2. Approval of the Minutes – May 9, 2007 EDAC Meeting
EDAC Commission members discussed the draft minutes of the May 9, 2007 meeting.
Motion: Hal Schuette moved and Geoffrey Stern seconded that the minutes be approved as submitted.
Action: The motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting was approved by a unanimous vote of the Commission.
3. Economic Development Plan – EDAC comment review
The meeting began with a copy of the EDAC Commissioners Top 5 items, their comments and a summary that ranked the Top 5 Priorities of the Commission. The Commission then elected to hear from members of the public prior to discussing the Economic Development Plan.
John Baer of San Carlos, a developer of a Mixed Use Project at 1000 El Camino Real (former Salvatore’s Restaurant) and a proposed Mixed Use Project at 767 Industrial Road spoke first. Mr. Baer took exception to a recommendation in the Real Estate Market Study prepared by Bill Lee of Economics Research Associates (ERA) that suggests rezoning the area along Industrial Road adjacent to Highway 101 from Industrial uses to Mid and Large Plate Retail. This is also shown as East Side Priority # 1 in the Economic Development Plan. He feels that mixed use development balances jobs and housing, and makes traffic and parking more efficient. Mr. Baer believes that mixed use development "is a superior economic alternative". Scot Marsters asked what he was defining as the "East Side". John Baer said he would leave that definition up to the City Council and EDAC.
Chris Wuthmann of San Carlos, a consultant working on the Mixed Use Projects being developed by John Baer spoke next. He provided a handout where he compares potential City revenue for both "Box Retail" and Mixed Use. He believes that mixed use development provides better use of the land by providing below grade infrastructure for parking. Scot Marsters asked if the examples in the handout compare the city expense for each example. John Baer responded no, the handout was an example of revenue contribution. John Baer feels that the break point for efficiency would be 25 units to an acre. Mark Green commented that the handout comparison was not consistent with each example. Chris Wuthmann summarized his response by suggesting that mixed use properties can do more with the land. Mark Green asked, "What references were used for this presentation?" John responded that his references are the Miguel Martin Study and the National Multi Family Housing Council.
Sol Kutner of San Carlos spoke and asked why the Economic Development Plan does not include any mention or specific details regarding the potential Palo Alto Medical Foundation site. Frank Spevacek of RSG responded that once the decision by the City Council is made on what to do with that property, then the Economic Development Plan can be revised to help determine what to do with the land. The intent of the Economic Development Plan is that it will be a living document that is updated periodically.
Since there were no more speakers, EDAC then voted to close the public hearing portion of the discussion. EDAC Commissioners then each summarized their list of top five objectives in the Economic Development Plan.
Geoffrey Stern said that his top priority – improving partnerships – is a must and is vital to moving forward, especially with EDAC, the Chamber of Commerce, and the City Council. He thinks that developing a hotel on the Landmark Site and the development of the Railroad Parcel has huge potential for the City. He wanted to know how the rest of EDAC commissioners felt about that. Scot Marsters said that increasing revenue for the City was our first priority, and improving partnerships would definitely be part of that process. Scot indicated that most of the detailed task objectives will be taken care of as we move forward with the Plan.
Laura Battaglia said that we were asked to prioritize the RSG suggestions down to a manageable number (five) to bring to the City Council. Therefore, that could explain why our suggestions were specific and did not necessarily address the importance of improving partnerships as one of the top five objectives, even though is it vital to our success.
Mark Luckenbach agrees with the Commission’s Top 5 priorities. In general he favors projects that have high revenue potential for the City, can be achieved in a short period of time and preserve the City’s quality of life. He does not see much added biotech development beyond what is in place today and could potentially be attracted to Industrial Road if the PAMF project were to be approved and developed.
Mark Green stated that he was comfortable with EDAC’s top five summary. He wants the plan to be a living document. Previously EDAC was a resource to the Redevelopment Agency – and he suggested that EDAC return to that resource opportunity.
Scot Marsters suggested focusing on what brings the most bang for the money now. He would look at Mixed Use at the Bell Market site, develop Wheeler Plaza at less than 4 stories and start work on the Landmark Site now.
Gary Wiessinger feels that the City has excellent locations along Highway 101 that are under utilized. He feels that Economic Development along the Highway 101 corridor is appealing since it can generate revenue but not affect the quality of life. He sees the Bell Market and Wheeler Plaza sites as short term opportunities that should be explored now. He is also concerned about traffic on Holly Street and sees the need for improvements in that area.
Hal Schuette is looking at the bottom line and the City’s budget shortfalls. He wants to fill vacant Police positions and avoid further cuts in the Police Department budget. He is excited by the potential of large and mid plate retail along Industrial Road and the Highway 101 corridor. He suggests that the City go after "first in class" business operators such as Target, Fry’s and BJ’s. He would rate hotel development as a lower priority than Large and Mid Plate along Industrial Road, the Landmark Site, Bell Market site and Wheeler Plaza.
