you you you you you good evening it's Wednesday September 11th 2019 and I'll call this meeting of the Burnsville Economic Development Commission to order before we go into our agenda I would like to welcome our three new commissioners to the EDC so I thank you for volunteering your time in serving on this commission our first order of business is to adopt the agenda do I have any changes or revisions agenda for this evening looking for emotion pick up the motion to approve the proposed agenda a second favor say aye all right I'll pose same side and the motion carries second order of business is the approval of the minutes from May 8th 2019 meeting any comment nothing stand for a motion a motion we approve the minutes of the May 28th meeting or maybe the meeting I'm sorry I'll second home favor say aye opposed same sign motion carries move to our third agenda I don't review and discussion of legislative agenda and the presenter will be Jenny pop turn the floor to you Thank You mr. chair commissioners I'm here at least once a year which is always at your fall meeting to talk about the legislative agenda so just a little background the city adopts a legislative agenda every year the City Council does they talk about this at their usually their October work session and then they bring in all the legislators usually in January just before session starts and then they share with them what the city's priorities are your role on the economic development commission is to provide any input to the City Council if they should have any new legislative priorities or change the ones that we already have perhaps so I just usually give an overview of where we're at so these priorities that were in your packet where adopted by the council for 2019 and looking for your feedback and input going into 2020 so we have three different categories right now we have the priorities which are action items those are things that the city is actively engaging and talking to legislators about then we have supporting position statements that means if there's a bill that's introduced related to that we may send a letter we may go testify this is where we're at with this as a community and then there are ones that we just monitor so just kind of keep an eye on things that are out there we do have a position on it if it pops up a lot of those that aren't monitor I've been on there for a long time and they just kind of come up maybe in a committee or in a question here or there but they're good still I think to have on the position so we know where we're at if something happens by the time the legislature is in session it's kind of hard to take steps back to final form your position when the train has already left the station so to speak so this is being a little bit more proactive so as you look at what our priorities are I'm just gonna stick to the ones that are focused on economic development and not walk through all of them the council will be going through this at length at their October work session we have two priorities and there are three total that the council had for 2019 and two of them are related to economic development ones relating to closure of the freeway landfill and freeway down properties and then the other ones related to the Burnsville Center County Road 42 redevelopment so the closure of freeway landfill freeway dump is something that the city's been working with the MPCA and Dakota County property owners potential developers for well over a decade if not two as long as I've been here we've been engaged in this so what we do support is that the SPCA and EPA their efforts to properly close this there could be some adverse environmental impacts to Burnsville into the region if it's not closed properly so that and then along with that instead of just closing it the same old same old way there's an opportunity perhaps to have some economic so rather than kind of put a liner in it move it cap it in place it's gonna be there forever and that's how it will always be there may be an opportunity to move this waste off-site over to the Burnsville landfill and then fill the hole and then we have an opportunity for over a hundred acres of economic development so the city's priority first is that it's cleaned up in an environmentally friendly manner right so we have drinking water that could be could be at risk if this is not cleaned it rapidly and not just burns mills drinking water we sell water to savage and could be other cities in the long term who knows who our customers will be but right now they're savage and burn so residents so that's number one of course the Minnesota River is impacted by this as well so that's kind of the first one and we support tools that could get not only to a closure plan that's environmentally friendly but like I said that opens it up for economic development this is not cheap right now what the MPCA has in the bonding bills 120 million dollars for next session so this is not this is not it's one of the larger requests I think that's out there a quick question on that one as I hit items that was up on that is it is it in for the bonding bill or is that something that was just going to be paid for I think that had something to do with the length of time that it would take to develop if it was bonded for I think it would be undeveloped Abul for a certain period of time under Thank You Brady under the under the state constitution as I've come to understand over the years when state bonding bills are bonding funds are used you know it has to be used for a public purpose and it's the public purpose is to sign decidedly thirty seven and a half years so when public bonding money is used for a public project it has to stay in the use of the public for at least thirty seven and a half years before it it can do something else so yeah it extends it along is a long time that's for sure source or I guess as far as the legislative agenda and then we were we were hoping that the state would simply pay for it versus bonding for it I think is the I think request or no we are hoping that alternate funding sources be used okay maybe it's a tax on something else perhaps there could be some TIF that wouldn't when there comes to be development that we could throw into deal with some of that stuff but other sources certainly there's other players here could be the county could be the city if we want to pay cash if we had it that could be a funny if the state has cash so there's a lot of moving parts with with this and how this could work okay to cover the cost of 120 million dollars to remediate it I find outside sourcing to cover early so it doesn't okay just making sure that's it so ultimately if you could find a business ideally they wanted to pay the whole hundred twenty million for the redevelopment because they can see purpose in it that's ultimately fine but somewhere breaking that up and getting now that's that's crackers as long if it's a private redevelopment project then there's that could be done immediately with the private dollars yeah right but as long as the states involved and we're using public dollars and those public dollars happen to be bond yes or trying to avoid that if we can so