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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-19-2003 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AGENDA September 19, 2003 7:30 A.M. MOUNDS VIEW CITY HALL - CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1. CALL TO ORDER A.M. 2. ROLL CALL (Present = P, Absent = A) Belting Fox Field Helgemoe Johnson Entsminger McDonald Backman (Staff) Ericson (Staff) 3. APPROVE EDC MINUTES July 18, 2003; August 22, 2003 Motion: Second: Vote: 4. SPECIAL BUSINESS A. No Special Business Scheduled 5. REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS, STAFF AND EDA LIAISON A. Report of Commissioners -No Materials Attached B. Report of EDA Liaison -No Materials Attached C. Chamber of Commerce Update -No Materials Attached D. Report of Staff 1. Developer Activities—Velmeir Companies (Amoco Site) 2. Developer Activities—LandCor/ Long Lake & Hwy 10 Office & Retail 3. Developer Activities—Pro Craft Homes (The Woods of Mounds View) 4. TCAAP Stakeholders Summit—August 27, 2003 5. Mounds View Community Center—Banquet Center 6. Oops Dinner Theatre—Prospect Activities 7. Planning Assistant Hiring Process ffrout\CommDev\Economic Development\EDC1Agendas\Agenda0319-19-03.doc • 6. EDC BUSINESS A. Final Approval of Mounds View's Tax Rebate (Abatement) Policy B. Amending the TIF Plan to Identify Parcels for Potential Acquisition C. Other 7. ADJOURN at A.M. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: October 17, 2003 • ut\CommDev\Economic Development\EDCWgendas\Agenda03\9-19-03.doc Not Approved Minutes of the Economic Development Commission • City of Mounds View Ramsey County, Minnesota Regular Meeting September 19, 2003 City of Mounds View, Council Chambers 2401 Highway 10, Mounds View, MN 55112 1. CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Torri Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:36 a.m. 2. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Jackie Entsminger, Tom Field, David Fox, Jason Helgemoe, Toni Johnson Members Absent: Dr. Greg Belting, Stan McDonald Staff Present: Economic Development Coordinator Aaron Backman; City Administrator Kurt Ulrich • Others Present: None. 3. APPROVAL OF EDC MINUTES: Motion/Second: Field moved and Entsminger seconded the approval of the July 18, 2003 and the August 22, 2003 EDC minutes as amended. Motion Carried: 5 Ayes 0 Nays 4. SPECIAL BUSINESS Kurt Ulrich, Mounds View City Administrator, introduced himself to the EDC members. EDC members briefly discussed themselves as well. 5. REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS, STAFF AND EDA LIAISON A. Commissioner Reports: None B. Report of EDA Liaison: None C. TCN Chamber of Commerce Update: Backman attended the Chamber's Public Policy Task Force Meeting on September 10th. Upcoming activities include setting up an Education Forum in October, where local superintendents will speak to issues, such as referenda that will be voted • upon in the Fall (e.g. Mounds View School District). Also, a forum focusing on the rising cost of Health Care is being planned for November. Other activities include preparing and submitting an ad for the new Community Map that the Chamber is working on. It will reflect the newly merged Chambers of Southern Anoka and the New Brighton-Mounds View Chamber. EDC Minutes September 19, 2003 Not Approved Page 2 III D. Report of Staff: 1. Developer Activities—Velmeir Companies (Amoco Site): A number of activities occurred pertaining to the Amoco redevelopment project. URS, the architectural firm hired by the developer Velmeir have been working on a number of plans trying to find the best location for the building that meets parking and setback requirements, that minimizes the purchase of additional land, and that meets the needs of the end user, CVS/Pharmacy. On September 1 l th Jim Ericson and Backman had a conference call with Velmeir regarding these issues. A letter of intent has been prepared for Mr. Fox,the residential property to the south. Backman anticipates that Steve Alexander, representing the developer, will be bringing the latest concept plans to Mounds View next week. A variance from the setback requirements will probably be sought. Field asked whether Velmeir was able to resolve environmental liability issues with BP Amoco. Backman responded that it appears that Velmeir will buy out Amoco and assume such risk. 2. Developer Activities—LandCor/Long Lake&Hwy 10 Office&Retail: As the EDC members are probably aware, on August 14th ATA Architects submitted detailed building plans for the office and retail buildings that will be along Hwy 10 north of the theater. The building inspector has been reviewing those plans. Backman is pleased to report that LandCor,the developer, has tentatively scheduled a groundbreaking for the projects on Monday, September 29th at 11:00 a.m. The office building is $1.3 million, two-story facility, and the retail building is a $900,000 single-story structure. As more details become available Backman will pass them on to the members. 