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2021-06-16 Economic Development Commission MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MEETING June 16, 2021 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Nicole Hughes, Chair Darrol Haug Jay Hoag Kevin Harris, Vice Chair Scott Merrick Kevin Smith Charlie Lieu Carrie Hulbert Keith Hamilton Evan Sittauer, Student -Rep COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None LIAISONS PRESENT: Vivian Olson, Councilmember, ex-officio Roger Pence, Planning Board, ex-officio Bruce Faires, Port Commissioner, ex-officio LIAISONS ABSENT: Greg Urban, Edmonds Chamber, ex-officio GUESTS: None STAFF PRESENT: Patrick Doherty, Director Megan Luttrell, Program Coordinator Economic Development Commission meeting conducted via ZOOM and called to order by Nicole Hughes at 6:01 p.m. Call to Order and Land Acknowledgement 1. Roll Call and recognition of absences: No absences. 2. Approval of Agenda: Darrol moved to approve the agenda; Scott seconded; motion passed. 3. Approval of May 19, 2021 Meeting Summary: Darrol requested to strike his comment from the roundtable discussion. With this change, Scott moved to approve; Jay seconded; motion passed. Darrol asked if we could record the meeting tonight for the benefit of capturing Item 6. Discussion of Parking and Shuttle Service. After a brief discussion it was suggested that we only record the meeting while Item 6 is being discussed. Carrie made a motion to record the parking discussion only tonight; Darrol seconded; motion passed. 4. Audience Comments: None. S. City Update: Patrick thanked the group for their suggestions on how to allocate the ARPA funds last month. Staff is finalizing their recommendation and once complete it will be presented to Council. The City expected to receive $9.3M in ARPA funding but when official word was received from the State, it indicates that the City will receive $11.8M. All the required forms have been submitted. Theoretically Edmonds should receive half of the funds on June 27t". Walkable Main Street starts this Saturday. The City made a concerted effort to cross promote retail and service businesses. The City created a z-fold flyer with a map of businesses and will print thousands to be distributed to the Main Street businesses to hand out to patrons. There is signage to direct folks west on Main Street past the barricades and we will be doing social media post to promote businesses. There will be some entertainment on Saturday evenings, on the western portion of Main Street, towards 3rd Ave. There will also be games to play in the same area on Sunday's, like cornhole, etc. The City has rented the Diamond Parking near Bank of America for WMS Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission June 16, 2021 Page 1 weekends. The south City Hall parking lot will be used for ADA parking. We will be hosting an Uptown Market on 2361h between Hwy 99 and 841h; July 81h, August 121h, September 91h. The City sent postcards out to all of Edmonds to promote Walkable Main Street and the Uptown Market. The market will have food, vendors, and music. The purpose of the market is to build community in the Hwy 99 area. The effort was made to involve local businesses first by offering a discount on the registration fee and first opportunity to participate in the market. Patrick has passed out at 141 flyers to promote the first Hwy 99 businesses merchants meeting at 8:30am on June 30th. Jen from Crow will attend to explain how DEMA works as she is the current President. Kevin H. suggested that one or two folks from the EDC attend. Carrie volunteered to attend. City Hall will be opening July 12th from 10am to 2pm at first. It is currently not clear whether the OPMA waiver will stay in effect. Patrick explained that you may have to fill out a waiver to not wear a mask at in person meetings, which is what City staff has been required to do. Some commissioners expressed concern about returning to in person meetings and are wondering if a hybrid model could be an option. The Mayor is holding a Town Hall Meeting on Hate, it will be held on July 12th at 6:30pm, outside of Edmonds Woodway High School. Charlie asked about how many hate crimes are reported in our City? The Diversity Commission is working on determining this. Patrick explained that there are incidents that are hate fueled but that don't necessarily fit the criteria for a hate crime. The Diversity Commission is also studying the notion of an office of Civil Rights. Staff has presented the 41h Ave Cultural Corridor project to Council twice this year. The first time was the concept from the consultant. The second time they presented the estimated cost for 30% design. Council has given direction to move forward with the next step of design in 2022 with a truer budget and schedule. Joe at ECA is very interested in seeing this project move forward and they may have funds to contribute and/or assist in fundraising for the project. They would like to connect ECA to the downtown core. 6. Discussion - Parking and Shuttle Service: Darrol shared he did not have a good return rate on the questionnaire that he sent out to the Commissioners prior to the meeting, he only received two back. The purpose of this exercise is to determine how the