Economic Development Advisory Commission - Minutes February 6, 2008
Economic Development Advisory Commission Approved Meeting Minutes Wednesday February 6, 2008 Commissioners Present Connie Barton Barba Laura Battaglia (Secretary) Bob Farkas Mark Green Mark Lockenmeyer Mark Luckenbach Scot Marsters (Chair) Harold Schuette Gary Wiessinger (Vice Chair) Staff Present: Mark Sawicki, Economic Development & Housing Manager 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 4:04 p.m. by EDAC Chair, Scot Marsters. 2. Review and Approval of Minutes – January 9, 2008 EDAC Meeting Motion:Bob Farkas moved and Hal Schuette 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. Agenda Review EDAC will have a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Secretary election during the March
meeting. 4. Old Business and Reports A. Update from Staff
Bell Market – A new grocery tenant may be announced within the next four weeks. Holly/Industrial – The City is continuing to review proposals from two separate developers to ground lease and build 8,000 sq. feet of space for retail and food use. There would be room for four small tenants. Prax Air Site – The City has received inquires from the property owner and prospective users regarding a potential development at the former Prax Air site along Industrial. East Side Opportunity Booklet – A draft booklet including aerial and parcel maps is being prepared to use as a tool to bring in retail to the City. RSG will be helping Staff with outreach efforts to property and business owners regarding the potential for additional retail development. B. Update on GPAC (General Plan Advisory Council) Chair Marsters described the three-hour process to prepare a Vision Statement. The Planning Commission added further editing to the Vision Statement working draft. Commissioner Green commented that a shorter vision statement is generally preferred.Commissioner Schuette says he disagrees with removing a statement about health services. Vice-Chair Wiessinger said that the concepts are there, and the vision statement is making good progress.
C. Continuation of discussion on proposed San Carlos transit village development The Commissioners discussed if EDAC needs to make a motion of approval on the transit village development.Chair Marsters suggested that we need more information from the developer before we make a motion. Legacy Partners and SamTrans have just started community outreach which may affect the final development proposal for the site. 60 people came to the Transit Village presentation in January. As a result, there are adjustments to the preliminary development plan. The Commissioners discussed if there is enough economic development in the proposal. Commissioner Lockenmeyer suggested that EDAC review this proposal before the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is complete. Commissioner Green agreed that before or during the EIR process it is preferable for EDAC to review the proposal once again because we will have better criteria for evaluating this project. Commissioner Farkas wants the economic impact summary provided so we understand what the estimated cost and benefit this project will have on the City. The Commissioners asked Mark Sawicki if he would contact Al Savay on our behalf and find out when EDAC could review again the Transit Village proposal, including an estimate of fees/services expected. Commissioner Lockenmeyer ended the discussion with a question to consider about housing. Is the transit village the most efficient location for affordable and market rate housing in San Carlos? D. Update on Economic Development Partnership (EDP) Vice-Chair Wiessinger reviewed the minutes from the last meeting. He also raised the question, should the EDP be folded back into the EDAC meetings? Mark Sawicki suggested that yes, we should do that and include three additional EDAC commissioners representing one from the Harbor Industrial Association (HIA) and two from the Chamber of Commerce.Mark Sawicki suggests we bring EDAC back to 9 members with attrition. Chair Marsters suggested that EDAC provide the direction and have EDP work specific tasks since there is no specific reason to prohibit a work group from meeting. Commissioner Schuette asked if there are any legal issues – and Chair Marsters responded by saying no, as long as a minority of the EDAC members are participating in the work group.Chair Marsters expressed concern that City Council will be hesitant to grant an advisory commission slots for a specific organization to participate. He said City Council wants to have a balance of city residents and business owners. The EDAC ordinance would have to be amended to include a statement to add three people to EDAC temporarily until attrition gets the commission back down to 9 members. Motion:Gary Wiessinger moved and Connie Barton-Barba seconded that subject to approval of the EDP, EDAC will request that Council expand EDAC by three additional slots to include specific representation of the HIA (1) and Chamber of Commerce (2) for future EDAC meetings, until attrition gets the commission back down to 9 members. EDAC also requests that Council seek to maintain a balance of business owners and San Carlos residents on the EDAC. Action: The motion to request these suggested changes to City Council was approved by a majority vote (8) of the Commission. Commissioner Lockenmeyer opposes the motion because of the suggested statement change regarding balancing residents and business owners on EDAC.
- New Business
- Discussion of proposed EDAC work plan
City Manager is asking all Commissions to create and complete a work plan by March 10.The Commissioners reviewed the work plan tasks attachment and decided to add a seventh task: Create an economic development impact criteria for evaluating projects. Mark Sawicki will send commissioners a draft copy of the EDAC work plan tasks prior to the next meeting for review and approval to deliver to Council. B. Industrial presentation Commissioner Lockenmeyer suggested during the March meeting a 15 minute presentation by himself and/or HIA representative Michelle Margiotta on the “Industrial State of San Carlos”.
- Financial Review
Commissioner Farkas inquired about having more information on the financial review of the City. A quarterly spending update including where the sales tax revenue is going are specific topics of interest. In response to this request, Mark Sawicki will place on the March agenda a financial presentation and a mid-year budget review.
6. Other A) Next meeting date and time
March 5th from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in City Hall room 207. 7. Public Comment No public comment for the February meeting. 8. Adjournment The EDAC meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m. |