we can turn it into something profitable for the city you got it and something that pays tax pays taxes and gets back on the tax rolls to pay the public back for the work to clean it up eventually add jobs for some housing opportunities employment opportunities so this is the policy right now is supporting the efforts of the MPCA having a plan that addresses environmental impacts first secondarily um deals with economic development and has a variety of tools of funding mechanisms yes do the 120 million estimate is that for only remediation and the termination or the or is that include the removal of it if we did choose to remove that those estimates are from the MPCA that's their request and they put together some rough estimates a couple of years ago that had to do with the dig inline option which is leave it on-site not digging Hall okay thanks there's will be more coming up I think this fall as they get smaller what that looks like as far as what kind of garbage is in there and timelines for bidding and whatnot so there's a lot more to come on this move does that include the property 120 million does that include the property across the freeway correct alle includes freeway landfill and freeway down both those properties it's a good question so that's the first one I mean I should say the council will be having a meeting on October 29th I think Dakota County will be there to give an update on this if you're interested you're welcome to attend that public meeting or watch it on TV or catch the tape because it will get into a little lot more of the details if you're not that familiar with it already then the second priority statement regarding the regional center I'm similarly that the the priority the legislature so we need special legislation to create a TIF district so we had a really good TIF training within the last month and this area does not qualify for a TIF district it's been buildings have been property properly maintained at the Burnsville Center it does not meet blight the definition of blight substandard building so in order for us to be able to do any TIF we need to go to the legislature and ask them to legally consider this a substandard building to meet the blight standards for us to do a redevelopment district so we went to them earlier this session and we were not successful if we plan to go back to them again next year actually the work starts in the fall but it'll be for 2020 sessions so again we're actively engaged on something like this what we're seeking is use for flexibility for TIF on this one and then also having tools on the table will create opportunities for public-private partnerships so remember all these properties are privately owned and so in order for any redevelopment to happen the property owner and developer need to want to do something the city can't just go under the mix they happen all weed control is the right of joining the roads that are around it we don't actually control the development we can regulate the zoning certainly what can go there and we've open that up but without the private sector being on board wanting to do something will be very limited in our tools um and then lastly what the legislative priority did also did support the state our legislators to look at new tools that a related economic you talked here I think that your last meeting about the public improvement feed that was something that's been used in other parts of the country it's I think I almost equivalent to a local tax or an HOA fee that kind of would pay for that in and of itself but it was decided that's not a good fit for us wouldn't special legislation ought to do that so our best opportunity is to go for TIF special TIF legislation so I would expect the council would keep these ongoing forwards as they are both very relevant topics Danny had a question yeah I said where's there any key learnings we got from our proposal to the redevelopment plan and why it wasn't accepted by the lodge it was just any insights we I think we learned a lot about the process and one of the things I think we learned as timing matters because we didn't start until after the session started and by the time the session started legislators already kind of have their agenda they kind of know what they're working on their meeting right now their meeting last week and the week before to talk about things that are that are going to come up and because our plan was adopted later in the year we didn't have that jump start so we plan to do that this fall so hopefully that will help us and then we will meet with the chair of the Tax Committee that will hopefully give us some guidance he had some concerns about our plan and the feedback that we did get was that we weren't ready we don't have a plan well we certainly do have a plan and so maybe our focus will be to articulate that message and also to get into the decreasing tax base of some of those properties because that impacts not only the city but also the county in the state so by them not doing anything in st. Paul they're hurting themselves as much as it's hurting us in the county by the decreasing tax base and taxes paid I think I think it's down 25 to 30 percent in the last two years that's substantial that includes sales tax no property just property tax well there's that too absolutely I mean you don't have Sears there any more than up painting sales tax exactly is there anyone shopping that site right now is showing interest in developing that site is any private contractors who are saying they want to come in if the city owned louder is there I guess I'm asking if we don't do anything if this doesn't go forward right what happens that land doesn't just continue to stay stagnant where it's at or does somebody have the option to come in on their own and make a deal with their current owners and hash out a deal where they can buy and redevelop it without our involvement at all sure commissioner that kid that would be an ideal scenario right is what the developer comes forward and says hey I want to build an office complex on here in a hotel and whatever that's what we're looking for and we don't have anybody currently even looking at that land for use right now and we're trying to entice somebody to come forth and develop something on that land is that why we're pushing this I can't say that there aren't interested parties looking at that because they wouldn't be talking to me right they would be talking to the property owner first to see if they're interested in selling and some of them aren't interested in selling some of them want to redevelop themselves right so but they have other projects across the country that they're working on but we do know that once we get special legislation for TIF that they've told us that that moves us off the list right and there's four major property owners there right so you have CBL which owns the mall and the Dick's Sporting Goods they are the shopping center they're in the shopping center of business then you've got Macy's it has its a lot and it's parking right so there's still operating business and doing well here as as far as we know and JCPenney the same thing they've got their own building