1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by EDAC Chair, Connie Barton Barba.
2. Approval of the Minutes – September 5, 2006 EDAC Meeting
Action: Minutes of the previous meeting were approved by a unanimous vote of the Commission.
3. Economic Development Plan – Discussion of Initial Steps
Alexa Smittle from the Rosenow Spevacek Group (RSG), an economic development firm retained by the City was introduced by Brian Moura. She reported on the steps that RSG will take to create an Economic Development Plan for the City of San Carlos.
The purpose of the Economic Development Plan is to help the city retain and attract businesses that will enhance the City revenue base. This will assure the City’s ability to provide adequate services for the citizens of San Carlos and maintain our quality of life. RSG’s focus in the upcoming weeks will be public engagement. This will include one-on-one interviews with San Carlos residents and businesses, focus groups to identify key desires and interests, a public forum to be held in the evening in December that would be hosted by EDAC. The information from these steps would be distilled and then a survey would be sent out to learn more about the community’s thoughts on key economic development options and opportunities in San Carlos.
EDAC members discussed the RSG plan and offered several suggestions. Commission members suggested enhancing outreach and notification efforts for the December evening meeting to include using the City Web Site and eNotify emails, local newspapers and the Today In San Carlos eNewsletter. They also suggested exploring outreach via the Schools, Chamber of Commerce, Sports Groups, Service Clubs and Parks Boosters in San Carlos.
Brian Moura reported that the next step in this process will be a Report to the City Council at their meeting on October 23rd. Once feedback from the City Council has been received by Staff and RSG, work on the Economic Development Plan will proceed.
4. Real Estate Market Study – Presentation by ERA and Discussion by EDAC
Bill Lee and Sujata Srivastava from Economics Research Associates (ERA) gave a presentation of their recently completed Real Estate Market Study of San Carlos. Mr. Lee noted that he and his firm had developed and presented a series of Real Estate Market Studies of San Carlos over the past 20 years. He described these reports as integrating the aspirations of the community with economic opportunities.
Summarizing the report, Mr. Lee noted that the City’s main short term economic development opportunity is in the Retail Market and a few years later some Hotel development with opportunities in areas such as Office Space and R&D/Flex primarily coming several years later. He also outlined 4 key Economic Development strategies that he believes the City should pursue based on the report’s findings. EDAC members discussed each of the 4 strategies with the ERA staff. The ERA suggested strategies are:
1. Reinforce the concentration of construction related businesses on the Eastside in the area bounded by Old Country Road, Industrial Road, Terminal Way and Bing Street.
2. Encourage medium to larger floor plate retail redevelopment in the corridor along Industrial Road from opposite the parcel designated for hotel use at Holly Street and Industrial Road, along Industrial Road next to Highway 101 to the off-ramp of Highway 101 at Brittan Avenue and Industrial Road.
3. Use the City’s properties at Wheeler Plaza to create a landmark town center project.
4. Explore the transition of the Shoreway Road Area to a concentration of biotechnology uses.
Construction Related Businesses. ERA noted that business to business sales (construction supplies, electrical and lighting, etc.) represents one third of the sales tax in San Carlos. These business to business sales not only generate sales tax revenue for the City but they also keep high paying blue collar jobs in the community and support high land values to locate in the San Carlos market. Mr. Lee suggested that firms such as Lowe’s and Expo Home Center would be logical additions to the strong Business and Materials segment that has long led the City’s business economy and the sales tax revenues.
Encourage Medium and Larger Floor Plate Retail on Industrial Road. Bill Lee said this stretch of Industrial Road with its excellent Highway 101 visibility offers the City an opportunity to enhance this type of retail development in San Carlos and would result in reserving good regional retail locations in San Carlos. He feels that it is a key economic development opportunity that should be explored by the City.
Development of Wheeler Plaza Area into a Town Center. ERA sees the City’s ownership of this parking plaza and several businesses in this area as an opportunity for Downtown San Carlos to offer a better balance of unique local stores and some desirable national retailers. Its development should strengthen the overall vitality of Laurel Street rather than threaten locally owned businesses. In response to questions from EDAC members, Mr. Lee suggests that an effort to design what such a project would look like along with an economic analysis of its viability would be helpful as a next step. He believes that such a design/economic study could be done for $10,000 - $20,000.
Transition Shoreway Road Area to Biotech Uses. ERA sees this strategy as the most speculative of the four due to heavy competition for biotech firms in the area and varying estimates of the growth of this market segment. They note that a biotech developer has bought the Shoreway building that formerly housed the Cell Net firm in San Carlos, so some biotech development at that site seems likely.
Mr. Lee noted that Tesla Motors, a company manufacturing electric cars on Bing Street, has grown to over 100 employees. He suggested that the City work with that company to try and retain their operations in San Carlos – both to cultivate sales tax revenues for the City and the high paying jobs that the firm generates.
EDAC members had several questions about the prospects for more hotel development in San Carlos. They noted it is appealing since it generates low amounts of traffic yet can be very financially rewarding for the City. Mr. Lee indicated that the market study analysis suggests that the first phase of additional hotel development in San Carlos is still a few years away. ERA also feels that when more Hotel development does come to San Carlos, it will probably result in two or three hotels in the three star market rather than one large hotel in the 500 - 600 room range.
EDAC members also asked ERA about their views on the use of the 301 Industrial Road property (former EIMAC/Varian site) and the proposal by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) to place a Clinic, Medical Office Building and Hospital on that site. Mr. Lee said that he believed approval of the proposal would likely generate more medical and medical-related uses in that area of San Carlos. He did not believe that the construction of the PAMF development would significantly impact interest in hotel development in San Carlos. He also expressed concern that the PAMF proposed project would “eat up” some of the remaining traffic capacity on the East Side of San Carlos, thereby limited the City’s other economic development opportunities. Mr. Lee was also asked if PAMF were to be voted on today, what his vote would be. After a long pause, Mr. Lee answered that he would have to “swallow hard” and that his vote would probably be “No.”
In response to EDAC member questions about mixed use projects that would include retail and housing, Mr. Lee indicated that he thought these were best placed on the West Side of the Railroad Tracks rather than in the East Side of San Carlos.
5. Public Comment
There was no public comment.
6. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
The next EDAC meeting will be a Joint Meeting with the City Council, held on Monday, October 30, 2006. That will be followed by the regular monthly meeting of EDAC on Wednesday, November 1, 2006.
