's agenda planner and other B&C areas. This would be a way to get ahead of issues. David asks why are we meeting, he asks this question at every meeting he attends. The EDC should be looking at money in and money out, this should be the focus. 7. Business Booster update: Matt gives a brief overview of the topic. There is a desire to get the current EDC up to speed on what the website is for. Megan and Todd briefly share the analytics that were shared by Kaufer DMC. Matt covers his meeting with the Chamber and shares the takeaways. At a past meeting, Selena suggested an event to bring people together to highlight the services and the website. Ryan would be supportive of this type of event. Kevin mentioned EASC is having an event that would be similar. This shows Matt that there is value in doing something like this. DRAFT Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission September 18, 2024 Page 3 He would like to start a work group to dive into evaluating the website and identify areas of improvement as well as ways to grow. Nicole thinks about the opportunities for revenue through ads. What are the opportunities? Ryan shares there is a partnership opportunity with commercial real estate and offering ad opportunities as a trade. Natalie thinks Zillow has a commercial real estate leg. Kate suggests seeking youth perspective as up and coming entrepreneurs. Kevin adds that through the business license data the City has, there could be home based businesses that are outgrowing their space. 8. Liaison Updates: a. City Council — Councilmember Eck: Todd shares her update as she had internet issues. She would like the group to start thinking about the World Cup coming to the Greater Seattle Area in 2026. There's a lot of opportunities. b. Port of Edmonds — David Preston: Received more money for the seawall project since last update, they're at $3M. The marsh camera has been installed and currently being tested. Wendy with EASC is moving to Everett Chamber the rest of organization will be folded into Sno. County. c. Chamber of Commerce —Ryan Crowther: Three largest events have wrapped forthe year. 4th of July; Taste Edmonds; Car Show. Great weather for all. Halloween and tree lighting will wrap up the year. 70 new members totaling around 460 members. d. Planning Board — Lee Hankins: Absent. 9. Roundtable Discussion: Allan busy; wonderful summer. Carrie thank you for bringing the small business rep. to connect and educate folks. Natalie highlights the EIS will be coming out soon, comment if you are inclined. The UNOCAL feasibility study comment period closes 10/24, it expands cleanup options. Matt, the Rotary had unfortunate weather conditions for Oktoberfest. Kate is excited about fall, pumpkin spice, last year of school! Kevin and wife hosted a 90 birthday for his mom at Five last night, great service, incredible food, and the manager was wonderful. Nicole excited about Apple Cup win! Had an Edmonds experience with several college friends, toured around town and shared Edmonds with her people. They all left feeling the charm of Edmonds, with no end of things to do! Darrol is a new great -grandpa! Todd — Focus Groups & media tour & Budget are all keeping him busy! 10. Adjourn: 8:02 p.m. Next meeting: October 16, 2024, 6 PM location Hybrid — Brackett Room & Zoom DRAFT Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission September 18, 2024 Page 4 ATTACHMENT A Community Renewal City of Edmonds Economic Development Commission September 17, 2024 By Shane Hope, AICP, Planning & Development Director What is Community Renewal? Under Washington State Law (Chapter 35.81 RCW), community renewal refers to: • A program for addressing and improving areas that have strong evidence of conditions negatively impacting public health, safety, and property values —conditions, which then hinder the provision of housing, creation of jobs, and has other negative municipal consequences. What area in Edmonds has been considered for community renewal? Why ? • Focus has been on one or more areas near Highway 99 • Some sites in this area have had a higher incidence of crime and property blight. • Transportation issues-- including a highway connector, which utilizes a large untended site and makes access to some properties difficult —complicates the situation What can community renewal do? ■ Expedite removal of nuisances ■ Allow the city to more easily acquire property in the area (if needed) ■ Use public and private resources to improve the area ■ Allow municipality to invest in projects to revitalize the area, including through a variety of funding sources ■ Encourage private enterprise What is needed to have community renewal program? • Workable program (including use pf public and private resources) for activities that will eliminate unsafe or unhealthy conditions and lead toward rehabilitation of the area • Findings by local governing body of the need for community renewal &adoption of ordinance or resolution with findings • Appointment of specific oversight body, which may be: • Board or commission that includes representation from municipal officials; • Local governing body of municipality; or • Board of public corporation or authority, per certain state statutes. What is needed to have community renewal program? (cont'd) ■ City's comprehensive plan must identify community renewal area and may provide general goals or methods to be used ■ More detailed community renewal plan must be developed and adopted by local governing body ■ This plan must be consistent with local comprehensive plan What are some other cities that have community renewal plans? • Shoreline • Vancouver (WA) • Olympia • Tukwila Questions, Comments?.