Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Any questions? Any corrections? Any comments?

Nope. Motion approved. I'll second.

I have a motion to second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? That passes. Okay. We're still working on our, Pierce City assessments. I don't wanted to see if anybody had had any opportunity to, first of all, select their city. I've got 25 more that I'm looking at. Oh, wow.

And and collecting data on that are outside of Texas. I I decided to throw out all the ones that are in Texas because I think they would be too much like us as far as what what kinds of businesses and restaurants and entertainment and and event type things they attract. So only looking outside of Texas, and so I've got a list of more that, I'm going through and getting, contact names for. And, I thought if it helps, and I offered this the last, meeting that if, if you want me to open the door to make a call to somebody from the city council or or the mayor's office, just so it's kind of peer to peer and, hey. Who would be the best person for us to talk to?

And because we've got members that wanna, you know, collect some data, and at least get an introduction. I've I've found that when, you get somebody that's in that kind of position, kind of filtering it down, that the the responsiveness tends to be a little bit better when, when they get the call. So, I'm collecting phone numbers to do that. But if you've already selected a city and would like, me to do that, I'll, I'll reach out and make that phone call. Just let me know who it is and and because it's if you've got one, it's off of our original list. Right? We haven't done any more Yeah. Work on that. Because so I've already got numbers on there unless they've been ousted and reelected or somebody else. And and come on in.

I had a question for you

on that.

Sure. Regarding, is there a way to do any kind of, like, sharing where there could be, like, a folder for each one of these cities that we could put information in? Or do you want us to handle that just on emails?

That's a good question. And we we've got stuff we use internally for staff that helps that meeting stuff to go. But, like, don't know if

we could Google Drive or

SharePoint or something.

Don't know if we've

gotten it.

We could we do have a Google Drive that we could

share. Share it out.

Yeah. We can discuss and let y'all know because I know Kingsley has sent us his already. So we can we'll let y'all know how we wanna gather that and have it kind of, like, live in one place.

That would be cool. Good suggestion. So and then I'll if if you haven't selected one as I get these together, I'll send them back out. I kinda wanna make this an an ongoing thing that we're constantly looking for other cities that are like us. All of these are suburbs of major metropolitan areas.

And then I also tried to cross reference it to any keyword that was, like, family oriented, said excellent schools or quality schools. And so that's where this list of 25 narrowed down to was those that it's like Fishers, Indiana. Big things in their city, safety. It is an affluent community with excellent schools and a community vibe. And so that kind of piqued my interest.

First of all, it was just population. And then looking for some of these keywords that we like to use to describe us. And so I was kinda pleased Franklin, Tennessee showed up again. So I kicked it off of the list. And there was a couple other repeats of what I'd already had, but I think I'd eliminated all of those off of here.

But, like, Carmel, Indiana, Eaton Prairie, Minnesota, Johns Creek, Georgia, Leawood, Kansas, which I've actually been to Leawood, Kansas. And but most of these, hadn't hadn't been to. So I I'll get this stuff collected. And so when you finish one, take on another and and and just see what they have. Even if it's just doing online searches for what, you know, what's the most popular entertainment, what's the most popular restaurant.

And then if we can get in touch with somebody at the the municipality that can give us some of those, hey. What things like Anna did, you know, what what's working great, what didn't work quite so great, and and get that information. So does anybody have any update from their Pier City?

Well, I did reach out to Carmel, Indiana.

So that conversation started going.

So in case you reach out again,

we wanna double dip. Okay. Well, I I will if you want me to, but I won't if you've already if you've already got that down.

So I've given them the questions, they've gotten I've kinda gone through two people, and so we'll get to the right person

to pull. Cool. Sweet.

Take a laugh. But they have a great website. I really was impressed with their website. They've spent a lot on media and promotion. They've got a quick, nice little two minute video that, you know, highlights their city and stuff. And so definitely a lot of things we can

Click that link and share that link so that we can we can look at that too. Did you talk to anybody at the city?

Or Yeah. Talked to to somebody there. But it was just she wasn't really the one that wanted to be the official answer.

So Right. But did they have, like, an economic development director or was that somebody we could get some good good information from and be willing to share good information. So That's in process. Terrific. Anybody else?

Yeah. I sent I sent them something earlier. So just for Newton Mars, I got in touch with the mayor. She connected me with the economic development director. And then from there, it linked me up. They have a they have an economic development commission or something similar to this. So I also talked with the chair of that Oh, good. Commission. So two substantive conversations. That's all summarized in in the report I sent.

I can talk about just in terms of the CD, this is Newton, so it's a bedroom community for Boston about, you know, about 10 miles at most out. And it's similar to us in some sense. Very good schools. They actually have some higher institutions located within the community. So that's where Boston College College is is located.

And very good transit, MassRail going to town, town being Boston and back. So things like that. The the most of the conversation, I ask the questions. I also do some search using Microsoft Copilot plus a research assistant. So if you are you able to share all the same you to them?

Yeah. I I shared it with Tag. I didn't know if you wanna I can share it with everybody tomorrow.