they've got their business as far as we know they've they're hanging in there and doing okay so not all the property may be for sale at this time we know Sears is vacant and I would say that's what we're focusing on right now that's more the low-hanging fruit and they are interested in redeveloping it at some point in time they are interested in a public-private partnership so what does that look like that is the one that we want to work with in the immediate future and that's what we've heard when we did our center village study everyone's waiting to see what Sara touch does we hear that time and time again before I reinvest or go shopping my property we need to know what's gonna happen with the vacant Sears yeah yeah we feel that with a city being involved with the public public-private relationship opens up the TIF and that allows for development to happen faster and that's why we're in interjecting our involvement as government that's part of it it can help us get the land use that we want it can help entice development and it can help us pay for the public infrastructure you'll recall on that plan there's a serious proposal to extend Aldridge Avenue on the south side of 42 to open up the back part of that property that would be a public street well that was tens of millions of dollars I don't remember the exact amount in the report well we just don't have that sitting around waiting to spend on something so we would we could use the tax increment to pay for those types of public improvements to pay for better crossing over or under County Road 42 so it doesn't we we get to decide when we set up the TIF district and start negotiating with a developer what monies go where and why that are consistent with your business subsidy policy so sure does this shopping center own the Sears building or is that separate Commissioner no the shopping our Sears is owned by a company called Sara touch and Sara touch bought most of the land or should say a lot of the land in buildings on many Sears sites across the country so they were a land holding company but I think before them or while they were going through their bankruptcy process so they've got a lot of properties there in my reach rate based out of New York they've got a lot of other properties that they are dealing with and trying to do redevelopment so we're in there we continue to communicate with them and they know we're here they know what our plan is they're excited for our plan as soon as we can get some tools on the table I think that moves us up their list I just it looks like in number three one of the names has changed as far as those responsible for the initiative so if that needs to be changed before presenting to the City Council when that comes on board it'd be great number three of what Brady number three of their legislative priorities we've got names listed there and one of them also changed a staff people yeah oh yes I didn't include him here yeah that's a city manager in that Clerk's office we'll update that thank you okay understood okay so I don't let you have other new priorities that you think that council should undertake or any additions or changes to these I'll move on and we can certainly come back to these at the end here are the position statements so these are things that as they arise at the Capitol by others or by legislators we have a position or we're ready to respond I'm the first one and it's a big one has to do with local control well there was a lot of this last year at the legislature where it seemed like the the authorities that cities had were being pecked at slowly so we had less and less control over what happens here in our neighborhoods and at City Hall and so the city's position is that we support a greater access to additional tax revenue sources that we provide municipal franchise fee Authority right now our franchise fees that we do have are used to pay all of our city facilities pay for the police expansion looking to pay for fire station one relocation so those fees have been set aside for facilities that's important that we are able to keep that and that we have use and authority over the right-of-way you may have read a lot about 5g technology that there was some largest ledges legislation enacted a couple years ago that tried to give carte blanche to the cellphone companies to be able to use our right away that your right away the public's right away at no costs without any say from cities so we continued to work through that at the federal level and at the state level but the point is it's the city's right of way to manage on behalf of the public of the people that live here this city and so we want to be protective of what goes in there when there's there's a cost when you put things in there because there's a lot of stuff in the right away when you think about it so it's important we maintain local control for those types of things things that the City Council and the City opposes things that erode local control things that have local cost without funding mandates we hear a lot about unfair unfunded mandates that get passed down and we do have to deal with several of those anything that restricts our ability to manage public safety or the use of our right-of-way and things that restrict our ability to provide for zoning land use comprehensive planning utilities and transportation planning authority our transit authorities so we'd like to keep those local and then the other supporting position statements we support statewide massage therapy regulations again I just pulled out the ones that related to business or economic development right now cities can or cannot choose to licensed massage therapists so if someone's having issues in one city they can just go to another city it's it's may be difficult to to do their background checks and see if this that's a use or person or business that a city is okay with having in their jurisdiction having statewide regulations the rules would be the same for everybody in the state so it protects pretext the customers and the the workers from that with us about the statewide lines instead of city to city to city he's just kind of get pushed around then preservation of our host community grant we've been getting this grant skip I think six years no oh we get a little over four hundred thousand dollars year and this grant is in lieu of some things that happened at the landfill and they pushed to do more recycling in a reduction in host fees to cities so there's a grant program that cities in the metro area that have MSW landfills are eligible for and we are one of them so we've been able to secure grant funds every year for the last six years for that we support economic development tools use of existing tools flexibility creation of new tools so if something is proposed on the table we would speak in support of that and then I included the transportation side of things somehow we get to work and get employees to work is important so we support funding of the Orange Line funding for MBTA and transit it's certainly a big one to us as maintenance of state right-of-way you know we sometimes they only get to clean them once a year we're concerned about how