Community can discuss the parking issues in Edmonds. Darrol shared the questionnaire and polled the Commissioners. He is expecting the Commissioners reaction to emulate the reaction of the citizens. Several Commissioners felt the questions could be reworded to be clearer. Keith is curious why the walkable downtown and garage need to be tied together. Vivian explained that because the walkable area will eliminate parking. Many are concerned about population growth in the area and its effect on parking. Nicole explained that she's not concerned but she supports a parking garage as she feels that it will draw people to downtown due to the public perception that parking is difficult. Charlie is neutral but is more concerned about getting transit to downtown because the current transit is not useable. Scott is concerned about parking as he's noticed parking near the Frances Anderson Center has become increasingly more difficult. Carrie agrees with Charlie and feels that there are other solutions to improve parking then a parking garage. Jay feels that surface parking isn't going to be enough. The events in Edmonds bring people to the City. He doesn't understand the resistance to a parking garage. He agrees with Vivian that no walkable City has worked without a parking garage. He feels that a parking garage will not be the only solution, but it will be a part of the solution. Keith agreed with Jay. Kevin H. asked if the committee has already determined the parking garage is necessary, given the context of the questions? Darrol explained it has not been determined yet. The Committee recommends the community have a robust discussion about the parking needs. Vivian suggests a Public Hearing for the community. She would love to be a part of further discussions. She would like to know what problem we are trying to solve. She expressed that there is a large portion of the community that does not support the walkable downtown and folks are going to other cities to shop. Carrie shared that the festivals that draw people to Edmonds do not support the businesses but the organizations that sponsor the event. Walkable Main Street draws people to the businesses, and we need to look at data this year to see how it effects businesses. Bruce feels that this is a demographic issue. Roger feels we need Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission June 16, 2021 Page 2 some real world information from a contractor that's built a parking garage to get some real numbers on how this cost. He suggests Patrick find someone to sit down with the committee to discuss. Kevin Smith shared that a parking garage is not mutually exclusive to Walkable Main Street, but it could be a catalyst to a garage. He suggests that if the City leases parking spaces to restaurants it could go to the funding the garage. Jay explained that he has discussed numbers with Wilcox Construction, and he can meet with Roger to discuss. Darrol explained they've met with Rick Steves and Wilcox Construction but there is not enough time to discuss those meetings tonight. Patrick shared prior to COVID the City was planning to do a parking study, but when COVID hit it didn't make sense to do it. If it gets funding he's hopeful that it could be done in 2022. He's hoping the EDC could aid in reenergizing the parking study for 2022. Darrol has gotten what he hoped to get out of this discussion. Nicole suggests sending out background information to be included in the minutes. Bruce mentioned that a couple years ago there was discussion of putting a parking garage on Port property;the lot that is across from Arnies was considered, but it was determined the space wasn't large enough. Parking garage at the Port is off the table. 7. Project Committee Updates a. Neighborhood Districts & Business Zones: Kevin Smith led the update. They met last week. Patrick is planning to send a second letter to the Firdale Village owner to see if that gets a response. The Hwy 99 gateway signage committee has not met yet. The last month they discussed a cohesive signage appearance to unify the business districts. Possible expense for the ARPA funds. b. Edmonds Business Booster Portal: Kevin Harris led the discussion. They met a week and a half ago to work on the look of version 2.0. They outlined one or two alternatives to what the design might look like. Patrick met with the web designer and it went well. He received an email from a content provider for an SBA grant. Scott shared that they had very good session regarding what businesses would want to look for on the site. Carrie mentioned that they're focusing on the user's experience. Nicole asked if they would have funding request coming up? Patrick shared that the ARPA money has a category for business support and this would fall under that. c. Waterfront Center Opportunities: Nicole shared that they have a meeting scheduled with the Port; Angela and Bruce on July V. She expects to get a meeting with Daniel on or around July 8cn She received an update from Daniel that the Waterfront Center is expecting $1M revenue from catering in addition to the lunch service that the Potlatch bistro brings in. e. Communication & Info Flow: Nicole shared that this report out would be combined with the Data Collection & Analysis report. f. Data