Yeah. But I'll focus primarily on some of the takeaways. But they've they've had different kinds of issues in terms of challenges. It's an older community where the the zoning rules are predated by the housing stock that were in place. So it can't be smashed there.

They also have situations where it's not like a typical city where you have a single downtown core. The place is actually separated into villages. So each village has its own character and its own different guys, folk would call them its own kind of pressure campaign. So if if you try to do anything with the city, each village has its own thing they want, so it can be quite fractious sometimes and makes it really difficult to do anything. He he joked that developers call Newton the city of No.

Yeah. So it's just hard to get anything done. So they've been trying over the years to do things like try to change the zoning rules, engaging with the members of the community to educate them on the need to make those changes, and then partnering with nearby communities that are more receptive. One problem they have is that they are not eligible for state grants because they don't have a single downtown area. So, yeah, so they they don't qualify for that.

So that's been a challenge for them. On the other hand, they it's a very affluent community. The housing, residential, real estate is easily over 80% with just very little for commercial. Again, the issue with getting permits to do anything. Anything.

So what they are doing these days is focusing more on convincing people to do mixed use type. So commercial, presidential, and, like, office buildings all together in the same space. So they've had some success doing that, and that's why they are pushing more. Then they are trying to do more partnership with other cities that have similar educational institutions to bring kind of research centers and places like that that's accessible to all the committee. The last thing I will say is and please send me questions if you have talked about report.

Last thing I will say is that they have done really well to take advantage of that the fact that they have different villages and try to do things specific to each village. So on on aside from that is, is there something we can do here? Is there something unique about any of our neighborhoods? Could you could there be some festival or something that encourages business activity that's specific to a particular area. So they do that to bring in pulling crowd from surrounding areas every

year. So

just quick quick update, but that's really that's really the key thing. So let's move on in mixed use, collaborating, and yeah. Well, take a look at it both, and let me know if you have questions.

It looked like they they had a huge focus on parks and trails like we did from your summary. Yeah. And their employment, which daytime employment is something I'm always looking to see was that looked like it was the, you know, like I said, technology, health care, education. Right. We don't have a lot of high-tech stuff here in Keller yet, so that kinda piqued me piqued my interest. But when you're in a college or close to a college and close to Boston, I imagine they have a a little more draw for that type of thing Yeah. There.

There are some the kind of partnerships they have, there are some cities that don't have quite the same density of higher institutions. So they put in things like I talked about research center that's that's supported by multiple cities. So if you have that drop, people tend to buy homes in the general area because of how those kind of central locations are. The other thing they've done is they have they have, like, a car I think of it as a corridor, like, something like Keller Parkway

Mhmm.

That kinda goes through the city. And what they've done is identify opportunities to put a lot of this mixed use development right on that. So it's easily accessible, right, for business, for residents, or other types of activities.

Did did they mention anything about the things that were they're always coming up on our survey, restaurants, entertainment, destination kind of things. Did they mention any of that type of

Yeah. So that's what they are trying to do with this village centered development. So the village is somewhere developed around railway terminal, or that's where done because the Charles River is particularly nice in that part of town so they can have these clusters. And so they they look at what's unique about that village and try to develop some culture.

But they didn't give any specifics on things that have done well there that we don't we don't necessarily have? Or Not specifically.

People I spoke with, but I can dig into particular festivals. They they have some actually, take that back. They have some kind of food related items that came up. So there are some foodie type things where what do they call it? You know, eating your way through something. I forget.

Oh, okay. This is an event or a festival they put on?

Yeah. In some of the villages. Yep. So what is not planned, but some villages seem to have more ethnic type restaurants and others. So they'll have this kind of periodic activities where they'll put something out, and people will come in who like that kind of food. They're coming from different places and and sample.

Anything they mentioned as far as challenges that they they have for their economic development?

Yeah. They they still they still are ongoing challenges, which is just how hard it is to get anything permission to to have them. That's that's a big one. And the the other one is that the I talked about how 80% also is residential. So even though they are trying to get commercial in, they are not able to. So they're having a much higher tax burden on people that live there to meet their needs for I mean, their schools are top ranked in that area.

Okay.

So there's this push and pull between, you know, not in my backyard and want our tax rates to be reasonable. So they it it just I think the guy said that nothing against politicians, but the guy said that some of the some of the villages have politicians in their pocket. Mhmm. So, yeah, some you can you know they are just not gonna do anything no matter how hard they push. So some some developments are bypassing the city and going to the surrounding areas.

Like, they had this situation where I think it was a Home Depot or something was trying to locate in the city, and they tried and tried and and just couldn't make it happen. So they went to us now.

You shared a lot of information.

Yeah. I I had a I had a one hour telecom with this

guy. So

he was very he had he had written an article. He had written an article really I think it was directed at the city leaders, the chair of the economic development commission, basically outlining some of these issues and concerns. So I was very happy to talk talk about it. And I I cited that in my summary. So Yeah. It's somewhere.

So that the their cost of living is much higher than here?

That's right.

Yeah. That that's not unexpected in the New England area. So Okay. Well, great. Great job. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. Anybody else? Anything?

I did Sammish washing Sammish?

Alright. Sammish.