the city looks when our visitors come here when they come to live here they come to work here we've got lots of businesses here they bring people from out of time we think it's important that 35w and highway 13 look decent so any questions on those before I get into the next one Chris why do why do we support massage therapy I mean I get your argument but in a whole sense why are we backing a licensing for a business that's otherwise I mean aboveboard you know everything's going fine why Massage Therapy why not all businesses need all special licensing to keep everybody safe or you know why it feel like they're being picked on I would say because the state regulates a lot of personal services right nail salons hair salons doctors chiropractors all those are licensed and regulated by the state um I think we have had some public safety issues with illicit behavior right we'll just and then concern about the employees and the employees that live there it's excuse me that work there and sex trafficking and whatnot so we've read a lot about this in the newspapers so I think those are the two concerns I think that the bigger concern also like I said is some cities have regulations some don't so it pushes the problem somewhere else so like alcohol and tobacco or statewide Reagan it's a level playing field everyone has access to the same information when they do background checks and whatnot so sorry I just I just feel kind of strongly about this because it feels like you're it's an opposition on a community of immigrants largely these licenses massage massage companies nail salons hair salons places you mentioned are largely owned by first-generation Americans and it's another licensing fee another government thing to fill out that they can fail and lose their business because of it and you're putting some stereotypes into what goes on there into justifying why the government needs to have further involvement on these people who are trying super hard anyways mr. chair if I could a couple of years ago when we reviewed some of our most massage therapy regulations we called in the massage therapists owners in the city of Burnsville and as you say commissioner there are a number of them or that are obviously decent businesses run by decent people interestingly enough they support statewide regulations they actually told us they'd rather have the state do the regulation than city to city so the people that you want to protect they told us this is what they want you know what ed these are the cities these aren't mine you can talk about it as a group and send your recommendation to the City Council I would just just to remind the commission of that so yeah I'm not here to argue I'm here to present and take your comments and send them back okay with that mr. chair will move on to the next one monitoring and tracking positions like I said these are ones that we just track and kind of keep an eye on because they do pop up from time to time first one has to do with statewide property tax we oppose additional tax classifications and increase in the statewide proper tax of course local government people I don't if you look people a lot of people look at their tax statement in depth in fact there was a good presentation last night from the finance director on what goes into I'm your your tax of your local taxes but people do come to the city when they get their tax bill right so we get catch a lot of the heat and the blame for what goes into someone's tax bill when really I think our finance director said last night we are one of eight pieces of data that go into that but but we're the front face to the citizens and to our neighbors so so that's important our reseller regulations we oppose restrictions that would limit access to customer data that's a public safety issue they're on stolen stolen goods and then aggregate mining fee because we have a quarry in town our legislative tracking positions are that we support the statewide establishment of an agreeable host community fee that would entice jurisdictions to be open to mining natural resource there's a lot of governmental agencies municipalities counties don't like mining it it it's a very intensive land use lots of trucks lots of dust so they just don't allow them so as a way to entice cities to want to allow them we would be open to having a host fee that's agreeable to those affected by it to to help them use our natural resources so that's all I have any further discussion or anything we want to recommend into it so Chris I have sorry I'm just full of questions but I have one other question about the public land use what would qualify as public main use with the landfill okay agreement the state says has to be public use with alternative power sources given to the city the city's citizens with that qualify as pogies say a solar company could say they could produce X amount of power for the city that gives back to the people of that community could that qualify as a public land use commissioners and meetings that I have been at where we've talked about that the answer is you know because I think because it's a revenue-generating the sounds very counterintuitive but because it's generating revenue for somebody or some benefit and I don't know the whole details around this but the answer was no maybe the solar company benefits not quite sure if the customers benefit I don't know the ins and outs of that but of that particular industry but um yeah coming up with alternative uses even if they are public seem to be problematic with the way our Constitution is really I think the the goal with that is is to remediate the pollution problem whatever it may be as quickly as possible and return it to the tax rolls with its highest and best use redevelopment land as quickly as possible and that would be the largest benefit to the city and the citizens at that point in time based on previous conversations just any way to find out nice sweet spot to every get something now anything else I haven't seen any strong objections for the City Council doesn't look like we need a motion on this so Kenny thanks for you know if you think of any well I guess you're deciding as a group but keep an eye on what the council does and we'll let you know when the meetings are if you want to stay tuned into this so moving on to agenda item number four our economic development plan update and presenting OB Regina do you know give you the four good evening Commission so this is an update of July and August via email you received an update of May and June so when the strategic plan was developed one of the things that we promised to do with the Economic Development Commission was check in periodically of how we're making strides within the different priority areas so there's five top priority areas just as a reminder of the council so I'm gonna go one-by-one and showcase what we've been working on we this is just an informational item no actions needed it's just an update so number one ensure sustainability of the Burnsville Center so in the last couple months we've been working hard with the consultant Kim Lee horn on a traffic study that will be wrapped up the end of December beginning