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09-11-17 PC Minutes - Comp Plan Special Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission September 11, 2017 A special meeting of the Planning Commission was held at the Golden Valley City Hall, Council Chambers, 7800 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, Minnesota, on Monday, September 11, 2017. Chair Baker called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Those present were Planning Commissioners Baker, Black, Blenker, Blum, Johnson, and Waldhauser. Also present were Physical Development Director Marc Nevinski, Planning Manager Jason Zimmerman, Associate Planner/Grant Writer Emily Goellner, and Administrative Assistant Lisa Wittman. Commissioner Segelbaum was absent. 1. 6-6:30 pm: Open House (Economic Competitiveness) 2. 6:30-7:30 pm: Presentation and Discussion (Economic Competitiveness) Zimmerman stated that this Comp Plan discussion will focus on the Economic Competitiveness chapter of the Comprehensive Plan. He referred to the Comprehensive Plan word cloud that staff created from residents' comments and stated that staff has incorporated those comments into the Economic Competitiveness chapter. He reminded the Commission of some of the themes in the Comp Plan including: supporting a dynamic town center, showcasing Golden Valley as a "green" community, emphasizing all aspects of a multi-modal transportation system, ensuring policies, procedures, and decisions are inclusive, and making important investments in infrastructure. Zimmerman showed the Commissioners a chart which showed that the 2040 Met Council Forecast for employment will be approximately 39,000 jobs. He also showed charts illustrating the key city industries, notable employers by sector, top employers in Golden Valley, and the centers of employment in the City. Zimmerman stated that there are five goals in the Economic Competitiveness chapter. Goal 1 is to understand the local business environment, goal 2 is to develop economic partnerships, goal 3 is to retain and expand the existing job base, goal 4 is to strengthen the link between land use and economy, goal 5 is to promote amenities to attract workers. Blum said he is surprised that goal 3 focuses on retaining and expanding existing jobs and not as focused on attracting new business. He noted that the title of the chapter is Economic Competitiveness and questioned what the City is competing for. He said he would suggest the main theme of the chapter should be to attract more of what we like and ways to be attractive to new businesses and amenities. He said he would like to use action words in this chapter like "incentivize" because oftentimes businesses don't know about incentives that might be available to them. He added that he would also like to offer that the City liaise with other entities to attract new businesses to come to Golden Valley. Zimmerman agreed and noted that the City may not have the ability to offer incentives, but staff can help assist with other programs and resources. Johnson suggested adding "new business growth and expansion" to goal number three. He also suggested including DEED as a partner. Special Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission September 11, 2017 Page 2 Waldhauser stated that the outline of the goals and objectives are exciting and ambitious. She referred to the goal regarding economic partnerships and asked if the City would be proactively approaching property owners to enter into discussions with the City and potential developers. Zimmerman said property owners who are thinking of selling their property sometimes call him and ask what the City might like to see happen with their property. He added that the City can also keep a list of properties that are ripe for redevelopment and work with developers to match opportunities with resources. Baker stated that a couple of months ago the Planning Commission had a panel discussion with some development advisors and asked if that is integrated into this chapter. Zimmerman said yes and noted that a large part of that discussion was in regard to having a downtown area that is authentic. Blenker said the chapter seems to speak to big businesses. She stated that they have talked about having a vibrant downtown which means traffic and people, but also businesses and she questioned if there should be something in this chapter about local or small businesses. Baker said he doesn't know if small businesses will ever be an economic driver of the City, but Golden Valley is probably very attractive to start up and local businesses and that point could be strengthened in the chapter. Blum said the core focus is making Golden Valley a place where people want to live and then find a job. He said he feels like the Planning Commission talks about making the City more attractive for people who want to live here, but don't always follow through on ways to make that happen and ways to create that authenticity they've discussed. Johnson asked about the definition of authentic. Baker said it means something fitting in organically with what is around it. Waldhauser said it grows out of what the community is and what it always has been. She said it is a natural progression, not something fake that somebody comes in and builds and that Golden Valley is kind of a nice small town. Black stated that the chapter doesn't talk about how businesses can help Golden Valley residents. He said he would like to see that implemented more in the language. He questioned if there could be an economic partnership with the community and how to get people to the downtown area and connecting the west end with the rest of the City. Baker said he also found missing the influence of the light rail line and that it would be nice to have some language about that in this chapter. Zimmerman agreed and said it can be called out and that the City can do a small area plan in the future as it knows more about the line. Baker opened the meeting to public comments. Marti Micks, 90 Louisiana Avenue South, said she likes the idea of strengthening partnerships with businesses. She said there are some very large businesses in this City and questioned what the City would do if they left. She said she also likes that the chapter includes looking at a variety of housing types and said bringing in more development just Special Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission September 11, 2017 Page 3 to bring it in won't really help because the City has to give that money back in fiscal disparities so a balance in everything is important. Seeing and hearing no one else wishing to comment, Baker closed the public comment period. Baker asked about fiscal disparities. Nevinski explained the concept is that communities contribute to a pool from their commercial/industrial tax base and then it is redistributed to help create a strong and more fairly balanced region. He added that cities typically contribute one-third of their commercial/industrial tax base to fiscal disparities and that Golden Valley is a net contributor and pays in more than it gets back. Waldhauser referred to the map showing the centers of employment and said she doesn't see where the City has space to expand larger new businesses so she would like the City to have the best relationships it can with current larger businesses, but also help small and medium sized businesses expand. Black stated that there isn't much land available so the City will have to consider increasing density if it wants small and medium sized businesses to grow. Blum asked Black if he meant solely increasing density in the commercial and industrial districts. Black said yes. Baker asked if there is some benefit to having a diverse economic base. Blenker said yes because then there is resiliency when one industry has problems. Baker stated that when the City's staff was reorganized the word "development" was added into the staff titles. He asked Nevinski if his emphasis is on development and how his role fits into this chapter. Nevinski said the Physical Development Department is focused on the comprehensive development of the City and the goal is to build the community holistically. Zimmerman reviewed the next steps in the process as follows: October thru December 2017 — Drafts of the chapter text to Commissions and Council for review and comment. January 2018 — Draft of the implementation steps available for review and comment. Spring 2018 — Full plan draft released for public comment. Allow time for edits and revisions. Mid 2018 — Planning Commission approval. Mid 2018 — City Council approval. Mid 2018 — Submit to Metropolitan Council. Baker suggested scheduling time at regular Planning Commission meetings to discuss each chapter of the Comp Plan. Zimmerman agreed. Johnson suggested using a tool or utility such as PDFs or Google Docs to help them make comments to each other. Blenker questioned how that would work with open meeting laws. Zimmerman said he would look into ways to have digital feedback and shared documents and he would also talk to the City Attorney about how that would work with the open meeting law. The meeting was adjourned at 7:24 pm. Special Meeting of the Golden Valley Planning Commission September 11, 2017 Page 4 �.._ �� �� �f�----- Ron lum, Secretary Lisa Wittman, Administrative Assistant