you you you you you you good evening it's Wednesday January 8th 2020 I'm now call this meeting of the Burnsville economic dome Commission to order our first order of business is the adoption of the agenda do I have any amendments or changes that I was looking for a motion so moved my second worst kind of second all in favor opposed motion carries I know my number two approval amends from September 11th to have any changes or Corrections to the meeting minutes they were to prove his misspelled beside some group formal a change all right if nothing else looking for motion second in a second all in favor okay opposed and the motion carries after our third business item open to business review and update so have Lee Hall from MCC come up and present to the Commissioner and your no real forward to you thank you good evening commissioners thanks the opportunity to come and speak to you this evening my name is Lee Hall I'm with the open to business program and I'm here on behalf of Karen chef housing who is our advisor for Dakota County she had another engagement this evening so unfortunately you're stuck with me I'll try not to talk too fast but I'll try and be brief and I'm happy to answer any questions as we open the business overview the program let me just real briefly tell you about open to business we have been operating here in Dakota County since 2013 so you're probably familiar with it but just real quick as a high-level overview open to business is a program of the metropolitan consortium community developers were a nonprofit organization we really principally do two things we provide free one-on-one consulting service two entrepreneurs at all stages of business development from people who are really just thinking about starting a business two entrepreneurs have been operating a business for decades and are seeing out there some opportunity or maybe facing some challenges the service is free to anyone who wants to use it who is either a resident of one of our open to business communities or operating a business in one of our open to business communities there's no pre-qualification for the service and there's no limit on the service basically we'll work with someone as long as they want to work with us in addition to the consulting we also are a what is known as a CDFI of Community Development financial institution we are a direct lender we do provide access to financing for our business clients kind of help people start or again grow a business the program is offered now as of as of just this last year now Ramsey County is joining us so the program is now offered in all seven metro area counties and as I said we've been operating here in Dakota County since 2013 2019 Dakota County we're in the process right now of getting all our data entered getting our reporting done we'll have official reporting out to the county next week on 2019 we're just some preliminary results for Dakota County for 2019 program assists at a little more than 120 current and prospective entrepreneurs were approximately a thousand hours of direct one-on-one time with entrepreneurs around the county we made financial commitments direct financial commitments from our loan funds to six businesses in Dakota County approving about five hundred thirty five thousand dollars of direct financing we do direct loans for small business for startups for a variety of purposes equipment inventory working capital startup fees real estate but we do a lot of our lending also in partnership with private funders we find that we can often bring a small piece of financing to the table and attract private capital to the table we can help a business access dollars through a bank or other lending institution with a small commitment on our side so we put five hundred thirty five thousand of our money and we leveraged about five million dollars in equity private investment and financing from the banking community in 2019 and dakota county city of Burnsville specifically City Burnsville is really our most active city in Dakota County so well done we in 2019 we assisted 24 entrepreneurs who are either operating or working to operate a business directly in the city of Burnsville we also assisted for Burnsville residents who are operating businesses outside of the city of Burnsville we approved financing direct financing for two businesses located here in the city and an additional financing for a Burnsville resident operating outside of the city totaling three hundred and ten thousand dollars in direct financing and leveraging about four million dollars of investment for the businesses located in the city of Burnsville one was a new business that's estimating they will create 19 jobs the other is an existing business that I say impact or support a dozen jobs I hate to take credit for I hate the phrase retained I don't want to imply because we made a loan that's the only reason those jobs exist but obviously we were supporting a business and they are an employer so 19 new jobs 12 jobs impacted and just real briefly just kind of a breakdown of what businesses or what the clients in Burnsville what the profile of those clients looks like we measure our clients in four ways pre start planning or the early-stage entrepreneurs who are at a stage where they're really looking at the business plan or the feasibility startup our clients have moved into actively pursuing the business signed a lease working on build-out arranging for financing and then existing business clients we break up into two categories those existing businesses that come to us because they're facing some challenges and looking for some help and those existing businesses that come to us because they're seeing some opportunity to grow or expand you can see that it splits kind of close to 5050 or maybe 6040 people thinking of starting a business here in Burnsville versus about 40% of the clients we saw this year are in business now and looking for some assistance industry wise we're we're constantly working on improving our data collection and how we do our reporting we're constantly looking really everything that we do we adopted a data tracking program about two years ago we're still making tweaks to one of the big changes I need to make going forward is way too many of our businesses get reported in service so we have to find a better way to break that down a little bit you can see about 45% of all the businesses we served in Burnsville are categorized as service businesses currently that's a pretty wide range so we'll get you some better data as we go forward from here but you can see sort of industry-wide we see service businesses food businesses retail businesses construction technology manufacturing we're really seeing businesses really really across the spectrum we do see higher concentrations in food and retail and generally tend to be lower barrier to entry businesses that a lot of early-stage entrepreneurs do consider those as startup businesses and then source is just an idea of where the clients are coming from in terms of reaching us about 40% of the clients we met with here in the city of Burnsville we're referred either by the County CDA or by city staff directly we get a significant number of referrals from the local banking community we've reached a point now where some past clients past entrepreneurs are referring new new clients to us as well by going too fast well good with me okay just some other updates I just want to give you in the program and then I'd be I would welcome any questions or any additional information I can provide we have just completed we do a five-year program assessment this is