of January I believe there will be checking opportunity with our Planning Commission and Economic Development Commission between now and then I'm still have an opportunity to to learn about what's going on so far as far as the traffic study what that will highlight is do any improvements need to be made look at those costs look like for improvements based on that Center Village plan we've been working with the Burnsville Center on highlighting various events that are hosted at the property one of the events was a back to the 80s car show and that was an event that was held the previous year by an outside group we learned about this opportunity and asked if we could partner with this group to make it bigger and better so we coordinated with food trucks and brought food trucks out to the event again to make it a bigger better event for our community and to attract as else lower regional destination as we had people coming from all over the Metro that attended the event so that was pretty cool to see item number two is improve the image of the Burnsville School District is d1 91 and the city branding and marketing has been a big part of what we've been doing the past few months started out with hiring our consultant 82's that's really led development of that plan and it's involved different staff from various areas our communications department as well as our community development department but the outreach consisted of being at the back to the eighties event we had a presence at party on the plaza we had a survey that was available we had outreach with students that provided essays about what they loved about Burnsville so we had about 1400 target we write as results or people that we had interacted with throughout that process and they told us that help formed our decision on what ultimately the marketing and branding theme for Burnsville should be so thinking with all these great words and identity identifiers and ultimately that came down to a list that was drilled down to eight topics that were drilled down to four topics so it went in front of focus groups and then ultimately our City Council and the chosen tagline was you belong here which we unveiled at our fire muster so staff was in the parade different community community members are part of a video which was highlighted at the City Council meeting as part of it kickoff and we'll be using that in various ways the consultant a e2s will be developing a formal marketing plan so that we can strategically use that throughout in many different ways we continue to have mobility so what is the 8282 ask their consultant firms so are they doing to improve the image of the school district though I hear branding and marketing but what does that have to do at the school so as part of the the conversations that have been happening gosh for the past six months or so we've developed partnership groups so city staffs involved our Chamber of Commerce the school district and we've been sharing the work that we've been doing so that we can cross promote various things that we're doing to highlight Burnsville an example is will be at family fest which is going to be held in October at the Burnsville high school sponsored by the chamber but the city will be there and the idea is that we'll as a city will be able to showcase our new brand image but then we can also you know showcase school district and other great things that we're doing so it's something that we're working towards do we have a solution that will completely turn the image of the the school no but we're working towards that the the school districts an entity of their own so what we're looking at ways that we can partner with them to help boost it and it is a community-wide effort and we're doing different things and you'll see throughout the the presentation of ways that were we're helping to do that as well okay so we have had meetings with the school district staff the partnership group that I mentioned but we've also had opportunities to meet with the new superintendent as well to learn what the vision of the school district is and not only is city staff but our mayor has also had an opportunity to interact as well with dr. battle item number three is continued development of heart of the city sure if you've driven down Nicollet or 13 we've seen construction cranes maven is the name the marketing name of the apartment building that the EDA wants the land that the EDA wants to owned that's at 127 unit apartment building with the 2,000 square feet of ground floor at the ground floor retail right outside the steps of the heart of the city bus rapid transit station that's again well under way and then gallery on the Parkway that is a chase real estate property that's the 109 units that's under construction kind of tucked away behind CVS so we're continuing with processing reviews on that as far as building permits and inspections and those should be opening in 2020 which is exciting and then the transit oriented development zoning ordinance is underway so this will cover areas around the future bus rapid transit stations in heart of the city which are set to open in 2021 and then potentially around the center Village area what transit oriented development zoning is it allows opportunity for increased density decrease in parking standards and a more innovative mixed use environment around those feature stations so it almost if you if you see the buildings in heart of the city the feel that you get when you walk through that very pedestrian-friendly buildings close to property lines that's the kind of feel that will continue just west of 35w surround the features one of the future stations as well as heart of the city as well you'll see more on this there will be a couple of opportunities where our consultant will be asking for feedback from you so there's there's more to come on this let me see this as an attractor for more development more diverse development within the area I just have a quick question and you just brought up the point diverse development so with that what may even go on up I'm just trying to get a full scope of what type of housing that's all there right now in that concentration so I wasn't sure about what may even because I think we have senior housing there already right just across from Cubs and someone that could but I don't know what kind of housing that is and then what maven will be if you can elaborate so next to cub they're condominiums which are all ages available to all ages next to may then to the west is a senior cooperative we likely what you'll see is higher density multi-family housing the city doesn't read can't restrict whether it's senior or whether it's condos or apartments for sale for a lease but we can say is we would allow higher density housing which would likely be multi-family housing I think so the new apartments bike up when will they start that's still under enacted lawsuit it has not been analyze they've appealed to the Supreme Court item number fours enhance and build awareness around our housing and commercial programs so a couple of you were able to attend a webinar that was highlighting basically economic development 101 a great overview