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 The city is perceived to treat businesses unevenly, what has been allowed for one business <br />is denied for another. If a business asks for permission to do something, the request is "put <br />under the microscope" to look for items that might be against the rules, rather than having <br />an open discussion of what is needed and what might be allowed. <br /> They would like to get a clear picture of how LE regulates business, in their case, just what <br />is needed to amend their CUP and who to talk with about the pathway. <br /> The strategy should be more inclusive to small businesses, and make it easier to deal with <br />the City for business modifications. Their plan had been to expand on the original Old <br />Village site but the complications of dealing with a third-party engineering firm made the <br />process very inefficient and time-consuming, finally they gave up and moved to the <br />roundabout business park. <br />o Possible future action step for city (Council and Community Development staff): <br />With the reorganization to a Community Development Department, the addition <br />of a Community Development Director and Senior Planner, the Community <br />Development Director will be able to focus more on businesses (existing and new) <br />while the Senior Planner focuses on residential growth. Changes in operating <br />policies and procedures to be more solution oriented in some cases need to <br />become part of city culture. <br /> <br />Website related comments: <br /> what about having a page on the City website that links to a local business directory? <br /> content on the city website <br />o Possible future action step for city (EDA and administration staff): Identify <br />improvements that can be made to layout or organization of City website to make <br />it more user friendly. Create economic development landing page with static <br />resources. Implementation of items that need constant updating are unlikely to <br />be successful with current amount of resources. <br /> <br />NEXT STEPS: <br />The EDA commissioners intend to continue BRE visits in 2023 and gain feedback from those <br />located south of 10th. <br /> <br />ATTACHMENTS: <br />• Guidelines for Volunteer Visitors <br />• Lake Elmo EDA BRE Survey <br />• Compilation of Responses