a program wide assessment across the entire service area we employed the State Office of Budget management to do some direct surveying of past participants in the program both entrepreneurs have received consulting and technical assistance and also with past loan clients we've collected multiple years of demographic data income data racial data location basically we're compiling a big five-year summary of this is what the program does we're pretty good at counting things as they happen we can tell you who we met with and how long we met with them we can get projections like when I say 19 new jobs we can ask an entrepreneur who's launching a new business how many people they intend to hire the only way to really measure it if that actually happened how many people these businesses actually employ what they pay an hour what they pay in property taxes sales taxes those really tangible measurables so that we all know there's value to this program we obviously have to look back for that so we do that about every five years because it's a pretty huge undertaking and it's pretty expensive we just wrapped up the survey portion of it for the last five years I've got a third party who's working on drafting the report right now so we hope to have that available to our city and county partners within the next month or so here in Dakota County we had a pretty big change this year we had a transition to business advisor we had the same business advisor here for about six years seven years eight years six years and just couple months ago we hired Karen chef housing away from the Small Business Development Center in River Falls she's our new advisor for Dakota County we're very excited about Karen she brings a wealth of direct technical experience I really think she's gonna be a real asset to the businesses here we do assign an individual business advisor to each county to be the primary point of contact so when you're making a referral of the program you don't have to refer generically to the program you can refer directly to an individual I also think it's important for a business advisor in the AG community to be embedded in that community so they get to know what are the other resources are here what are the rules that are here who are the contacts and the people they need to know however we do work as a team there are about a dozen of us that work in the program and where it makes sense where the skill sets to fit we do a lot of cross referral amongst our advisors so Karen is your primary contact here she probably will handle eighty or ninety percent of most client requests for Dakota County in addition to Karen in 2019 I have added a couple of new advisors to the team to try and round out our skill set we have a pretty diverse group of advisors in terms of their technical skill a big point of emphasis for this last year we're trying to add some additional language and cultural skills to our team happy report we were able to add a native Somali speaking business advisor in 2019 I recently added among business advisor and we're in the process right now of looking for a native Spanish speaker to add to the team as well so that we can really provide the services that we provide to all of your residents in the city and that's pretty much my presentation contact information here for the program and for Karen as well can I provide any additional detail or answer any questions for you who Karen's information business card for her or any way we can actually absolutely I have I have a box of brochures which I left in my backseat but I will run out and grab for you and I know Karen will be here I believe Friday meeting with city staff and we'll make sure that you all have her direct contact information and if I may note to her information is also in our city website as well so we have information and some to directly access her yeah those channels so I have some questions on this you know for two plus years now I've been hearing about this organization called open for business yeah and it sounds awesome and but yet I've never run into anybody whose utilize it I don't even know really how it applies and so I'm wondering if you could kind of walk through a couple scenarios and define kind of how you guys interact along those scenarios could I give you a couple scenarios sure please let's say that I'm thinking about starting a bike shop and I need to start with a feasibility study and then determine financials and how to get financials and ultimately open to sell and service bikes scenario one ten years fast forward it's going really well I'm buying my bikes overseas I say you know I'd really like to I have this new innovative ideas for bikes I'd like to start to manufacture my own bike and come up with a manufacturing plant to do that so two businesses of very different stages how do you guys help I would say that frankly I would say that our skill set as a team we're we're the first the first client we absolutely had the capacity and the ability to help the second client I think we can help but I think it they're obviously create some additional challenges there and what I mean by that is for the early-stage client what we're gonna help that client do is we're going to act as a project manager for that client we're gonna help them kind of look at what did all the steps they're going to need to take and there are a thousand things that need to happen to go from idea to having business a lot of those things all have to happen at the same time that's hard to keep track of that's hard to make happen if you don't have the experience and you haven't done it before so we're gonna act in the early stage with clients is we're going to act as sort of a de-facto board of directors for them we're gonna help them in terms of looking at what all the steps are going to need to take and then we're gonna project manage it for them if we were working with a client that's going from the I have an idea to I have a business we may end up spending six months we may end up spending a year and a half with them I may end up spending 60 80 100 hours with that client continually going back and forth of them almost like playing fetch like okay there are a thousand things to need to be done here's what needs to be done next here's where you'd need to go to get that or here's the tools you need or this is we need to talk to go do that when you've done that come back and let's talk about what the next step is or when you go to try and do that if you hit a barrier come back and let's talk about how we get over that I think all of my team I hire my team specifically because they have the experience most of them have been business owners themselves they've worked through this process they're all pretty good on that early stage planning and the DNA of a business no matter what the industry is is fairly similar for 80 or 90 percent of issues it's I apologize I really will answer the second part of your question but if I may just take a slight detour there businesses in a lot of ways are like DNA if you think about a human being and a banana the DNA is about 95 percent the same this is true for businesses too and so that 95 percent of common issues that every business has to deal with how do you incorporate what do you need to do for taxes what is employment look like what are the rules related to that how do you manage cash flow how do you do accounting how those kind of factors are the same no matter what the industry is and so all my team are really really good at that part building a banana that next step of then how do you build a human being from that that gets into your second