40 3. Developer Activities—Pro Craft Homes(The Woods of Mounds View) Proiect: Per the Pre- Development Agreement between the City and Pro Craft Homes,the developer reimbursed the City of Mounds View for the nine soil borings undertaken in June on the City's and Mr. Fyksen's property. A check for$2,895 was provided on September 3,2003. During the past month and a half the developer has continued negotiations with the private landowners regarding purchase price. Those efforts continue. The Developer hired Sunde Engineering to undertake a wetland delineation of the development area. Two Type 2 Wetlands were delineated (each being less than a tenth of an acre). The wetland delineation maps were presented to the City on September 17. Backman previously e-mailed copies of the wetland delineation maps to members and pointed out the wetland locations during the meeting. 4. TCAAP Stakeholders Summit—August 27, 2003: Backman, along with Kurt Ulrich, Jim Ericson, and Mary Burg, participated in this event. Congresswomen Betty McCollum sponsored a stakeholders meeting at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) in Arden Hills. Following a bus tour of the site, attendees listened to presentations by the U.S. Army, GSA, MN National Guard, U.S. Army Reserves, ATK (a defense company), MPCA, City of Arden Hills, U.S. Postal Service, and Ramsey County. The U.S.Army has proposed to sell 661 acres (deemed excess to its needs) out of 2370 acres on the site. Most of the rest of the land is now part of the Arden Hills Army National Guard Training Site (AHATS, see map). The main impetus for the meeting is a proposed Regional Postal Facility that relocate functions that are currently in downtown St. Paul to Arden Hills. The 86–acre facility along 35W would preclude other redevelopment plans for the western portion of the TCAAP property. The City of Arden Hills, Mounds View, and all the cities of the 35W Corridor III Coalition are on record as being opposed to the postal facility at this location. Backman reported that yesterday in the Star Tribune the Postal service decided to not pursue TCAAP as a location for its distribution facility. Ulrich added that TCAAP area will have business NI EDC Minutes September 19, 2003 Not Approved Page 3 opportunities, and that Mounds View will benefit from Arden Hill's redevelopment. We still need to watch things closely. One concern is road access and layout. 5. Mounds View Community Center—Banquet Center: Backman has spent time over the past month gathering information regarding the Mounds View Banquet and Conference Center and trying to find an end user that could lease the space vacated by the School District. During the past year and a half the City of Mounds View has lost$53,506 under the present Banquet Center Management($37,133 for all of 2002, and$16,373 in the first half of 2003). Moreover, the trends are not entirely encouraging—banquet revenues from all major categories have declined an average of 35%from 2002 levels, and the gap(as a percentage of gross revenues)between expenses and revenues for the Banquet operations have grown from 15.5% in 2002 to 24% in the first half of 2003. Presently the only profit center for the City at the Mounds View Community Center is the Creative Kids Child Care Center. Given the sizeable cutbacks in Local Government Aid (LGA)support from the State of Minnesota, the City of Mounds View is having to scrutinize all areas of General Fund expenditures. The Banquet Center management contract is being looked at closely with the goal of making changes so that the City can move to a breakeven point or better for banquet operations. There is a party that has expressed an interest in obtaining a lease on the Banquet and the vacant Community Education space. The latter space may need to be modified (eg. leasehold improvements). 