Didn't even say it.

That's actually a place we wanna visit.

What is it?

Sammish. Sammish.

I just completely just skipped over that third m. Sounds good. I wear glasses. Oh, yeah. These are my readers. Okay. So, Samamish. So there were a couple things that were really interesting. I didn't finish, but I have some some comparables to kinda share today. But, the median household income is 239,000, so significantly higher.

And their population is about 67,000. They do have their also their median household, home value is 1,300,000.0. So, those were some big differences, but as far as like the actual community itself, it had a lot of similarities to Keller. They definitely put a big emphasis on, the parks and green spaces, and that's a huge point of conversation with the community with the growth that they have had over the past twenty years. So eco friendly, things as they were developing was like a priority, that they brought the community into the conversation.

So as far as the infrastructure that they developed over they had something similar to the flup. So they had some, type of, like a twenty year infrastructure plan, that they actually created initiatives to. It was they had annual growth planning meetings and a docket system where they had this thing that sounded like our flop, but they revisited every year. And they also had community input as well as like city, employee employees input into it, as well as, city council and various boards. So it's something that they had that long term plan, but they were revisiting and somewhat flexible in how they just revisit it just as like the world evolved.

So they were very they seem very like adaptive to that's a word. To like the growth and the different changes. So they were kind of flexible in whatever that long term plan was. One thing, tech was a big thing. Tech and eco were were the two things that came up a lot.

They're 20 miles outside of Seattle, and so there is a pretty prominent tech kind of environment. And I think Keller does this, but I wanted to actually I like ask about that with like fiber. And they made that point when they were developing some areas, the like small business infrastructure. They made a point to incorporate like tech in advance. So that way, those things would be accessible for when the infrastructure was built out.

And like, I'm just speaking from Old Town Keller, I know fiber is now available. So I don't know if that's something that's like was considered, in the process. But I thought that was interesting that they were incorporating, tech. And then the other aspect with the a lot of their, areas from what I could tell, they actually just recently launched like a a big, kinda like a town center that they didn't really fully have in its full capacity. But all of their kind of community oriented like small business hub areas feed right into parks and like trails.

And so there's like a lot of walkability. And so they were strategic in where they placed where they were building their small business like infrastructure to feed into like their parks and their green space. And so with that, there's like WiFi available in the parks, things like that. So they were very kinda tech forward in how they were, planning our infrastructure. Let's see.

A lot of collaboration. There was definitely a lot of collaboration even with the, people that they would hire for the development. There was a develop a development partnership framework, that they established to help, share transparency with the community. So there's areas within there, city website, which I thought was interesting because we do have so much, like, growth happening in our own communities. Like, a lot of people you'll see it, like, in Facebook forums ask me like, what's happening here?

What's going on over here? Like, that was all laid out like almost like a map on the website, on their city website. And you could go directly to that area and actually learn like what was being developed, who would who were the developers, and there was developer transparency. So there was even, like, introductions or small features about some of the developers that they were hiring and working with. So that was really interesting.

Sorry. Actually, just what did that feel like for major development projects or it's even something that we might consider, like, for one off?

Even smaller projects. Okay. So, like, something, like, for example, Tejin. Yeah. So, like, a like, a lot that was empty and that started being developed, there was like a color coded on their website for like the lots. And then you could literally see what's happening on that lot. And then it has like a like a key where you could go and look to see like number five. And so, yeah. It was everything from the smaller projects to the bigger infrastructure that they had developed out. Let's see.

Yeah. That's about as far as I got. I was curious. I started looking into, what types of businesses. It really was a mix from they had a Costco to the smaller, you know, local kind of mom and pop type of businesses. So it was a it was a mixture in their mixed use space. They do have residential nearby that was walkable. But, yeah, there was a real big emphasis on the green spaces. All of their civic, they have a lot of civic buildings that kinda tie in. So, like, even kinda like what we have here.

Mhmm. So there was there was a lot of similarities, but that's how they prepared for their infrastructure. They were thinking about like technology for what was going to be needed in the future for those businesses. And so fiber was a big initiative that they had. And that's basically what I could tell from their city websites.

Oh, I did On their city website too, I really liked They had a small They had a business like, how to do business in Sammamish. And so, there was a pretty robust, FAQ. There was, a lot of details that kind of answered, not just a lot of a lot of varying questions about, like, permits, even just basic stuff. They've they've supplied information like with the SBA. And so different like resources and support for the small businesses, beyond just like what the city could provide.

So, if they were a newer business and didn't have didn't have like the, like business acumen, I guess, to know what questions to ask, there was like a whole pretty robust built out area just on like basic stuff outside of city related questions. So and then they tied into the SBA and different grant programs and stuff like that that they had.

So I thought that was that was cool.

But that is what I've got so far.

I'm looking at the web site right now, see where they've got all the links to the things that you have to do for the state doing business in the state of Washington, small business guide, business licensing, business permitting, town center requirements, and then

Yeah. Went beyond just even within the city.

Yeah. Step by step. Yeah. For verify and obtain your business license, meet other requirements, understand the local taxes. Interesting. That's kind of a good segue into Yes. What discussed that you wanna talk about that now. We could do that before the update.

