Loading...
2010-05-19 Economic Development Commission MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION May 19, 2010 The Citizens Economic Development Committee meeting was called to order at 6:03 p.m. by Chair Frank Yamamoto in the Brackett Room, 121 5th Avenue North, Edmonds. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT Bruce Faires Stacy Gardea Darrol Haug Beatrice O'Rourke Evan Pierce David Schaefer Rich Senderoff Kerry St. Clair Ayers Bill Vance Rob VanTassell Rebecca Wolfe Frank Yamamoto Marianne Zagorski COMMISSIONERS ABSENT Don Hall Betty Larman Mary Monfort Bruce Witenberg PLANNING BOARD LIAISON Kristiana Johnson STAFF PRESENT Stephen Clifton, Community Services/Economic Development Director Cindi Cruz, Executive Assistant Rob Chave, Planning Manager Frances Chapin, Cultural Services Manager Jeannie Dines, Recorder PUBLIC PRESENT Ron Wambolt Eric Anderson Tony Shapiro Kathleen Taylor Natalie Shippen 1. INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTS BY CHAIR — NONE 2. AMENDMENTS TO AGENDA — NONE 3. APPROVAL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MINUTES OF APRIL 21, 2010 COMMISSIONER ZAGORSKI MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES AS AMENDED (ADD COMMISSIONER WOLFE'S FIRST NAME IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH UNDER ITEM D ON PAGE 4). COMMISSIONER O'ROURKE SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 4. REPORT FROM SUBGROUPS a. Land Use Planning Manager Rob Chave reported the subgroup discussed priorities and selected neighborhood commercial centers, specifically identifying a process for Five Corners and Westgate. The subgroup is interested in developing a process that could be used for one or both of these areas as well as replicated for other neighborhood centers. The City has a contract with Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC) as a Leadership City that includes 25 hours of CLC staff time on a project of mutual agreement. Neighborhood planning and public visioning is Citizens Economic Development Commission Approved Minutes May 19, 2010 Page 1 one of the things CLC does. To leverage the City's and CLC's resources, he has also been in contact with a professional planner who is an instructor at the University of Washington regarding using this as a class studio (a multi -disciplinary team of graduate students and instructors that work on a class project) in January 2011. The estimated cost of their involvement would be $20,000-$25,000. The project scoping process would determine whether to undertake one or both neighborhood centers. Mr. Chave explained another option is "studio light" where the UW instructor would involve a group of graduate students in the project. The advantage of this option is lower cost and it could be done sooner such as fall quarter 2010. The disadvantage is it would not be as broad an effort as the class studio and would not involve other disciplines and other instructor resources. He recommended the university studio approach if possible. The intent would be a team approach consisting of City staff, CLC and the UW students and the EDC. He envisioned the process would include neighborhood meetings and the end result would be a master plan and implementation tools. Mr. Chave reviewed a potential schedule for the team approach, beginning with the assembly of the team, refining the scope and identifying who would be involved in each activity. He envisioned CLC's involvement would be at the beginning of the process primarily public participation. The UW students would use the information gathered to identify a range of alternatives and create visuals, standards, and implementation tools. Mr. Chave offered to return at the EDC's next meeting with a further refined process that includes the scope, costs, funding source and schedule for the Commission's consideration. The EDC could then forward a recommendation that includes a request for funding to the City Council. If the UW was not able to be involved, he recommended working with CLC on Westgate because a great deal of work has already been done with regard to Five Corners. Discussion followed regarding the UW instructor determining whether she was interested in the class studio or studio light approach, advantages of involving graduate students with up-to-date knowledge, whether to focus on one or both neighborhood centers, ability for CLC and UW students to collaborate, importance of proceeding with the development of options immediately following visioning, duplication of effort that could allow both neighborhood centers to be done at once, the EDC's participation in the process, opportunity for the university's participation to attract younger people to the city, opportunity for housing that was more affordable in Westgate due to its location on a transit route, and consideration of various housing types in the process including affordable housing. Mr. Chave assumed if the university studio process began in January 2011, it would be complete by May 2011. It was the consensus of the Commission for Mr. Chave and the land use subgroup to proceed as described. b. Strategic Planning and Visioning Commissioner Senderoff reported previously the subgroup discussed