question you're ten years along now you have some very specific industry specific questions I said we have a team of about a dozen people from a lot of different industries sometimes we get really lucky in the industry that a person is in or the challenge that they are facing is something that on my team somebody has direct experience with in which case then we're going to and with the advisor who's the right fit for that I'll be honest with you though we talked to about a thousand entrepreneurs a year in all stages of life trying to do all stages the thing I can't possibly hire a team that knows all of the answers so then it really becomes being how good a research we are and how good of a partner we can be to that entrepreneur to help them try and find the answers and that often means doing research on our part it means really reaching out to our networks and our connections reaching out to attorneys I know reaching out CPAs I know reaching out to people in import-export or manufacturing to ask questions and make connections the good news is is I've been doing this for 25 years now so I'm finally at a point I can often reach out to clients who I've worked with in the past and say hey you've solved this problem help me solve it with somebody else it's available to all nothing ethnic or origins or primarily minority origins no it's it's available to anyone who lives in or wants to open a business in Burnsville Dakota County any of the open to business communities sounds fabulous I mean I don't know why a business wouldn't take advantage of it we kind of from the beginning we understood what we're good at which is doing the one-on-one work with the clients I agree we could do a better job promoting it to make the public aware of it someone get in contact with you or where do you guys like advertise or promote or so what we what we asked from the beginning and we're trying to provide some additional support to you but when we approached cities and counties to join the open to business program in terms of what we define as roles we're asking the city and county partner to do the marketing and the outreach to put it on your website to make the people in your community who have regular contact with entrepreneurs if a person in the city of Burnsville wants to open a business they're going to have to go through a few tracks they might be talking to licensing here the city or planning they might be talking to a local bank they may reach out to a chamber the goal for us has to be to make those people who are going to make those contacts with potential entrepreneurs aware that this is a service that's available person interested in opening a business I worked with you and you've taken me through the steps of how to do that business open and now I'm at the place where I'm looking for funding sure and I know that you said that you all have offered some funding or there are other lenders what happens if I receive funding from you what does that look like so our funding it's it's alone I mean we we have a limited amount of funds we have about ten million dollars in total capital which to me sounds like a lot of money but it goes really really fast it's alone we we make our loans available typically a two to four / prime so today that's about seven and a quarter to nine and a quarter we're pretty much always going to be a little bit higher than what the banking industry is at and that's intentional a client should access the private capital market to the extent that they can we're not trying to make an incentive based financing we're trying to fill the gaps where people can't access in the private market so we're gonna go through an underwriting process exactly like any other lender would we're just not box lenders we don't have a minimum credit score we don't have a minimum requirement for collateral coverage we don't have a minimum required for equity we're gonna go through it in terms of a review and then we utilize a couple of volunteer loan committees that consist of some some entrepreneurs some community members and some volunteers from the local commercial banking local commercial bankers who sit on our loan committees our staff will prepare a presentation do the underwriting work take it to the committee and make the case to try and get the client alone and then we are we are an internal servicer we generate our own loan documents we send out loan payments every month other cities in Dakota County have taken advantage of this every city in Dakota County is a partner and open to business news it is just Dakota County and Ramsey County no no I'm sorry Ramsey County joined most were there the last or most recent to join the program the program started in Hennepin County Carver County beat Dakota County by about two months Dakota County was the third to join the program and then over the last six or seven years it's spread across the Metro all seven Metro counties utilize the program now I think from a marketing perspective that's a real advantage it was hard in the early days to do a lot of mass promotion of the program and then tell people I'm sorry we don't serve your neighborhood it's awesome thank you any other questions all right thanks leave so much for your presentation thank you it brings us to agenda item number four review draft plan draft 2020 work plan any will be presenting us tonight Jenni Thank You mr. chair I'll just pull one of the reasons we are the highest user of open to business as Lee said is cuz we do a lot of promotion or more promotion than our other cities so we'll continue to do that to maximize that resource cuz it is a wonderful opportunity for those who need it so I'm here to present you some options for your 2020 work plan and I there's a lot of detail in the background about what was in last year's work plan and then what we have for this year's work plan so just a few highlights of things that you worked on last year that received an update on our economic development strategic plan in each of your meetings we did a review of open to business well thank you review have opened a business certainly review of Center Village vision I was here I think in September talk about our legislative or the council's legislative positions get your input on that we reviewed one TIF district TIF nine that was for industrial equities and review a couple meetings with the council and our development tools policy and that final version is going to them actually at their January 21st meeting and then there were several joint planning commission Economic Development Commission and council meetings regarding our transit oriented development ordinance parking study there was an m RQ update that you all attended and then our center village transit study where we provided some highlights on that it's a lot of broad variety of topics that you part of and then rolling that over into 2020 we have a couple different sections here so the top section we have kind of they're very much more specific and we have some specific targeted dates that being our sustainability group mrq update and then some training which we'll talk about in a moment and then our ongoing tasks are pretty much related to the economic development strategic plan that is kind of our marching orders for what staff is doing and what the priorities that were established what 18 months ago now so the first one certainly is the center village plan then we have improving the image of school districts and the city we talk about continuing development of part of the city and then we talk about enhancing our awareness around our commercial program certainly having open to