Yeah. I definitely wanted to kinda bring to the table for us to have more opportunities to potentially share, problem solve, collaborate things when it comes to doing business. In Keller. I did share some of, the things, the processes that I had gone through when I was going through the SUP process. But furthermore, I have talked with more business owners in the area and just a little bit of just the disconnect or confusion or or asking additional questions.

And so, where we can either, you know, step in as like whether it be as a city or as a board to kind of think and troubleshoot what those questions might be and provide those answers. Whether it be through a, you know, format of the website or, even just helping out with the UDC, and some of the things as we're growing in these various areas. Things are evolving, things are changing, and having some kind of, support. I don't know if it's city council level, maybe you could speak to this or city of Keller level, but the UDC specifically, I can speak to that there's certain zoning and processes for businesses in Old Town Keller, that requires special use permits. While as whereas businesses, that don't require permits, they're not typically the type of businesses that we're looking for.

Like, for example, experiential businesses. They sometimes fall under gray categories or things that we don't typically know where to place them, where to put them, and then the requirements for their building and their permitting. There's just a lot of really gray area and I think if we wanna continue to attract unique businesses, I think it's something that it should be looked at. So I was asking TAG and some other city members, how can we maybe start collectively with all of our different backgrounds to be able to look at some of these things to maybe get ahead of some of these issues for small business owners or listen and hear this the current pain points that small business owners are experiencing and how can we kinda streamline that to help with communication and and support. Because sometimes it can be very costly if you're given the wrong information, which is detrimental to a newer business that's just opening.

And that has been the case for some of our small business owners. And so just trying to bring those conversations to the table to kinda see the current problems that have arose over the past couple of years and how to mitigate problems for the future as we continue to grow and wanna attract certain things in the different areas that we are looking to develop.

Can you give an example?

I sure can.

Just one. Where do

I start? I I'll I'll use my my can I do that? Can I use my

Sure?

My building as an example? Or

You could do whatever you want. What is it?

I just don't wanna break any rules. Don't know how that works. I'll just I'll I'll speak to my situation. So I was initially told that my space based on what I was gonna do in the space was retail or fault would fall under that category. So that's what I did my c o for. To later find out that I maybe fit into a different area that was kind of gray. So instead, the closest that I could fall into was event venue. Mhmm. And so by changing the category to an event venue, that changed the process. So I had to go through now the SUP process, which takes a couple months.

Mhmm. I owned the building, so it was just kinda like I was there. But if it would have been a different circumstance where I was leasing, I wouldn't be able to operate and do business or get approved for any of my permitting without it. And so it can take about up to two months to go through that process. Within that process, you also once you get approved for your SUP, now you have to go through the fire marshal and the building, department.

And so there was a bit of a disconnect about how many people actually fit in my building or within my building. And there was a lot of additional requirements because now I was in a new category. And so it was very costly. But more so after going and doing some of those additional things with the fire marshal, then the building department comes in and kinda has a different perspective. And has a different perspective on on, occupancy level, which then changes actually the requirements that I may or may not need.

And so it becomes a very costly process, but then also there's a disconnect in in just knowing what needs to be kinda told from the beginning. So that way I could take care of it. So that was my own my own experience, but there has been additional experiences with other business owners that kinda fall into this gray area. And so with that, my suggestion after reviewing the UDC is really just looking at one, you know, what are those if many people are falling into this gray area, what is that gray area? How can we define it better?

And then from there, once we define it, how can we get consistent communication between all departments? And maybe whether it's a punch list that is one that is accurate to better prepare the small business owner of what their potential costs are so they can make a more effective decision instead of as you're going through the licensing or permitting process to discover, you know, your last person coming in is actually now, you know, telling you a whole different thing and you thought this was the, you know, the last step and you're done. Right? Mhmm. And then that could just delay you further and it's very hard to plan on when you can actually open.

So specifically speaking to the gray area, I think is is the biggest difficulty because there's not clear defined terms which makes it open for interpretation depending on who you speak to. So that part of I think on the UDC side is really important, I think, to actually get more clarity and definition, but then also maybe better, like, outline as to how a small business owner could prepare.

Okay. Well, I'll start.

Go I ahead. Was just gonna say, like, how if you knew where to look and you could find these documents, would it even be possible for a small business to to read them and digest and figure this stuff out ahead of time?

So that is a difficulty. And I will say and and speaking to this to the staff at city city of Keller, honestly, everybody is very very willing and very great with conversation. And I I think from the perspective of not just myself, but other small business owners, that's their first Mhmm. I think go to as opposed to diving through a lot of different things that you don't know what you're looking for on the website. I think the first thing is for someone to call the city and ask questions to directly to the building department or call a meeting with someone with an economic development.

I know that has been the case, but the discrepancy is more so the disconnect between what you're told in one department to another. And so I think having some clear consistent guidelines across departments so that way you can better repair. Because even when small businesses are asking the questions, they're not exactly getting clear answers or maybe differing answers that directly conflict with the other one. So there's that too.