of various tools that are available and I believe the slides were sent out I'm in a packet to the rest of the group that was unable to attend we had the joint a DC City Council work session on public financing the tools and policies that we have available here through the city and through the state and then the City Council received a presentation from the Community Development Authority through Dakota County on the programs that they have available and there's council support for making changes to our programs and policies to allow for some grant opportunities for housing like housing programs to drawing a blank maybe Jenny can help me out the program that the council wants it for rehabbing rehab there we go thank you so they're looking further into that and there will be more to come as far as staff implementation of that and then the fifth item it's continued the city's position as a regional destination skip and I had an opportunity to be a showcase present her at the Minnesota Shopping Center Association about 150 people attended that event and we highlighted the center village as kind of our key item and had great interaction with people again trying to familiarize people with Burnsville if they're unaware I don't know how they could not be aware of Burnsville but to showcase the great things that we're doing and then also to bring attention to opportunities that are available around the Burnsville center we had a realtor presentation with about 40 Coldwell Banker Residential and commercial brokers here at City Hall we received great feedback from them they were very interested in the the work that we're doing we highlighted essentially the strategic plan they were first most interested in hearing a presentation about Center Village because they've been following along in the news local newspaper hearing from their clients but then we asked them can we present on all the other great things that we're doing in our strategic plan and that led into some conversation about the school district and it was actually overwhelmingly positive I think one person in that whole group was was had a negative perception about the school district and all the other people were were really the biggest cheerleaders that I've seen in a long time about the school district of course they're in the sales world and want to sell not property but they also want to sell the city and the school district as well so it was great to hear the positive energy that they had and that opportunity for that cross collaboration with them they were really interested in and keeping involved with not only the city but also continuing connection with the school district and in fact on Tuesday they're they're presenting to the school district or the school districts presenting to them excuse me about the what they're doing and their strategic plan as well so glad that connection could be made and then throughout the past couple of months we've had 44 individual meetings with developers property owners whether that's via phone call email or in person between skip and I and other staff in our department so that's what I have if there's any other questions or information you'd like let me know otherwise you'll be receiving another update at future meetings thank you moving on to item number 5 open the business presenter we skip Thank You mr. chair a little quick history you open the business program has been in Burnsville and Dakota County for about five years now the program is structured that it is a partnership between the cities in Dakota County and the Dakota County cd8 the Dakota County CDA pays half of the consulting fee and then the ten cities divide up the other half based on population the cost to the city of Burnsville is eighty three hundred dollars a year this we did a three-year JPA with the open to business so we've locked in our price for the next three years at eighty three hundred what I've done for you is given you a little recap of the this year and the prior two years on the number of resident clients and business clients that our consultant who has worked with and we're very fortunate that our consultant Laurie Crowe has been our same consultant for the whole five years so she knows the city as well she knows the county well and she's invested a lot of time and effort with the clients as you can see it's fairly stable for the first six months of the past three years typically half of her client base will be residents in Dakota County looking to start a business and the other half of her client base will be existing businesses that are looking for some help and marketing strategic planning financing whatever very often she will help a business get prepared to go to the bank for additional loans if they if they want to expand she'll also help a resident they want to get a business started to put together their plan their marketing plan their financial plan ask them a lot of questions as you can imagine with the startups there sometimes we are looking at client workings that can go on for a year or two before the business gets to a point that it can really start up I should also say that she is probably equally good at getting a a person looking to start a business that doesn't have a good plan to recognize that they do not have a good plan and they don't market to their home on a failing business and then in the last column those are the across the county clients that she has worked with and again you can see it is remained relatively stable over the past three years it's been a very good program for us because we have a three-year JPA it is a next year's budget to fund again and at this point mr. chair I would certainly stand for any questions if the commissioners had any questions about the program any questions from the Commission is there an example of a business that's now thriving because of this Commissioner I could share some examples with you I cannot name the businesses as the agreement is that would stay confidential okay there is a business that is located in the Burnsville center in the food court that it was a catering business and and our consultant helped at rent transition into a standalone business a couple of years ago she assisted one of our manufacturing businesses in getting some loans from their bank to expand their business they doubled their employees she also helped an individual that was looking to go into a unique travel type business about two or three years ago she helped that person get that business started up and that's actually one out of the persons home here in Burnsville if we ever wanted to understand what they do a little bit more and see it you know live and in action kind of thing so that we could potentially introduce other people to the program as an asset what's the best way to do that and as far as seeing it live an action mr. Commissioner that would be tough because everything is kept confidential as to who she's working with we could certainly have Laurie come and address the Commission if you'd like and maybe give you some even greater examples of what she does but again there's there's a confidential nature of it that is that is built into the program I think