business here this evening gets speaks to some of that and then continuing our position as a regional destination those are the top five five priorities and the economic development strategic plan as we look at that and we're talking about how we can engage you and keep you engaged in that one of the things we'll be asking you force perhaps to assign a couple EDC members to attend our center village or County route 42 business meetings if that's something that you'd be interested in miss Deane will be setting up a ongoing committee meetings or meetings with the businesses and those that are interested to learn about what's going on with 42 and to stay engaged as we right now we're working on the traffic study they'll be infrastructure you know we plan that there will be continually things going on in an annual basis so if the EDC is interested we would welcome a couple of you to be part of that that workgroup and you can hear straight from the business owners what their concerns and learn about people stay involved in what's going on there and then also what we added to this so we have open to business as we jump out of the economic development strategic plan the legislative agenda comprehensive plan that was adopted finalized actually last year but there's a whole economic development section that kind of parlays into the IDI strategic plan so we want to make sure that we are continuing to monitor and do what we said we would do with that plan and then we put ribbon cuttings back on here so as part of our strategic plan you know we're spending a lot of time on marketing and branding the city as part of our strategy for increasing tax base and the businesses that come here ribbon cuttings are a part of that and welcoming those businesses that are here now we've previously this group had a goal of attending so many per year I'm not we're not suggesting that but we want to make sure that you're invited and as you have time to attend it certainly is well received by those that are there celebrating their their grand opening or reground opening to have business community members like yourselves there so staff is there there's usually a member of the council the Chamber's there and then certainly we would want to extend that make sure that you know that invitation will be extended to you not required and not a goal like it was in the past but we would like it if you could make those so there's a few items that we did not carry over from last year's work plan you may recall tiff eight was approved but we industrial equities has not come forward with a building permit for that yet and it has been over two years and so we have let them know that we are not certifying that district so if they want to come back with any assistance they're gonna have to start over on that with a plan we took incubator possibilities off again we want to focus our resources on those IDI strategic plan priorities these not that these are important but when we're looking at our resources and things we want to work on we're trying to stick to the five priorities and then the Burnsville commercial real estate council group that as a group that I think has been around for about twenty years and I think it's kind of out it's lived its useful life so to speak with our IDI strategic plan in our marketing plan we're looking at doing things kind of more broadly with our brokerage community so there haven't been any events in the last several years because the economy's been good right and so we've listed sites on our website that are available and that's gone over very well with that group and we will continue to do that but we want to look at broadening our marketing so it's not certainly it's it's it's more broad than those that are participating in it already as what we'll be looking to do going forward so we'll still be doing that type of activity just not with a specific group of folks is what we're proposing for for a next year and onward so three questions for you and that is are there any changes to the plans or anything you'd like to see happen next year if you'd like to appoint to members to be on our center village workgroup that would be great if you have any suggestions for Council to consider in their 2020 efforts or change the ends and outcomes that now would be the time to do that and then another thing we are looking to do from our Commission's if there's any training that you'd like to receive I thought we had some good sessions on our economic development tools with Ehlers last year but if there's any other training or topics that you would like to learn about let us know and we can get some experts in here and we can learn together or go on a tour whatever that looks like but we want this to be a meaningful experience for you so if there's anything that boy I wish I knew more about this we'd like to hear from you what that what that means to you and then on next steps chair Newman we'll be presenting the draft work plan to the council in February so thank you mister chair for stepping up to do that yes of course and with that I will stand for any questions or direction you'd like to give open up to the Commission here I guess first off just wanted anyone concerned with the items that are being taken off the work plan not to carry forward any discussions we won't have on those three items any comments on the active items our work plan any additions any changes your are you gonna come back and ask then about some of the questions that she had or should we here's not the time to speak well I'm just that okay I guess no I'm gonna keep going chair I don't wanna know I can open up to the rest I guess diversion yeah hoping up to work plan if there's any questions a couple comments through those two these questions is they think about Burnsville and I think about where we're going I it seems to me the importance of young adults is is higher than than ever and what I mean by that is it overlaps so many different areas that we are working and it overlaps our group and what we do and the importance of bringing young adults into this community and encouraging them to stay in this community it overlaps with the chamber and their desire to help with workforce and companies that are really struggling to find the right workforce it helps with the city development plans with some of the new housing that we have that's upscale housing that is attractive to a lot of the young working adults and also the empty nesters and so forth and it ties into some of the parks emphasis on parks that we're putting into place some of the emphasis on biking or the desires for live work and play for young adults and it seems to me that many of the young businesses that are started up or started up by young adults as well and it just seems to me that we really need to put something in place that brings all of these groups together through experience burns with all the chamber the city and maybe even the DC's to some extent that we could impact that but ultimately have been organized more of an organized efforts around young adults and activities around young adults that really try to encourage them to invest in Burnsville and I think it brings a lot to the table for the whole EDC effort that's one comment I guess the last comment I'll have is that you talked about any trips or tours I think about what we're proposing for the Burnsville Center and it's very exciting and it's a very big picture and it's scary which it should be and in and there's a lot of space between where we are today and where we want to go which is great I think a big vision is renewed for that area but there's