Collection & Analysis: Charlie shared that Nicole met with the committee and they decided to combine the supporting groups (Communication & Info Flow and Data Collection & Analysis). They've drafted a mission statement: This committee's mission is to advise and provide directional support for data definition, collection, and analysis needs. As part of this we will: work with committees to assist in discrete, well defined need for the purpose of framing data collection, analysis and visualization - we will offer guidance, point to data sources, and give high level help on how to approach analysis, plus light visualization and collateral development, but will not do the heavy analysis work in most cases. The committee may take on special analysis projects on a case by case basis. The primary driver is sustainability of both the time demand on the committee, as well as the evergreen nature of committee members. It is not reasonable to expect the commission to always have a data scientist on board. Charlie asked for input to refine the statement. This is not necessarily a mission statement but what they would like to achieve. They are helping people to define the needs without doing all the heavy lifting as it's not sustainable. Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission June 16, 2021 Page 3 What is the data that they should be collecting? The committee is here to identify resources, help and support. Scott described it as library to glean resources from. Census data for a City our size is just not granular enough to use as a true data source. 8. Idea Pipeline: Nicole opened the item to the group to add ideas. Kevin H. suggests keeping an eye on the Tax Increment Financing that the legislature recently passed as a potentially important tool for economic development. He acknowledged that the Highway 99 consultant is expected to address TIF. Scott suggested we think about traffic coming from the water or non-traditional traffic means. Carrie suggested ideas to connect the Port to downtown. Bruce mentioned the tour boats go to Seattle to the San Juan Islands and they stop in Kingston but not in Edmonds because there's no place to moor a large boat; this is an opportunity to collaborate with the Port. 9. Liaison Updates (3 minutes per liaison) a. Vivian Olson (Council) Council passed the 5G master permit that allows for the cell towers. She suggests utilizing the EDC to add value to the products the City is producing. Nicole asked the best way to interject themselves into the City business; Vivian said that it's communication with the administration. b. Bruce Faires (Port of Edmonds) The north marina boardwalk is underway; it will be a 3-5 year project. The 30% design phase was completed this month. They're preparing for 60% design completion in August. The new Port admin building is deep in discussion. They're goal is that it meets LEED silver standards, if not LEED gold. They're planning to add solar panels to the building. c. Greg Urban (Chamber) Patrick shared on behalf of Greg, the 41h of July events are officially a go, as of today. The fireworks will be bigger than ever; 500 shells are typical but this year there will be 900 shells. Other planned events are the golf tournament; Taste of Edmonds and the car show. d. Roger Pence (Planning Board) Met the City's new code writer at their last meeting. They also received a legislative update. The main discussion at their last meeting was the electric charging stations. They could rough in charging stations during construction so they could be easily retrofitted if needed. They are continuing discussion on the tree code. He did not vote on Darrol's questions because the issue could come in front of the PB and he would like to stay neutral. He shared that Bruce is not running for reelection, Bruce confirmed. 11. Roundtable Discussion: Jay nothing. Kevin Harris thanked the parking committee for their work. Carrie shared that Ed! is focusing on promoting service businesses. In July they will be supporting their retail businesses. There's a scavenger hunt planned for the summer; in August drink bingo will come back. Lovin' Summer is the official summer campaign tag line. Kevin Smith thanked everyone for their work. He rode is bike into work recently from Seaview to downtown and the infrastructure does not support bikers; he supports improvement to bike lanes. Evan good discussion on parking. Darrol thanked everyone for their input on parking. Charlie kudos to everyone but especially the parking committee for their work. From her discussions with the Mayor, he would like to see the EDC focus on the future rather than the present. Scott agrees that the biking from Seaview is challenging. Emphasized that the parking solutions don't have to be large to be effective, the addition of tic marks has been an improvement. Keith suggests thinking ahead and how the light rail will be opening up in the next 5 or 10 years and how the added population will affect the community. Nicole thanked the parking committee on leading the discussion tonight. Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission June 16, 2021 Page 4 Adjourn at 8:16 p.m. Next regular meeting: July 21, 2021, 6 PM location TBA Meeting Summary Economic Development Commission June 16, 2021 Page 5