6. Oops Dinner Theatre—Prospect Activities: Backman connected Pam Docken & Mary Kay Fangel,the principals of Oops Dinner Theater,with representatives of Colliers Towle, a real estate broker/developer. On August 22"i the principals had a very good meeting with Ted Leines whose specialty is the hospitality arena. The basic concept is that the dinner theater could be part of a co-development that could include another hotel in Mounds View along Co. Hwy 10 across from the Saturn dealership. The site currently has single-family homes on it and encompasses over 5 acres. Both Colliers Towle and Oops Dinner Theatre were attracted to this visible location. Field asked about market demand. Backman indicated that demand is there for specific niches(mystery theaters are expanding in the Twin Cities). The development process then got waylaid. Pam's father died three weeks ago, so naturally she had other matters to attend to. In talking with Pam this week, she indicated that Mary Kay and herself will meet with Colliers Towle reps next week. Also, she received a favorable review in the Star Tribune for her latest comedy—The Day Karoke Died. 7. Planning Assistant Hiring Process: Nine people were interviewed for the vacant position in mid-August. Two finalists were interviewed a second time on August 29th. Either would have been excellent additions to the department. However, one declined due to salary considerations and the other accepted another position. Therefore we are now interviewing five more people this week and hopefully a decision can be made over the next two weeks. 6. EDC BUSINESS A. Final Approval of Mounds View's Tax Rebate (Abatement) Policy: Backman noted that the proposed Tax Rebate Policy will be considered at a public hearing next Monday,September 22nd Based on input from the City Council from the August 25th EDA meeting, Backman presented a handful of changes to the policy. The most notable were a reference to fiscal disparities, and • price in excess of fair market value. Field and Johnson requested that the policy be amended to make the $1,000 application fee a non-refundable fee. The EDC members agreed. Johnson moved and Field seconded the approval of the Mounds View Tax Rebate Policy as amended. Motion passed 5 to 0. EDC Minutes September 19, 2003 Not Approved Page 4 1111 B. Community Survey: In March of 1988 the City of Mounds View contracted with Decision Resources to perform a Community Survey. The survey covered nine topics: residential demographics, quality of life, taxes and spending, city services, city government and staff, development and growth, solid waste management, parks and recreation issues, and city communications. In April of 2001, Public Works presented a staff report to the City Council asking for their direction regarding the development of a Comprehensive Park Plan. One option discussed was to conduct a formal public survey to determine current and future needs and resident desires for the City's parks. The City Council agreed to create a 10 question survey in conjunction with the Parks and Recreation Commission. During 2002,the Parks and Recreation Commission developed the questions, and a proposal was sought from Decision Resources, Ltd. The proposal submitted by Decision Resources would allow for up to 50 questions,and therefore the EDC may wish to include our own set of questions related to development. Backman has a copy of the results of the 1988 community survey. In addition to the introduction, Backman has copied only Sections 1, 5, and 6. A complete questionnaire is attached in the back of the handout. There are seven questions that were in the Development section and Backman briefly mentioned each of them. Members can review the previous survey at home and discuss the questions at the October EDC meeting. Johnson asked if the survey would be done by Decision Resources, Ltd. Ulrich indicated that they were not a given, but they are the most likely candidate. Entsminger is not in favor of a survey at this time. She feels that given budget reductions, the money would be better spent elsewhere. C. Amending the TIF Plan to Identify Parcels for Potential Acquisition: In accordance the settlement with the Office of State Auditor, the TIF Plan needs to be modified to reflect properties to be acquired for redevelopment, along with residential properties considered to be substandard. Backman distributed maps showing potential lots that could be designated as parcels that could be acquired. Some progress has been made in compiling addresses, but not enough to make a formal presentation at the EDA at this time. 7. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Commission,Johnson adjourned the September 19th meeting of the Economic Development Commission at 9:01 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Aaron A. Backman Economic Development Coordinator ffrout\CommDev\Economic Development\EDC\Minutes\Min03\9-19-03.doc