It to get your question answered, I don't wanna jump in the middle of of if you've got questions. Because I I did a lot of thinking about this. I know Sarah and Aaron and Anna now all have a a interest in making doing business with Keller as seamless and as, I don't wanna say smooth because I don't I don't think it's a that's just it doesn't have to be a rocky experience. But for someone that's more experienced in, you know, what the requirements would be, it certainly is a lot easier than somebody that is brand new to creating a business or occupying real estate. If you're not familiar with that, it can get kind of cumbersome.

Sarah, do we have anything that when somebody comes to us about wanting to open a business here that that we, have a decision tree or, something we give them that helps them kinda navigate through all of this?

So I know a development had something put together years ago that I don't know is any longer is is still publicly available because it was fraught with issues. And this is something Mary and I discussed extensively And on the community development side, we still very much want to do it. The challenge comes in creating something that is just vague enough that it will not make anyone think, like, okay, if I go through these nine things, I'm done. Because every and this is even more so in Keller every single day, the closer and closer we get to build out, every single site is unique. Every single site is a little different and has the potential to trigger different requirements from departments that are not in building or fire.

It could be a public works requirement or or something else. So the short answer is we don't have anything right now available. I think economic development had something several years ago, but the results of that was often complaints because we would have businesses say, well, I did

everything on this list. Completed these nine steps and I'm still yeah. Exactly.

Now you're telling me I need a sprinkler system where I have you know, insert whatever code requirement may have come up. So Right. As a consent, it's something we've been able to to address. So certainly very interested in doing it now that we've got an onboard.

That that's kinda where I was coming from and with, Anna here is, maybe to, create some follow-up meetings with people that have opened businesses within the last couple of years and just get that feedback from them and and see what we might be able to do as an economic development. This was kind of focused on this group of, you know, if we're wanting to attract and promote businesses and and development of our economic base here, kinda hitting on as many of those in in what I envisioned was a decision tree that I I want. Okay. So just I was just looking at Sammish's business portal and okay. So you wanna open a business in Keller.

Well, what's step one? And a lot of people go all the way to Step 20 before they ever talk to somebody at the city. And and then find out that, well, I, you know, I didn't consider this. I didn't consider that. Didn't consider that. And and those things can end up being very time consuming and costly. And so I just wanted to throw it out as, an idea for, our board to see if we wanted to, make that a project to kind of focus on, interview people that have opened businesses. We certainly have the list of businesses that have opened and say, alright. You know, what where where was your headache? What went well?

I mean, every organization I've been a part of, we do this kind of brainstorm. Okay. What do we do good? What do we do not so good? And and help build that so that it doesn't have to be a challenge or as much of a challenge.

And I think Sarah is is is right that we don't have anything that's gonna fit in the box anymore unless it's they're occupying space that's already in the center and and all of that. Everything's already done. We've got unique challenges because we have an old town like where you're at where it wasn't originally intended. We're just now catching up some of the infrastructure along Elm Street and Bates Street, and we have the plan is in place to update those things further on down. But it just just was, I thought, a great idea that Ashley approached me about, and I said I wanted to discuss it here

and and see. And so

we do find the there is a new business guide on the website. I couldn't remember if if she took it down. I know we've gotten complaints before because people will take it as this is the only thing I need to do and not read the fine print.

This is my checklist. Yeah.

Right. And I wanted to to add on to this conversation just so you all know, you know, we take process improvement really seriously. And there's a lot of movement we've done in the last couple of years. We've a long way to go with development. And one of the things Erin and I are hoping to do before the end of the year is bring in a third party that will review our entire development process.

So not just building permits, but the planning side of things, the public work side of things, the fire side of things, and how all of us work together. Not just to find the pain points because sometimes when you're in it or you're up to here in work, it's really hard to even if you know, oh, we need to fix this process. It's really hard sometimes to do that when you're, you know, eyeball deep in it. But so we're hoping to get that third party very objective perspective. And then also comparisons to other cities.

Because a lot of times what we hear, particularly from people who have never done work in other cities, is a lot of complaints and pushback on the requirements. When we have somebody who's opened a business in 10 other municipalities, they're like, yep, yep, yep, yep, this is pretty standard. And so, it doesn't mean that we cannot be better at helping people through that process, but we are looking for, you know, okay, what are we doing that maybe is outdated or no one else is doing this? There is also a very good chance you find things in Keller's UDC and development guidelines that are purposely more aggressive. It is difficult sometimes to develop in Keller for a reason because we have set high standards.

We have set aggressive landscaping requirements and tree ordinances and things like that. And so, sometimes the pushback we get is not so much, you know, about the process or communication. It's it's the standards that have ultimately set been set by city leadership by elected city leadership that are that are in the code. So but we're excited to have that third party come in because we really want a very objective perspective that has has looked at a lot of other city's codes and and processes. Sweet.

Yeah. And I think with that, we can look at our current new business guide that's on the website and see how we can update it, what we can add to it. I like the idea of interviewing businesses. Part of what we do as a department with our, you know, like business retention and expansion strategy is meeting up with checking in on businesses, finding out what keeps them up at night, that kind of thing. So I think I can make a target list of maybe 10 businesses that opened over the last two years that are very different businesses from all over the city and maybe kinda use that as like my focus group type thing to help us see what kind of updates we need to do here.