some areas where I think of that area for instance I think of Centennial lakes a lot of what's gone around south south Dale and Centennial lakes they're kind of all interconnected in my mind is a really good visual to what we want the Burnsville Center to be going forward I think about some of the areas up in Maple Grove Arbor lakes where they've done some of that and so I think about some of these areas that have faced some of the issues that we're facing today they just faced him 15 20 years ago and I'm wondering if there's some common learnings that we could take from some of these key areas if we were to get on a tour and go see them and talk about that because I think we have a role to try to figure out how to make some of those things come into play we have a small role but everybody has a small role and collectively we make a big impact and so is there a way for us to have a broader picture that we can start to drive more of a vision around some of the things we'd all like to see happen so those are my two comments building on that that sense of experience I also as I reflect on where Burnsville that I also used the example of Richfield 20 years ago it was a second ring suburb declining and now you drive through 76th Street you going oh my god they're always there's a crane on every corner you're going to keep putting up these really nice cutting-edge new retail and residential combinations I'm going Wow because I remember this place was really tired and and I go oh that's like us so another key learning is I don't know how much we do this but just to have someone from Richfield or one of these second tier and kind of have them invite them or have us go to them or something like that just to share best practice best ideas hey what we learn what are the challenges we face because I know things and otally I work in Centennial Lakes I know that really well I've been attended there for 20 years so I I know that story really well I just don't and the emergence out of Lilia granite into a five-star places to work is amazing and and rich feels another one where I'm going Wow wonder it wonder what the council and what their economic development tools because we're in that well I see us is where the emerging economic devote we had no tools we had non-existent incentives now we're inching our way up we have a modest budget we have a couple new tools I'm excited about using them but when you get a vision you go oh that's how we can do this that then you then you start moving the agenda and then your conversation with developers and like the people and who would like to go and work with the people on 42 it's super important that wherever we sends got to go with a story that they're looking for the city and what story you're going to tell you got to own this vision you got to say yeah and and also an ability to communicate like I know we're right now because you're right there's a big gap but and they're looking to you for us and saying what are you doing to take step one that's all they all know we're not going to step five but I mean one through five but they're looking for us to do step one so we really need to marshal a resources and of a command of what step one is and step one is really and I know we're starting to communicate and have mutual understandings and all that but if there's like oh here's a tool we're willing to bring to the table then they set up business lee or set up and listen okay now they're serious you're bringing some chips to the table we like that and that's when they start leaning in and they start investing a little bit more so and with those a couple my ideas as I look into 2020 and how we can continue the impact Burnsville I think your point of with Southdale you know it has evolved but that evolution had to start some set place and who who was the key person and maybe or group maybe meeting with them and understanding okay how did this get started what was it the city the Saturday was it the owner that started it you know what happened and then how did the city you know flow into them to make them work yep exactly points is so coming into Barnesville I love it you know since 2006 and I don't know what I'm supposed to be expecting I just think it's a great city so understanding what the history of Burnsville has been and maybe even hearing from people who had helped to develop Burnsville in the past and what direction we really wanted to go to now so there's a focus towards our conversations even if that could be just a you know just a session for us to kind of have a robust conversation or organic conversation about where is Burnsville going what are we trying to achieve with Burnsville I know that we have things on the word plan and a strategic plan that's being discussed right now but what's the overall vision for Burnsville would be helpful to kind of get those creative thoughts flowing I have several hopefully we can we can wrap these all up but I'll start I'll start with crystals comment um the council is going through a visioning exercise kind of right now at a very high level organizational level what does that vision look like for our community so they've engaged a consultant and I think there's one more meeting to be had with that so we'll be happy to share that with you once we once they decide what that looks like for them certainly when we went through the 42 Charette vision planning exercise with our consultants we we brought in the experts right these were people who worked in other communities and put together these other plans for these other shopping centers and so we as staff are well versed on what these other communities have done and we do have a plan that lays out the steps that need to happen but perhaps we can do a better job of communicating that with you so you know what it is and we can have an engaged conversation so we're happy we're happy to do that we have the plan the implementation steps are in there we're working on them we've checked off a few boxes already so we can I'll go back to the work plan on number one we can make sure when we talk about the updates to the IDI strategic plan that that is more specific and clear with you on that and certainly we can go learn from these others and have them come in or go on a tour that that's that's in those are those things are always invaluable right when as part of learning so so that was where we're at and then you mentioned something on Richfield and what tools they have done certainly we when we brought in Ehlers there are financial advisor they work in Richville they work in most metro communities doing this again we use the experts that have their fingers and all this stuff to know what all these kind of moving parts are in these other communities but we are happy to bring them in and they can give you kind of an overview of what kinds of tools and work and timelines go into this they were here to the City Council at a work session two years ago maybe three years ago talking about what other cities do in regards to economic development and this was done I think just prior to our economic development strategic plan work so we had the mayor of Cottage Grove here we had some folks from st. Louis Park here talking about what it takes so well I'm happy to look up that meeting and email it to you for reference but we can kind of do something similar like that with it was this group of that if that's what you're asking we can do that I think your point about meeting with the people who are who own you know areas in the County Road 42 area to see what they're interested in doing because we can help facilitate it but we probably