I just reckon I would you know I'll say that I think I'd be a good idea I think this is the second time now I've heard since I've been on this commission about the open a business program it sounds great sounds intriguing but I have to admit I still don't completely get it so I think that be certainly helpful to me if it would be helpful to others I think that'd be good time time she does presentations but also on they think they dakota county cba website as well in the meantime you can reach out to where if you have something in particular but having her come in might be great as well we could certainly have her come and talk with the Commission I have one small question is there a season in 2017 2019 roughly about 60 some-odd clients that did this opportunity but then is there any insight for like 2008 18 where it was like almost 20 2012 20 clients better is there any background said that that you could share with us yes in 2016 Lorie pretty much in a meeting with the cities begged the cities to do more marketing and advertising of the program Burnsville we're fortunate we have an excellent communications department that does a great job of marketing the open a business program typically we we will have more clients in Burnsville than any other city and what you saw in 18 was those marketing efforts finally kicked in okay and then unfortunately I think some of those marketing efforts now have kind of tapered off a little bit in some of the cities so that's why you kind of saw that spike up and down Jeff 19 is included in this I'd be good how much of 19 how many months of 19 six months all of these are six month figures Wow six months and that increase that's good anything further otherwise there's no action on this item and so we move on to item agenda number six of the sale of city-owned land to Lakeland Investments LLC and skip I'll give you the floor back Thank You mr. chair um the land in question is one of three properties that that this the city was deeded by the county after the interchange at five and thirteen was completed and they were deeded to the for the city for the purpose of selling for economic development the property in question as you can see actually has no access and that's one of the biggest reasons why the property has not sold up until now the two abiding property owners Lakeland investments which is looking to purchase the property and the owners of the Metro coin were were first approached about whether or not they wanted to buy the property Lakeland investments almost from day one and the properties went up for sale about five years ago from day one and said that they were interested in buying the property they however did not want to pay the appraised price of seventy thousand dollars the city when we worked with this the state in the county entered into a JPA with the county that stated once we got these properties we would sell them and the county would receive fifty five percent of the sale proceeds are the appraisal whichever was greater so because of that we for the first number of years did not sell to Lakeland investments at a lower than a praise price when it became evident that there they bought the only ones who are going to buy this piece of property city staff and county staff met and those two staffs agreed that we should probably actually amend the JPA and have it state that for these and there's actually three parcels on this piece of property for these parcels the 55/45 split would be based on the sale price which is which the county adopted they that JPA in July when we sell the land the city will adopt the amenity APA and sell the land accordingly that's why you're looking at the land cost I'm gonna look a little different the city also according to the JPA can deduct any cost we have in maintaining that property and that cost right now is about six thousand dollars that Weaver a mess most of that is cutting the grass each summer and then some signs and things like that so sale price would be forty five thousand for the property versus the seventy thousand appraisal price the contract will stipulate that the land will be used for either an office or a mixed-use office retail our Lakeland investments also is considering they may demo their existing office building and combine the Lots and make one great big office complex construction according to the agreement construction would have to begin within ten years of the closing date that is a much longer construction commencement than we typically have in our agreements that is in there actually to give Lakeland investments the opportunity to decide exactly what they do want they do want to do with the parcel whether it's a combination and our a building of a second building and then they would have to complete the construction of the building within eighteen months after they start there is clauses in the agreement that will not allow them to resell the property to anyone without city's approval so we're at empty to prevent kind of a buy it sit on it for a while and then spin it off to somebody for a greater price and if there are any defaults on that contract during the ten years of its existence the city would have the right to actually actually take the land back and resell it to someone else with that mr. chair I would certainly stand for any questions and I should say staffs recommendation is that the BET's you recommend that the city approved the land sale try to have a question so text property records indicates that there's two parcels for others three parcels on this Landry of them yeah okay and that there's a combined estimated value of $140,000 for those parcels right so the appraisal value was appraised at $70,000 that's correct how is that a praise will come with oh when when when we had those three parcels appraised staff direction to the our appraisal firm was to take into account the fact that there is no access to those parcels and because of that that's why the appraisal is is lower for example the other two parcels that we own those appraisals are actually higher than the county's value but they have access and in many cases even more easily developed there seems to be some Dakota County land about 50 feet roughly north of Metro claim is that is there any chance that that could be used for access no Commissioner I believe that's all easements and and the county is not going to give up the easements for the access to the property I'm kind of confused so you saying that there's three parcels in that square yes okay just look at the Carter site there's a little you know it looks like a whining sparse like something okay I just said I like it I'm glad we consulted some again let's use it and let's get something built on there sooner the better yeah if you if you look this is one big parcel here then this is this kind of l-shaped backwards L is a parcel and then this parcel over here and then this little stubby here actually was deeded to Metro coin laundry did you explain why they couldn't have access the Metro access oh that's very simple Commissioner they refused to give it the film easement we've had numerous numerous inquire I mean it's fine if you look at the location of them