And obviously, feedback from you guys as well would be great. So we'll work on it. I know I've looked at it before as I'm familiarizing myself with our website. And there's a flowchart right now that I think could use some tweaking. We'll definitely look at it and report back.

I wonder if there's also a population of businesses that didn't make it. And I don't mean necessarily have to go talk to them again. It's probably, know, last thing they want to hear is from us. Right. Like, retro of, yeah, some that we got really far on and what was it that caused it to fall apart at the end.

So I can tell you, I I don't know the name of it. I have I could find out the details. But there was someone in Old Town that the process was too cumbersome and lengthy that and there was still kind of a from their perspective a fifty fifty shot. They get approved because word around town was that city the city didn't want any more salons and spas. And it wasn't necessarily for that particular exact category but that's what they would fall under.

And so they, ended up actually backing out of their lease and so they were in it for about two and a half months to try to make it work. And then once they realized the actual process that they had to go through. But it could also be from that perspective that maybe they didn't know and understand, which I also am finding that many people don't know and understand that. So depending on the category, there is an SUP process. And I think that also is a disconnect that people are just kinda going right in and signing leases before

be upfront and like a guide like that. Right?

Yeah. I don't

We can't prevent people from signing

a lease. At that part at that point, I do agree with that. Because I I've done business for eighteen years in in Connecticut which is is vastly different but at the same time it has it had experiences in others other states and other cities. And I can tell you that in that instance, I mean, you are correct that they have to do their due diligence and, you know, if they don't and they sign a lease, then that that is true. That they're just,

you

know Yeah.

They should've done their their due diligence because those are questions I would've asked too. But some As far as the SUP process, so I knew those things. I did my due diligence. I sat with people in economic. I did not understand the SUP process. And then the UDC was a whole another thing that I had to jump in and really dive into to fully grasp, myself as I was as I got thrown into that process after the fact, after I received the CEO. And so that for me was really jarring, but I do agree that there's some instances if they sign a lease and they didn't do that initial due diligence, there's no we have no control over that either.

Right. But that's the kind of thing in a guide or, you know, doing business guide we can clarify up front. So these are some of the things that might you might wanna look into that might affect, the process for you.

Yeah. Even the word UDC, I didn't even hear of until after I was going through the SUP process. And I don't even I keep forgetting what it even stands for in full transparency. I don't know. But I've looked at it a million times. But but in

that sense because that's kind of an important step.

It is an

important thing for

me to know. But when it comes to the UDC specifically, I I will say and that's something I would love to see if there's an opportunity because I have brought it to various people and I know that it's it's I don't know who who it goes to in terms of like how do we brainstorm and look at this to change some whether it's changed some of these categories or expand on some of these categories. And the city is busy and the city council members are busy and that's where I thought maybe there's an opportunity. Even the UDC at at the very least, this has been a thing that has come up numerous times at least in my experience in the past two years. That is there an opportunity for us to me maybe all look at the UDC itself and because I feel like that's the that's the area that's been coming up the most is just having clarity as to what category do I fall under and do I need these additional processes prior.

And and I think that's where there's a disconnect, I think, with the conversation with the city because then they go on not to what you fall under. And now it becomes this gray area and then that's where to me, in my experience, the discrepancies started to occur. Not just with myself, but in other ways. So I think the UDC itself would be I think it would behoove us to look at it and how we can expand on the categories a little bit.

That's something that's been high on on staff's priority, and we've been tackling that. Like I said, you know, it's it's an elephant. And so our team's been chunking it up, and and we're taking a look at things. Even those categories were things that we spent a lot of time in work sessions within city council to try to better define and and update. Sarah pointed out the last time we went through this exercise, categories that really don't make sense anymore, either because licensing laws have changed in Texas or or there's been new subcategories within businesses that we really didn't address.

So that's that's always gonna be an ongoing thing. And I I I I'm grateful that we're at least trying to tackle those things. But having that that guide, I think, would would be beneficial, and and it's something that I felt is a good fit with economic development board to to try to do some of that. So thank you for bringing that in. It's just right

underneath our strategy of attract. Yeah. If we don't have a lot of the natural draws like a a big interstate or a big river or, you know, some other thing, we need to be very attractive to businesses to do business with. The process needs to be very easy. That's something we could actually work on as a strategy. But then also balancing being business friendly with family friendly, we have to have a high standard. You know, there's a little bit of tension there we always have to work out.

So Always.

Always. You're right.

I think too if we want to attract the smaller experiential kind of the things that we want to be able to track outside of the bigger businesses and the bigger box, like that aspect of thinking, well, they might not be well versed or have enough business acumen to know to ask some of these questions, but someone else is kind of better on the block. They see the list and then go, oh, yep. Okay. Check that box. Yep.

I'm used to that. The reality is if we wanna attract other types of experiential or smaller businesses, they are likely going to be potentially newer business younger business owners, newer business owners that might not know, you know, because they've never done a building before. They've never done a venue before. And so I mean, we could we could side set that. But if we wanna attract that, I think we provide some of the resources in a more tangible way to attract more of those

people.

