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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes EDAB 051205ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD May 12, 2005 Minutes The Economic Development Advisory Board met on May 12, 2005. The meeting was called to order at 8:31 AM in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex, located at 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. I. ROLL CALL Members Present: Frank Compiani, Lou Gaeta, Casey Steinbacher, Kenneth Kahn, James Kissel, Eric Habecker, Mark Murnan, and Elaine Beers. Members Absent: David Haysmer. Also Present: Dolores Key, Staff Liaison and Economic Development/Marketing Director; Charles Wu, Growth Management Administrator; Charlotte Presensky, Recreation Director; Amy Luetkemeyer, Public Relations Director; Stacey Rundle; and Allyson Maiwurm, Executive Assistant to the City Manager. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Board approved the minutes from the April 14, 2005 meeting III. ITEMS BY STAFF LIAISON — Staff Report ORC Report Issued by DCA — Comprehensive Plan Amendments Charles Wu, Growth Management Administrator, gave the board an update on the ORC Report that was received on the City's Comprehensive Plan Amendments as related to the Briger Tract. Charles stated there was one objection received from the Florida Department of Transportation. FDOT are requesting peak hour, peak direction analysis on how it will impact the interstate systems, (1 -95 and the Florida Turnpike). Staff has prepared an answer to the objections and will present it to City Council at the next Council meeting. Upon direction from City Council, staff will then prepare a response to DCA with regard to the objection. Staff believes the FDOT comments are technical in nature and after they receive direction from City Council they will be able to address the technical comments. Briger Tract Planning Session Charles Wu updated the board on the Planning Session that took place regarding the Briger Tract and the Comprehensive Plan Amendments. Staff sent out 2700 mailers to residents notifying them of this meeting. 48 residents showed up for the meeting. Staff and the residents broke out into 8 groups and discussed the Briger Tract. Staff will share the resident's comments with City Council. Dolores encouraged the Board to attend the next Council meeting to reiterate their support to City Council for the Briger Tract development as a potential economic engine site. ORDINANCE 6, 2005 Ordinance 6, 2005 was approved unanimously by City Council. This ordinance was developed to expedite minor conditional uses and addresses major conditional uses. Charles stated that recently they received a request from developer, Joel Channing in reference to adding self storage as a major conditional use to commercial districts. At this time self- storage is not allowed in any commercial districts in the city. Charles stated that he feels the self- storage industry has become a very clean industry and no longer has to be in only industrial zoning. City Council did approve adding self- storage as a major conditional use. Lou Gaeta stated that although self- storage is industry that is necessary for residents and they have come a long way aesthetically, from an economic standpoint, they do not they do not add any economic value to the city. He feels they should be allowed in some locations, but not to take away from businesses that have more economic value. BIO 2005 Dolores Key reported that BIO 2005 will take place in June. The booth is presently setup in City Hall Lobby. The booth size will be expanded from a 10' X 10' to a 10' X 20'. Last year the City received over 300 leads of businesses interested in relocating to the City. Economic Development Forum for Palm Beach County Kenneth Kahn reported on the Palm Beach County Economic Development Forum that he attended along with Charles Wu. Eleven municipalities attended the meeting with the purpose to coordinate economic development activities throughout the different cities and to talk about communication with the different cities. The county recently hired a new economic development director. Some of the discussions at the Forum included reviewing tax structures, redevelopment throughout the County, traffic concurrency and developing a common database with information available to companies that wish to open businesses in the throughout the County. Kenneth Kahn would like the board to have a more in depth discussion about the Economic Summit on a future agenda. He would like to see this Board get more involved in the County level and be involved in the different sub - committees at that level. PGA NATIONAL DRI Charles Wu reported that the State has a process for when DRI's are approaching build -out. The deadline for build -out of the PGA National DRI is currently the end of August After months of negotiating with DCA and FDOT, all parties have agreed upon the methodology on how to handle traffic for the PGA National DRI. IV. NEW BUSINESS COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM Charlotte Presensky, Amy Luetkemeyer, Stacey Rundle and Allyson Maiwurm gave the Board an update on the City's Community Outreach Program. The goals of the program are to connect with the residents of the City. There are many things that happen in the City that the residents need to know about especially projects that will personally affect the residents. They need to be notified early in the process rather than later when it becomes a problem. Staff is currently establishing a program to make sure the residents are connected to what is going on in the City. Staff is currently working on using all the resources that are currently established to get information out to the public. There were several suggestions from the Board on how to communicate with the residents including working more closely with the Chamber of Commerce to communicate with local businesses, forming a partnership with hospitals, schools and local businesses and using Home Owner Associations to get the word out. It was also suggested to form an alliance with the media including the newspapers and televisions stations. The Board stressed that they feel educating the public is just as important as giving them specific information on projects. They feel there is a lot of residents do not understand how the City works and therefore there is a lot of misinterpretation to different important issues. Some suggestions for educating residents could be traffic, taxes and safety. PROPERTY MAINTENANCE ORDINANCE Stacy Rundle gave the Board background on an Ordinance that is being proposed that will regulate home improvements at homes and businesses in the City. The Ordinance is now being developed and when it is completed it will be brought back to this board for discussion. REZONING PROPERTY FROM COMMERICAL TO RESIDENTIAL The Board discussed the fact that some commercial property is currently under consideration to be rezoned to residential. In particular, the property on the corner of Donald Ross Road and Prosperity Farms Road, next to Frenchman's Creek is being considered to build condominiums instead of commercial property. From an economic standpoint this is not a good decision. The board agrees that the City should not be going in this direction if they are trying to build a strong economic base. It was suggested that these issues should be brought before the Economic Development Board as well as the Planning and Zoning Board before being approved. The misconception with the public is that there is more traffic generated by commercial property than residential, when in fact, residential will actually generate more traffic trips. V. NEXT MEETING Discussion about Economic Summit and Sub - Committees Residence Education Home Improvement Ordinance Target Expediting Permitting Program VI. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:48 A.M. Approval: Kenneth Kahn, Chairperson yl_a3d��� ou Gaeta, Vice Chairperson ! � =-. . , /Z Eric Habecker, Board Member David Haysmer, Board Member Member Mark Murnan, Board Member Elaine Beers, Board Mem Frank Compiani Attest: Sus ell Public Information/ Recording Coordinator Board Member Member