why a strategic plan was needed and promoting the concept to the City Council. The subgroup's meeting this month focused on what should be in a strategic plan and defining path for moving forward. The subgroup reviewed draft components of a strategic plan based on similar efforts in Vancouver, Washington, and Edmonton, Canada. Commissioner Senderoff described the difference between visioning and a strategic plan; visioning may be an element of a strategic plan, a strategic plan addresses priorities and provides a guide for implementing and for tracking progress. A strategic plan will also coalesce related plans such as the Comprehensive Plan, will include a market scan analysis to inventory unique aspects the city offers, and should include community prioritization of city capital expenditures, programs and services. Economic Development Commission Approved Minutes May 19, 2010 Page 2 He reviewed the subgroup's action items: • Finalize recommendation to the City Council by early summer so that the Mayor can include funds for the strategic plan development process in the next budget. Mr. Clifton will contact consultants for an estimated cost. Ms. Chapin and Mr. Clifton will develop a draft document that addresses details of the strategic plan process for review by the subgroup. Mr. Clifton explained the subgroup's discussions have focused on three phases, 1) why a strategic plan was needed and how it will be used, 2) what components make up a strategic plan, and 3) an implementation strategy for creating a strategic plan. Discussion followed regarding information a consultant would develop via a market scan analysis, a strategic plan as a roadmap for a specific period of time that includes priorities and steps for achieving those priorities, the list of unfunded high priority capital expenditures that was presented to Council, prioritizing the EDC's funding requests to Council, and the estimated cost of a market scan analysis. Mr. Clifton offered to provide the Commission the list of unfunded high priority capital expenditures and the City Council minutes with their discussion regarding the unfunded projects. With regard to prioritizing the EDC's requests for funding, Mr. Clifton suggested the EDC submit their recommendations to staff by July/August so that they could be discussed with the Mayor's budget committee and included in the budget as decision packages. The Mayor presents the budget to the Council in October and the budget is typically adopted in late November. C. Technology Commissioner St. Clair -Ayers explained the subgroup met with Finance Director Lorenzo Hines and CIO Carl Nelson to discuss costs incurred to date, baseline operating costs, and various business models. She summarized the subgroup was conducting groundwork regarding the revenue potential of fiber optics. Commissioner Haug referred to a document Councilmembers were sent regarding how a town in North Carolina botched their fiber optics project, explaining the Citizens Technology Advisory Committee (CTAC) considered and avoided those issues early in the process. The intent of working with Mr. Hines is to provide provable/documentable data. He commented on the tremendous potential to optimize the value of fiber optics; the challenge is how drive a portion of that revenue to the City. Discussion followed regarding the Port of Whitman County's fiber optics project, revenue potential via fiber optics, need for potential customers to have their own information technology staff and ability to get fiber to their location, and misconceptions regarding fiber optics due to a lack of understanding. Commissioner St. Clair -Ayers offered to have Mr. Hines make a presentation regarding fiber optics to the EDC. d. Tourism Chair Yamamoto reported the subgroup is reviewing other cities' websites and discussing advertising and other opportunities to market the City. Commissioner Wolfe asked how a person could donate a decorative public water fountain where you can fill water bottles for a location provided by the City. Ms. Chapin suggested contacting Parks & Recreation. Commissioner Vance offered to research how to establish Edmonds as a cruise port. Commissioner Zagorski advised the Port's Associate Executive Director was instrumental in bringing cruise lines to Seattle. Economic Development Commission Approved Minutes May 19, 2010 Page 3 5. MARKETING Mr. Clifton explained there are two funding sources for marketing: lodging tax (allocated by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee ([LTAC]) and the City's Economic Development budget. He referred to a spreadsheet Ms. Cruz prepared illustrating LTAC and Economic Development Department expenditures and potential advertising opportunities. He explained Ms. Cruz, Ms. Chapin, Chamber Director Jan Vance and he have been meeting with radio and television stations, publications, and video producers to discuss advertising opportunities. He described current advertising such as KPLU radio, Budget Travel and ExperienceWA.com. He announced Sunset Magazine plans to publish an article regarding Edmonds in their July issue. The City has also been featured in several publications at no charge including 425 Magazine, Seattle Metropolitan, NW Yachting, and National Writers Digest. Discussion followed regarding the difficulty quantifying the number of people who visit Edmonds as a result of advertisements, ability to track visitors to websites, information gathered via polling done at the Taste of Edmonds and the Waterfront Festival, tracking calls generated by advertisements via 800 numbers assigned to each ad, staff s efforts to enhance the visitors guide portion of the City's website, and advertising targeted at specific demographics. 