Mark Lockenmeyer sees the development of a Landmark Hotel as very important to the City. He also is concerned about traffic conditions in San Carlos and suggests making addressing that with more traffic capacity on Holly Street and building additional infrastructure as a high priority. He also thinks that El Camino Real needs a better identity.
Scot Marsters mentioned that collectively other objectives were included in many of the top five ranking. Gary Wiessinger suggested that we submit our total list to City Council, not just our top five, since five isn’t necessarily a magical number. Brian Moura suggested that we submit our initial EDAC comments summary page to City Council for their review.
The Commissioners discussed the top five priorities and inquired about which shall be first in order of implementation. Frank Spevacek of RSG suggested that it is likely that more than one priority item would be developed since they concern different parts of San Carlos and have varying levels of complexity and time to complete.
EDAC discussed a future agenda item that would get into more detail on the implementation portion of the Economic Development Plan. This would likely occur after the City Council has a chance to review and approve the plan.
Part of the discussion will include, "what is it that we want our community to look like?" Some decisions are not purely economic. For example, product mix is a key. Residents want a grocery store in the downtown area. Although another grocery store isn’t a major revenue generator for the City, it is a good decision because it could draw people from El Camino into downtown. The Commissioners indicated that their focus on the downtown sites (former Bell Market and Wheeler Plaza) was to "activate" these sites as the Economic Development Plan indicates. This may or may not involve a grocery store. Mark Lockenmeyer endorsed the plan’s discussion of reviewing zoning designations yet cautioned of unintended consequences such as City Council implementing zoning restrictions as we move forward with the Plan.
EDAC also discussed further the potential of a new hotel development. The current opportunity according to the Market Study is for a hotel with 150-175 rooms. Would it make more sense to wait a few years and then pursue one larger hotel of 300 rooms on the same piece of land vs. two smaller hotels, one of which could be developed sooner? Mark Green and other commissioners expressed support for hotel development but they would not necessarily tie such a development to the Landmark property. In short, the priority was for one or more hotels, not necessarily a hotel at this location.
The Landmark Site was also discussed in terms of what else you can do with the land if there is extra space or a hotel placed elsewhere. Frank Spevacek of RSG was asked if we could put retail there. He indicated that it is a potential retail development site. For example, a Target store needs between 5-8 acres so this site would meet the minimum size for such a development. EDAC commissioners indicated they would support a significant retail development on the Landmark Site.
Mark Green suggested that we come up with a quantifiable measure(s) to determine if we are successful in the future with our Economic Development suggestions. We shall add this to our list of future agenda items for EDAC. Some items to consider include:
· Revenue
· Quality of life (via survey)
· Air pollutant levels
· Noise levels
We then ended our discussion with a motion to endorse the Economic Development Plan and to send to the City Council: (1) our top five priorities from the Economic Development Plan (2) A suggestion to consider mixed use development throughout the city and (3) a copy of each EDAC Commissioner’s comments regarding the list of priorities.
The Top 5 priorities of the Commission are:
1. Recruit Large to Mid Plate Retail (East Side # 1)
2. Activate Bell Market Site (Downtown # 2)
3. Develop SamTrans Railroad Project (El Camino Real # 1)
4. Activate Wheeler Plaza (Downtown # 1)
5. Develop Landmark Hotel (East Side # 4)
Motion: Gary Wiessinger moved and Mark Green seconded that motion.
Action: The motion to endorse the Economic Development Plan and to send the City Council our list of documents and suggestions was approved by a unanimous vote of the Commission.
4. Discussion of Draft Economic Development Grid (Cross Impact Matrix) and City Wide Economic Development Priorities, Strategies and Principles
The EDAC Commissioners deferred action and further discussion of this item until a future meeting so that it could be reviewed with the EDAC Liaison Sub Committee and the Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Sub Committee.
5. Report on Liaison with Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Sub Committee
A meeting with the Chamber Sub Committee, the EDAC Liaison Sub Committee and Chamber and City Staff has been set for Thursday, May 17th. This item will be placed on the June EDAC meeting to report on the May 17th meeting and work of the two groups.
6. Updates from Staff
Brian Moura provided EDAC with an update on economic development projects and items of interest.
a) San Carlos Marketplace (former Breuners site) – Construction continues to move forward on this site. The foundation has been poured and the project remains on schedule.
b) Green Business Program – Brian Moura reported on the Green Business Program, a way for current San Carlos Businesses to be certified as Green and listed in a Bay Area wide directory of over 900 such businesses. A copy of the checklists that businesses have to meet was passed around for the Commissioners. Brian also passed out a document which provided more information at the following web address: www.greenbiz.ca.gov .
Marilyn Moon of San Carlos stated her support of a grocery store at the Bell Market site.
9. Adjournment