Considered having a cadre of mentors, like business mentors? Perhaps they are seasoned business owners in the community who hopefully can give a couple of hours here and there to help the kind of people you're describing. This

Well, I think that also that goes to our exercise with the peer cities. So if we're making contacts and having these connections with cities that are comparable to Keller, then we can type into their resources, websites. I think that's why it's so important to build that database of people that we can call up and say, hey, what is what is your new business guide? Right? So I think that like, of course, having local mentors is great, but I think that this is where TAG's idea of having this networking group almost that we're creating ourselves would be really beneficial too.

Yeah. We can definitely have have both people in the community that they can talk to and who've done a few of these things and can share their experiences, tell them, you know, hey. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? So they have that human connection, not just bumbling your way through signing leases and doing other things.

The Keller chamber might have something like that or at least foundationally. They do facilitate interaction among existing and new businesses. I I don't know exactly the program, but there might be something there.

There's not a mentorship

Right.

Capacity. But the that in my experience in Connecticut, that's that was the connection. So it was like the the local chamber of commerce was your point of contact for resources exactly like some of these same points. So it was a chamber that kinda stepped in in that way, but it's a little bit different of a dynamic, I think, here. Mhmm.

Yeah. Because you wanna reach them before they even get to the because here, it's like the they usually join when they're brand new, when they just opened.

Mhmm.

And you

really wanna reach them before they even get to that point. Yeah. Which I know that I know what you mean because in in some areas, when somebody wants to come to town, first place they call is the chamber. And So hopefully, they're calling us before because a lot of times there's pressure to sign leases and they don't even think to call us first. And I think that that's where things come in.

Is there a business registration process outside of the c o? I don't think so. Yep. Right? So that's how we did it.

Unless you're unless it's something like you're selling alcohol to get a TABC permit or something like that. And even then, we're not registering. We're just signing off that you meet the distance requirements.

So in in Connecticut, we had a business registration process. So to even do business like before anything, you have to make sure that the name is available. And like, it's like a it's a very simple process. But it's just like your first step to even ensure that no one else has the same name. And then they kind of know a little bit more about who wants to come in and do business. And then from there, they provide some of those resources and information for you for the for the next steps.

But it's not at the city level?

Is It is at the city level. Okay. Yeah. It is at the level.

That's all secretary of state here, and it's very easy to find. I I I gotta do it right now. Just check a check a name to see the name availability.

No. They do a town registration. They do this they do a state, but then they also do a town registration in the town that you do business in. Interesting. Yeah. That's what I was curious about the CEO process. Because initially when I first was kind of grasping how things are done here, the CEO process, well, which comes much kind of a little bit later. They're already kind of like in at that point and going through their their their things. But that's where I was confused because I was looking to figure out like how do I even register first. So that's how I actually initially got connected into the economic development because that's when I met some of the people within the city because I just was asking questions of like, how do I register?

And then they it was a CEO process. So it was a little bit like later down the line when the city basically became involved. Mhmm. And kinda like even doing economic development like our meetings when Mary would come in and say, okay. This is who like, we don't know until they until they the COs.

So once we have the COs, then we can share. So that is definitely later down the line than the typical process that I was used to in Connecticut. They would do an initial registration process for the at the town level. So then you kind of have a feel of what's to come and then they're on your radar, which I I think that too, if if that's an option to look at, it would help with keeping in color as well. Because I know oftentimes, was a disconnect me and Mary would talk about as far as just knowing who the business where like, keeping in Keller is at the mercy of businesses either going online and registering or their their c o.

And then they wouldn't know if they went out of business because there's no there's no like connection point back in. So even when I left Connecticut, I had to then like let them know that I was leaving as well.

Wow. Never

heard. So they kinda knew who was coming in and out.

Yeah. Yeah. How do they keep track though? I'm just curious. How do they keep track if somebody didn't report that they closed? Like, how would they track you?

Well, we also did, the property taxes I think are a little bit different here because the property taxes are by the the county here and, there it's by the town. So the town is in touch with you every year doing your property taxes. So they they know

So they would know even if you didn't report it, they

would know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Which is that is that something you guys would be able to look at as well? If if they if they aren't reporting like with the attorney county, then maybe that would indicate that they're no longer in business? Like, a once a month or once a year audit.

The county does that themselves.

Yeah. But they

They're not at sound level?

I don't know if a reverse reporting, like, where you could see who's not field time. Business personal property is basically a voluntary reporting at this point anyway. So

Okay.

To figure out who's not reporting for business personal property tax would be it like, you're just knocking on doors.

Okay. And it gets really tricky. Okay. Yeah. Connecticut's required. How big was your city? I did I did business in that particular town. I wanna say it was about 20,000, 25,000. Mhmm. Yeah. It was about half the size. But as far as, like, the the growth, there was a lot of similarities here. This is like Keller's like a little big town to me because it's got a lot of similarities to the small towns that I did business in, but then, like, there's just, like, a lot of people that live here. But a lot of the other things were very similar.