can't you know create the plans for them exactly I will go I'll go back Commission to what mayor coats has said for for many many years you know our job is to set the table for the private sector so as the zoning in place is the comprehensive plan in places where's the traffic at and the utilities are at the things that we're responsible for are we open to business and business friendly and and as accommodating as community is willing to accept so when they come in with a with that proposal yep this is good looks good we're ready to go come in for a permit or if there's an entitlement process so that is our that is our role here and of course marketing has become a big part of that too till let's spread the word let people know what we have that's we can set the table all we want but if people don't know there's a dinner nobody's gonna show up so to speak right so I think part of the issue too is and the mayor has said it a number of times you know we don't want to impact our bond rating but some of this may take you know to really make it move there may have to be some bonding done to you know you see other cities buying you know run-down areas and things like that and obviously that relates to bonding and we may have to you know change what we're doing in that arena to be helpful and and commissioners that's what a some other many other cities do that you know it's kind of what level are they participating in economic development and redevelopment and buying properties and demoing them to get what you want is certainly a part of that you're absolutely I was gonna throw out an idea that might make it easier for everybody if we didn't want to go to the tour on the 22nd I think of this month EDM Economic Development Association Minnesota has their conference actually the 23rd and the 24th I believe which is a 30 Thursday and Friday but on Wednesday at 3:00 the city of Edina is going to sponsor an open tour to talk the economic development people talk about some of the things they've done in their City long Southdale along 66 is that interfaces with Richfield and just a lot of the exciting things that's going on around there some tiny lakes and so forth and I wonder if we could actually piggyback on top of that because it's kind of side of the conference and it's already arranged and so forth and I wonder if we our group could be invited to just attend that and be a part of that because I could be really interesting well look we'll look into that if now we can they might do something outside of that with us too I think the other piece that is a big part of this puzzle here is you've got three schools that are closing and you know you talked about young people and skip mentioned to me one time because I was talking about how why a young couple bought their house in Burnsville versus going to Eagan well they said the houses here were ten thousand dollars cheaper for the same MAOIs well part of the reason they're cheaper is because our community hasn't addressed you know some of these the issues that we have and you know it's it's beyond you know our control but it's still something that somehow we've got to work with the schools to make that more attractive to people so that they think of Burnsville as a place they want to come to and I think it's more critical than any of us have really imagined and I think that's why we were in our strategic plan and I think there's been huge octrees with the city the mayor and the collaboration with school districts and mr. chair if I may one one last thing on attracting families that was brought up as a comment there is a lot of that woven into our economic development strategic plan kind of as a target market and when you look at our branding and marketing plan that's put together there's a lot of it that's geared who's our target audience right that's a way that's what we asked when we were about to do something and family shows up a lot long with entrepreneurs is on there as well so so we just need a motion to accept or approve the work plan and send it on to Council I think before that you wanted I think you mentioned something about members for the center village correct if they're if that's something that you're interested in I think we'll take up maybe too miss Dean to woodwork I mean from my perspective involved if I go into plugins years we have to pick two people that would be always involved here can we all get the emails be attending these meetings or I I would say mr. chair I we don't know these these this committee has not been set up yet so the challenge is how many people are gonna show up and I don't think we want to have more EDC members than we do business owners or tenants or businesses right so just trying to be a little strategic and and who we want there we certainly don't want to exclude anybody and we can provide the minutes to the meeting we will have those and we can certainly share those but I think until miss Tina don't know if you have any other comments on that as well right and I think one of the things I don't know if these are going to be morning meetings or you know afternoon and so that knowing your schedules you might want to give that some thought and then respond maybe once it's set up and you have the guidelines that we can talk about that at share point but it seems like there is interest and and there is some commitment from the Commission to have at least two representatives who those are to be determined is that very right if there's nothing else looking for a motion to remain recommend adoption of the 2020 work plan so drafted so moved in a second all in favor aye all opposed motion carries thank you Amy move on tour if the 10 item for today academic development strategic plan update will be a presenter on that good evening chair members of the Commission as part of our strategic plan one of the things we want to do was do regular reporting with our Economic Development Commission and so in your background there's a greater summary of the things we worked on but I'll just touch briefly and then if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer included in your packet are our monitoring reports so city staff reports to the City Council and the public the things that we work on in our various departments specifically we look at redevelopment and development and these items that are in our strategic plans our five top items so number one ensure sustainability of the Burnsville shopping center so since your last update that was provided to you via email I think since November the things that we've been working on are the traffic study again you were part of some conversations with our engineering and Volks engineering consultant and that's still progressing in the traffic study is not completed yet but we expect that will be done at the end of February and what that's looking at is the traffic capacity within the Burnsville Center area recommendations for improvements to the area should the center village vision be built out to its full capacity so that's in progress there will be an update to our City Council at their February work session there was an online survey as well as some engagement actually the online survey is still available and then there was some physical engagement at the Burnsville Center in December and actually our engineering department commented that that was a great venue to seek feedback traditionally we've held open houses in the past where you get you know maybe a couple of people trickle in and usually the consultants and staff outweigh the people that actually attend so there is a captive audience walking by through