it's a parcel it's it's a it's a fantastic location okay and we've had numerous inquiries about purchasing it and we have told all inquiries you're gonna need to get access from either one of the abutting property owners neither of the abutting property owners have ever been willing to grant access obviously Lake Lanier Investments wants to buy it so they would not great what line of work is the only office building there's different people in the office building is it it's not it's not Lakeland it's not Lakeland office yeah the Lakeland investment owns the property of it the office but they they own the building and rent out the space to a number of different businesses in there when you said that in ten years if they try to resell the property but we have a right to take it back at full price is that the seventy thousand or the price that was so don't we have a right to take it back for nothing and resell it if they have any defaults in the agreement during the ten years the agreements and in effect we can take the property back we then go and resell it when we resell it we subtract all of our expenses for selling it and whatever that difference is that's what would go back to Lakeland investments ah and that is actually a standard in all of our of our land sell agreements okay I'd say them developing the land what other conditions are you putting in the 10 year agreement just though that it will be office or mixed use or the demo and the construction other than that there are no other requirements it was pretty hard for them to violate the terms of that was the demo Raiders correct I mean I mean our biggest fear mr. Commissioner is is that they would buy it and then resell it granting someone access yes you're not allowing that they can't do okay that's a they can't resell it without cities enroll for ten years yes until they well if they don't develop in ten years that would be a default and then we would take is there any chance you could reduce the ten years no well we can but they're not they won't agree to it so we're not gonna make the sale what kind of restrictions are there in the zoning for height the building or anything like that because I would imagine metro coin wouldn't want a big building built next to it nobody could see it that's a planning question I don't know if I'm answer we've I believe removed our restrictions for height within the zoning district where this is located so it they would be restricted to setbacks from property lines how much green space or parking they might need but height as long as they can accommodate those other things on the property they would have the right to build but we don't have anything like view shed or anything like that as long as they can make it work thank you okay proceed I think this looks like a good deal I think realistically without the adjoining property owners allowing access there's nobody that were ever really gonna be able to sell it to so if one of them wants to purchase it that's great the other question I have is this say is this an actual cash offer is the city providing financing for that or is it don't find this there's no financing it okay it's cash offer that's that was my only question to make sure that was the case otherwise I think clearly this is probably the best result of this particular piece of property after the interchange was created just to be clear somebody could Lincoln could put a building on there within 10 years and then grant access and sell that building to someone else after 10 years absolutely commissioner so I mean there could have a long-range plan to do that but I still think it's a Besant we're gonna get they could sell it before it they just had to have a building on there within the UM they could not sell prior to the expiration of the agreement without simply say let's go through this but regardless it wouldn't if there was a building down there now beyond the tax rules and non-secular but it's still gonna benefit us is there a timeline for them putting a building up there ten years you know I mean do they have now they I get they have ten years to do it but did I have they said that they're gonna do before ten years are my guests commissioner is it would be closer to the ten years that's what the sounding like that they they're gonna hold off as long as they can tell the timeline and then little bit up at the end is there a valuation stipulation of the type of building can be built I mean you clearly have stipulated the use but not at this time commissioner should we be concerned about that we have not in the past in any of our agreements so so this we maintain is unimproved property and and taxed as that so that yes the rate would be much lower than a fully developed exactly exam piece of yes and they would have to meet they would have they would have to cut the grass as we've been doing and everything else until they've been is unimproved oops not a lot of tax dollars but well we're not taking care of it we're getting simply saving us money I think I would a motion to recommend approval and sale as laid out in this document I would a second motion all in favor aye opposed same side and the motion carries thank you skip moving on to agenda item number seven which is a lection of the officers I'll be presenting on this give you some background here according to economic development commission policy it stipulates that each year the Commission will elect members of the office of chair and vice-chair the term of the office is for one year and a member may serve a three-year term any members regular members on the Commission is eligible for being elected to one of these offices and the current office position holders right now is the chair is Chris John who is no longer a part of the C he was reappointed to the Planning Commission and current vice chair is me Eric Newman so and the note here says vice chair Newman is eligible for re-election and as indicated he would be willing to serve as EDC chair voted no accordingly so don't open it up to the floor or any suggestions we'll start with the chair any suggestions on I would nominate Eric Newman as chair of the EDC for the next round I'd second it yeah a motion for your luminous cheer all in favor aye opposed same side and the motion carries on chair so now I'm moving on to vice-chair looking for any suggestions on vice chair I would nominate Brady goals that your vice chair kind of motion by sandy for Brady do I have a seconder any further a second discussion are you interested Oh Jeff the Vice Chair also do you want it I'm happy to concede to Lori any other further nominations for Vice Chair otherwise we have a motion for Brady and a second for Brady so move it to the floor all in favor aye all opposed same sign and the motion carries moving on to agenda item number 8 any updates from staffers skip no updates mr. chair all right it looks like there are no other items to come before us tonight so looking for motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn second okay second all in favor aye opposed same sign motion carries thank you for tuning in tonight to our Economic Development Commission meeting have a good night you you