What's the name of the city, sir? Farmington. Okay. But we'll get their site.

K. Perfect. Alright. Economic development update.

Okay. I have printed copies for y'all.

I'm gonna pass around. Oh, yes.

Three this way, and then we'll do the rest that way. And this is just for you guys to take home. I'm just gonna read a few of the highlights for you. So something that I thought was an interesting statistic. The vacancy rate for retail in Texas is 4.4%. In DFW, it's 4.8%. But in Keller, it's 4%. So we are lower than the Texas rate and the the DFW rate. So I thought that was a fun positive thing to report on the retail end. If that changes in the next quarter, I'll definitely let you all know.

We had two new businesses that opened in May, Stan Ministries at 805 Taylor Parkway and Smart Transportation Division at 630 Stone Glen Drive, Suite A. So far through the May, we've had 53 COs that have been issued. On the permit applications and coming soon, the back nine golf at 721 Keller Parkway applied for their building permit, so be on the lookout for that. And then I'm sure you've all heard that Monster Mini Golf opened up at 1580 Keller Parkway on June 7, and I don't know if you guys were there or saw pictures. There was a line wrapped around the shopping center for that opening.

So that's great. We we love a successful opening. And then these two coming up coming soon are really exciting. Italian table is opening up in center stage in the next few weeks. This is the same ownership as the, Lone Star, the brunch place just two doors down. So really excited. The owner has a lot of experience, and we should definitely check it out when they open. And then right over here down the street, Soho Wine Bar is gonna be going into the former F and G space. They're set to open in the next few weeks. It's a high end Italian concept with a full bar and specialty wines.

They are from New York, and they moved here for this restaurant. So that's really exciting. And both of these have been featured in our city's foodie Friday series. So if you're not following it on Facebook, please do share with your friends. Tell everyone to go give it a like. A couple updates on incentivized projects. Penguin Patch officially has their grand opening tomorrow, and I think you guys were all invited. So please come out and celebrate. And then Tejin is still projected to open in July. If anything changes, we'll keep you updated.

That's another one we're really, really excited about. As far as recruitment activity, we still had quite a bit of interest in the former PEDCO site right here next to Tentham, and then just across from it, the former Genie Rocket sites. So we are doing some work through that. But as Ashley mentioned, this type of thing we can't tell you yet. Hopefully, we'll we'll have something to report report in the next few months.

This one is an is an update. I just wanted to share with y'all because I'm sure you get questions about the Las Palapas Building at 455 Keller Parkway. I spoke with the property property owner who happens to own all of the Las Palapas, if you've been to the ones in San Antonio. He mentioned that his priority right now is to find a new franchisee to make it a Las Palapas again. I have prospects for him to make it something else, and he said he will entertain it. But right now, the priority is to keep it a Las Palapas. So just wanna make sure everybody knows that in case you

get a question.

Sweet.

And then a few updates from us. We have a new intern. She has not started yet. She just accepted her offer last week. So we're really excited, and she's going to be supporting Melanie and I in lots of different projects. And we'll let you know when she starts, and we'll introduce her to all of you. And then, later on this week, Melanie and I are gonna be attending the mid year Texas Economic Development Council, conference. So, hopefully, we'll have lots of learning there. And then just make sure you put on your calendar July 21 at 6PM for our next meeting. Okay. Any questions, Frank?

I have one request Yes. For our next meeting. All of you should have a badge like this. If you don't, we'll get you one. I wanted to, encourage us that when we go into a local Keller business, if you don't if I can encourage you to keep in your car, great.

But even if you don't, ask for the owner or manager when you're in there. And just say, this is the I'm tag green. I'm on our economic development board here. And for our next meeting, I wanna come up with maybe three questions or two questions that we can ask them. And it can be very general and broad, but kinda playing off what has happened is you know, but I always end with, is there anything we could do to help you?

And, and that would be the the the last question, because you have a direct line into the the workings of city council and the and the city staff. And I don't I'll just tell you from being a business owner, I don't think I've ever had a city ask anything we can do for you. So I just wanna encourage us to do that when you're going into a shop or going into a restaurant or buying, especially if it's if it's local. If it's not a you know, I don't especially going to Lowe's and ask for the manager and

ask for, you we can

do help for them. Although I did know the the previous manager pretty well, first name basis, and he knew I was on city council. So if he did have anything, he would he would ask. But especially the local owned, local operated businesses, just introduce yourself and and let them know who you are and and ask them if there is. So for next meeting, if we can come up with two questions that would be suggested questions we could ask them. We will kinda say, alright. Here's our set, and we'll all memorize it and use it. So anything else?

No. From us. Anybody else?

Okay.

Who who does keep it in color? That would be that would be a great opportunity, honestly, for content that if anybody does go in and talk with a business owner and maybe get a photo with them and pass it off to for a Keep It In Keller post because then Okay. That would be, like, great exposure for the business beyond just that. And then, like, kinda ties in, like, your connection with the city and that kinda thing and that the city really kinda came out and reached out and cared. I think that would be a great way to make content.

Good idea. Alright. Well, thank you everybody for being here. We are adjourned.