the holiday season so that was that was nice to get some of that feedback and then we have been working for the past couple years with Dakota County and Orange Line station extension a station is proposed somewhere within the Burnsville center area likely on the east side when development happens and so the report is wrapping up they'll be in front of Dakota County will be in front of our City Council in February it's kind of our transportation theme city council work session but there is a recommendation from Dakota County to pursue that site again at time of development and they're asking for a resolution of support from our City Council so that's wrapping up and then you may have noticed some development going on within the area on County Road 42 we have that new Caribou Coffee it's open as they had their official grand opening on January 3rd to stop by if you haven't already it's touted as a drive through but you can also bike to that location I think some of you may remember that when it came through the EDC for their the approval of the land sale that you can actually bike there as well so it's a walk up site item number two improved image of ISD 190 191 and the city so family Fest is something that is put on by the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the city and also with the school district this was hosted at Burnsville high school very well attended you may notice a familiar face and they you belong here a little poster there I don't know if any of you notice a certain Economic Development Commission member I didn't see that I didn't know that so the city wants to remain engaged with obviously these different partnership opportunities and this was one opportunity that we were able to have a presence not only from our Parks and Rec Department or police department staff that's in our City Council and economic development staff as well we as a staff are continuing to be engaged with the school district's facilities plans so we want to know you know where they are in their process and our state has engaged and on top of things as we can there could be opportunity with the properties for perhaps future development so we want to keep an eye on that certainly that's something that we would if there is opportunity that you would have involvement with and then we're working city staff is working as well as the chamber and the convention bureau with the st. Paul area Association of Realtors and so one of the things that we're doing is showcasing the great things and Burnsville with the group of Realtors so they get education credit but then it's an opportunity to showcase the new development projects that are going on in Burnsville things like Crystal Lake and Buck Hill which are great regional assets as well as there's going to be a tour of the high school so it's a great opportunity again to showcase the great things that we're doing here and try to attract those young families that we talked about earlier make sure we showcase some great food - who is always a way to people's hearts number-3 continued development in heart of the city so maven and gallery on the parkway are the two apartments that are under construction right now Maven's set to open in spring of 2020 and then gallery on the Parkway likely in early fall of 2020 and those are just plugging away and transit oriented development ordinance again you as a commission were part of that discussion with the Planning Commission at a joint work session that will be before the Planning Commission at their Monday night meeting for further discussion of a draft ordinance they're not taking action at that meeting there will be a public hearing and then if they reckon make a recommendation at that meeting then it would go to City Council at the following meeting we've continued to stay engaged with the general public through a survey some of you may have seen that online survey available as well so that's progressing and then enhance and build awareness around housing and commercial programs a couple of the things that we've worked on a homeowner's workshop with our which our building Department hosted our planning staff was also available on-site at that meeting this is I think the third or fourth one that we've hosted so basically it's open to residents of Burnsville that are maybe your kind of do-it-yourself weekend home builder and a home builder but remodeler you know someone building a deck they're not sure maybe what they what they need to do as far as permits so we have this opportunity to ansel it answer some general questions and provide some guidance and then if they pull when when they pull a permit for their improvement project they do get a rebate off of that or at a reduced fee usually very well-attended great questions are asked and it's just a great resource for our residents and then you are part of the public finance workshop with our City Council and with Ehlers number five continue the city's position as a regional destination so Ginny and I had a presence the Minnesota Minnesota commercial realtor's Association I probably have that acronym messed up it's min Carr is the acronym but I've closed Allah so she asian of Realtors thank you thank you so we had a presence at this event I believe about 600 people were in attendance Jenny and I must have talked to well over a hundred people that that evening we were able to showcase the you belong here brand or Center Village plan and we obtained business cards from the people we spoke to and so after the event we're able to communicate with them we thank the people for visiting this and shared a little bit more information about the projects that we're working on to kind of keep keep Burnsville fresh in their minds great way to to receive some contacts there and then we continue to promote that you belong here Brandon in various respects in the photo we have the the wrapped bus MBTA bus which circulates not only in Burnsville but also through our surrounding communities as well as Minneapolis so had a lot of fun with this it's my understanding that a couple one or one to two million people will be viewing this bus during the timeframe that this is circulating throughout those communities so it's a great way to to show show off Burnsville as well so with that those are just some of the highlights certainly if there are any questions any specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer those because I'm always at a loss for questions I have a couple more just ask my family I ask a lot of questions I have a curious mind I guess a couple things for you one is just a general comment than a question so our son moved out last Saturday after living with us and commuting downtown the APIs for the last two years or so and he has moved into a house in Bloomington and has found that the bust line from Bloomington to downtown Minneapolis takes him longer than the Burnsville transit station to downtown Minneapolis I'm like you know what that's a big deal that's a real big deal that you're actually that much further away in in Geographic distance and you're actually faster to go direct line from Burnsville and that's attractive to a lot of people if they just understood that so we can't go yet it is a great story second thing is that on number four item number four that was presented we talked about enhancing and building awareness around the city's existing housing commercial programs and develop new programs is appropriate you talked about these homeowners workshops I'm not completely certain of the connections that we've made on these programs that we want to put in place for people to remodel