6. STEVENS HOSPITAL Mr. Clifton reported Mayor Haakenson had lunch with Swedish's CEO and Mr. Chave and he met with two representatives of Swedish Medical Center to offer their services to help facilitate the merger of the two hospitals as well as determine what help they need from the City to make the merger successful. They also discussed ancillary uses around the medical center, businesses that might be attracted to a Swedish satellite hospital, etc. He described the availability of fiber optics in close proximity to the hospital. Swedish informed them have a 30 year lease; Swedish will operate the hospital and plans to invest $100 million in the facility particularly in technology. The City's CIO Carl Nelson is talking with Swedish's IT staff regarding the capabilities of fiber optics. The Swedish representatives were very appreciative of staff s outreach and expressed their willingness to host a community meeting to describe their plans. Mr. Clifton advised a presentation and Q&A will be scheduled in Council Chambers later this summer. He anticipated the presentation would be recorded for broadcast on Channel 21. 7. FUTURE AGENDA TOPICS AND NEXT MEETING DATE — JUNE 16, 2010 Staff email Commissioners a revised date for the June meeting due to the Arts Festival preview party on June 16 Discuss the EDC's sunset date and whether to recommend to the City Council that the EDC's timeline be extended or it become a standing committee 8. MISCELLANEOUS In light of Councilmember Orvis' resignation, Commissioner Zagorski inquired whether the EDC should request another liaison. Mr. Clifton explained the person selected to fill the vacancy typically takes over the Councilmember's committees. He offered to confer with Council President Bernheim regarding the appointment of another Councilmember. Commissioner Zagorski commented this was an opportunity for the Council to appoint a Councilmember rather than the new Councilmember taking over the liaison position. Planning Board Member Kristiana Johnson relayed that she had reported the activities of the four subcommittees to the Planning Board. Planning Board Members also receive the EDC minutes. She reported on the following Planning Board agenda items: Economic Development Commission Approved Minutes May 19, 2010 Page 4 May 12: The Planning Board held a public hearing on proposed sign code amendments to clarify the definition and establish criteria for wall murals or artwork. The Board recommended the proposed ordinance as well as recommended the City's fees associated with the application and review of murals be waived. She pointed out murals and artwork draw people to the community as well as promote Edmonds as art community. June 23: A public hearing is scheduled to address a conflict in the sign code regarding the number of signs allowed for multi -tenant structures. The Planning Board considered several options presented by staff, the public hearing is on an option that would allow up to three signs per business regardless of location and would provide for a directory -type sign for multi -tenant sites. There would be no change in the maximum total sign area. 9. AUDIENCE COMMENTS Tony Shapiro, Edmonds, recalled his previous description to the Commission of a land use issue on 2201h where vacant property could be developed for medical use. A large clinic in Edmonds is seeking additional space in the City and has identified property in that area. A Comprehensive Plan amendment will be necessary; however, an application was not submitted by the December 31 deadline to be considered this year. He urged the EDC to express their support to the City Council for an expedited Comprehensive Plan amendment to allow this clinic to remain in Edmonds. He advised neighborhood meetings are scheduled at Edmonds-Woodway High School on May 24 and June 21. Ron Wambolt, Edmonds, recommended the EDC provide input to the Mayor this summer as he will be presenting the budget to the City Council in October. Eric Anderson, owner of Five Corners Shopping Plaza, commented as a result of the process conducted by former Economic Development Director Jennifer Gerend, the Comprehensive Plan was amended to allow up to four stories at Five Corners and Firdale Village. However, the zoning at Five Corners has not yet been changed to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. He suggested the EDC concentrate on Five Corners, Firdale Village and Westgate, noting additional density would be necessary to make redevelopment feasible. He urged the City to tell the property owners what they wanted. 0111" tQ1 With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m. Economic Development Commission Approved Minutes May 19, 2010 Page 5