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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES MARCH 11, 2014 Page 2 of 7 media something, and us census). Talked with Kyle and decided that secondary data would be best at this time. Project process. Application- 3 buckets. Recruitment efforts to drum up local entrepreneurs or to convince regional retailers to enter market. marketing efforts to target market customers by preferred media and plan inventory and store concepts. and technical assistance efforts to assist entrepreneurs in developing business plans and guiding local comprehensive planning and redevelopment efforts. First they do a local area study group to draw the trade area. Then have a second study group meeting to draft recommendations. Then have a workshop to finalize recommendations. Trade area exercise, work with retail study group to decide the trade area- where the community pulls a majority of the local customers. Mayor Pearson asked Mr. Streeter if Chamber has done anything like this. Mr. Streeter answered that they have done some with like credit card companies to see who buys what where or something. Council Member Reeves asked if the trade area analysis takes into account where people currently get goods and services. LE in self contained area, does it take into account wher people get things today? Mr. Pesch answered that no it does not. There is no good data source for that. One other source they will bring in sometimes, sales tax data that they can get from Dept of Revenue. City Administrator Zuleger commented that you can use psychographics and zipcode to look at where people shop. Found out that 90% of shopping, not including cars and other luxury items happened within 7 mile radius of lake elmo. Asked Ryan how much the project is. Answer is $750. Klatt talked about this item coming to the council at the next council meeting to see if this is something they would like to move forward with. IV. How Will it Look? – Reconstructing Lake Elmo Avenue City Planner Johnson presented. County workshop on Thursday. Message #1: being communicated as a county project. From staffs prospective it is a partnership between city, county and watershed district. County owns LE Ave. City components are streetscape, sewer, water, improvements to drainage, bells and whistles, etc. Going to focus on key decision points for the city going into the project. 1. Laverne Ave – to include or not include. Why do include? 1. Optimal sewer location, it will need it anyway. 2. Maximize efficiencies and reduce overall cost, doing it all at one time – one contractor, one public process. 3. Initiate and stimulate redevelopment activity. 4. Integrate bicycle and pedestrian facilities into planning of the downtown. County always looking to expand transportation to bikes and peds. 2. Burying Overhead Utilities. Going to talk more about that later. Preliminary estimates for burying power are 276K (from Xcel). City has not gotten an estimate for cable. Burying overhead utilities greatly improves downtown aesthetic. 3. Municipal Parking. Need to have good, adequate parking facilities. Very common for City to take lead on trying to provide additional parking. Using existing properties. Don’t see growth and success occurring without expanded parking. Key component of trying to maximize onstreet parking is eliminating alleys or driveways. That would create more parking. 4. Streetscape Improvements. Damon Farber Study. Was very helpful to create consensus. Now is time for city to implement the themeing improvements. Includes working with landscape architect to implement. Potential improvements include: lighting, trees, landscaping, benches, trash recepticals, bollards, banner poles, etc. Purpose and function of open houses is to talk to as many people as possible to get sense of what do they want to see. 5. Other Considerations. Drainage. Will be discussed later. Railroad crossing. City to consider whistle free infrastructure- would be a city expense. Would have to have double gate arms. Decision does not need to be made now, but it could go whistle free in the future.