their homes and businesses and this workshop and how its educating people on what's there and what actually is there is there clear definition around all that well I attended and I'm like that weekend remodeler so when I saw the information come out and what it was going to be offering it totally captured everything that I wanted to understand about permits just first steps making sure that you're doing things that the city would prove of and then I'm a yardie so digging and all of that it was pretty resourceful and informative and like she said the room there it's very well attended and there were some great questions that came out of it but no programs necessarily were offered up right which is what we've talked about maybe creating some programs whether it's low-interest loans or something like that oh it was more educational in nature if I understand you correctly which is great and it's helpful but as far as us identifying actual programs to help have we really done any of that so this is something that's in progress and maybe Jenny can speak further to it but we're currently working with the CBA and with do you want to step in sure okay commissioners this is something that's been on the council's radar as well as we don't have any current grant programs for instance that we directly fund or oversee for home improvements or commercial projects for that matter we administer our housing program so that the Dakota County CDA and so they are the HRA housing and redevelopment authority branch of the city as they are for all of the communities that are in Dakota County so they are the expertise which is great because it it would be a lot of effort for each city in Dakota County to have that own in-house expertise so we rely on the Dakota County CDA we are also an entitlement community under her CDBG Community Development Block Grant which is a federal grant given to certain communities we meet the threshold we get about $300,000 per year about every two years or every year the council approves a budget on where their next year's allocation will be it's a two-year funding cycle and in this last funding cycle the council made a decision starts July 2020 it's the fiscal years off at the federal level to July 2021 to put more resources towards home remodeling and home rehab loans that those are paid off or they're forgiven after I think it's 30 years so the CDA administers that there's always a waiting list for those in Burnsville so they switched around some resources to put more funding towards that now when I think of our IDI strategic plan a lot of this has to do with doing an assessment of what our what programs are out there and maybe look at what things we want to do we just haven't gotten that far down the list and you may recall our ad strategic plan has specific strategies and goals and tactics in it for us to take up so we're we're biting at these but there's a lot to do and we're tracking that and we have a new staff member with us so we plan to kind of continue with that effort but we just haven't gotten into the nitty-gritty I think of what what you're thinking so yeah I think it would be something that would be valuable for us to continue to develop I think of the area of the industrial era area north of 13 where many of those air you know those buildings are mostly full mostly doing well but a lot of those buildings need some upkeep and for us to be able to make I don't know if it's ever possible take some of the dollars that we have for economic development and be able to give out turn some of that into the low-interest loans so that money keeps coming back to us and we put it to work and make it subtract it through programs to make it attractive for people to fix up those businesses and buildings I think we would all benefit from that so that's it will be an interesting conversation that we should try to enter into before too long because we've been talking about it for a little while now sure and commissioners you may remember we have the council did adopt a policy and commercial rehab program I want to say two or three years ago that I remember talking about it but I don't remember the actual policy they adopted the policy we can send that out to you they just did not fund it so we said well son will send the policy out to you so you know what's in it and certainly a little bit continued discussion on this absolutely I think the other thing with the home builder workshop or you know home remodeler worship you might actually have a session where for people who aren't going to do it themselves and how do you select the contractor but equal' questions do you ask things like that you know because there's a lot of older people here who probably aren't going to do the jobs themselves but could use some help and maybe even have a contractor registry for contractors that have particular type of expertise you know whether it's bathrooms kitchens etc that there really isn't anything you know significant available I don't think because I know my neighbors are always asking everybody else well who did you have do this and that and and those don't always fit you know with what I had done with what they want to do so having resources available to for contractors of contact etc we we may have some licensed contractors isn't there a link online seems to me we talked about that was with the Planning Commission or maybe permitting or something there was a list I remember seeing a list there's a list of licensed we can direct people to a list of such we can't necessarily what we can truck up and someone but we can point them to resources licensed folks that are licensed through the state of Minnesota for example it certainly did that I just wanted to piggyback off your communication about the programs I did while you were talking I did think about there's an HVAC program through Dakota County that they go and they will if you have old heating a furnace and an air conditioner there's a program that helps homeowners get new ones they get the newer ones and that program is through Dakota County as well - that might be something that you were thinking about as well in terms of offering programs take all of it anything that helps financially ultimately comes down to money right and anything that helps financially for people to reinvest into their homes or their businesses I think that's part of what we're trying to do [Music] presented tonight so some of you may have noticed skipping houses not in attendance tonight he actually retired on Friday so I'm sorry if some of you didn't hear but he did retire we do have a new economic development coordinator that started on Monday and she is in the audience Jamie Scheffer she's with us previous experience she worked with the city of st. James and the city of rush City she has seven years of economic development experience a great asset to our department she not only has experience with TIF with land sales but with also marketing and different programs so we're just thrilled to have her and she will going forward be your staff liaison certainly Jenny and I will be here to support her as she's learning and training and be here topic specific but she will be your your staff liaison so any questions should be directed to her we'll make sure that you have our contact information as well and that's all that I have Thank You chair there's nothing else there's no other items to become a forest knight so looking for a motion to adjourn okay in a second all in favor say aye aye all opposed and the motion carries thanks for tuning in to tonight's Economic Development Commission meeting have a good night