Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

5:34 on Wednesday February 5th 2025 welcome to the February regular meeting of the economic development commission Commissioners in attendance are Jean wilinski Mona cwell Scott Smith myself Cheryl porier we are in person and on teams we have Jeff Hartman calling in welcome Jeff hi everyone we also have in the room with us Jen damato our dedicated Clerk and Susie Su be Beckman from River Cog who we welcome this evening um our first order of business is public comment and uh I don't see anyone online as members of the public if so you can un if I just don't see you you can unmute yourself and share any public comment you have at this time all right if not uh do we have a member of the public in the room who would like to make any public comment all right moving along um uh I'll also State for the record that um we have two openings on the economic development commission John Stratton and MJ derisio completed their appointments and did not seek reappointment so uh we hope to have those positions filled in the coming month and until then we are a commission of seven members and we have five voting members this evening uh and we have uh AB the absent excused absences Joe caman and

Wendy Russell who are both traveling and unable to have the right um Wi-Fi to check in all right um our first order of business are some updates and this is an abbreviated um set of updates uh compared to other months but the first one is updating you on the zoning commission meetings that are coming up um there is a February 10th public hearing on the um Smith Neck Road um building um you may remember that business owner Mark comto was expecting that to be a meeting where he would have his public hearing and we have a statement to um present during that public Hearing in support of his uh business expansion that his public hearing is now March 10th I think they anticipate a long public public hearing for Smith neck so they are putting him on March 10th and then there was a public hearing January 15th with Zoning for the Halls Road overlay District application and that uh public hearing is continued February 27th that correct I think that's correct that sounds right okay yeah all right so the those are upcoming zoning commission meetings of note um the next update Halls Road Improvement committee Jeff do you have any additional information for us no it's just uh as you previously indicated the 27th meeting will be continuation of the January 15th uh presentation uh I believe I sent you

charl the presentation they're using so we can distribute that to the committee yes my understanding from that committee chair Ed Twining is that that is the same presentation that we had in November that she still was updating it so I'm happy to send that out to everyone but um I think it's what we have from November so I will probably later in the meeting I'll go ahead and send that to everyone I'll forward that to everyone but it's my understanding is it's the same one from a previous time and she's working on an updated presentation to answer zoning questions that's correct thank you for doing my job Sor um do you have you have that I have um okay uh the next one up Shoreline Gateway committee my understanding from Joe camian is there's no real update there eastern regional tour tourism district from Wendy um no real update there there's some upcoming workshops and things like that for the tourism industry and they will be voting on their grants for the region um in an upcoming meeting I know that the old line arts district put in a grant uh proposal to support the midsummer Festival this year okay the next thing on the agenda is the uh River Cog economic planning committee Jean that's you right so I actually so we had a meeting in January and following that um Susie who's here tonight sent out a request for all the towns to provide their top three priorities in and part of the thinking there is to have some Regional

um perhaps planning to help towns coordinate with each other although that's in early stages and she and I actually met last week which was which was fun we had only met on online previously and we have an our next meeting is next Tuesday and you didn't include this in here but I just wanted to mention the Chamber of com the greater old sabric Chamber of Commerce has one of their I think it's bimonthly now morning meetings in Old lime at the end of February so February 28th from 8 to 9 a.m. at the old lime Inn okay that's at least that's on their website last night when I looked their calendar was down but it was up just now oh okay all right good maybe they were updating it thank you um so with the river Cog the three top priorities I did not I shared with her what we had talked about the the list that we were looking through and that we in the process of doing that and I also shared our mission and um vision statements so so as part of this process should we come up with three priorities I don't think we I don't think we have to I think it's just things we're thinking about ultimately you know what are what are we most focused on what do we think we need most help perhaps with okay or that might be more of a regional Focus rather than just a town Focus okay kind of an ongoing project all right okay good thank you uh any other updates all right Jeff you're on camera camera I got it to work after

enough not trying okay um Jeff do you have the email I sent out yesterday with the 10 activity that you know the 10 top activities that sort thing yeah I have it printed it out I reviewed it thank you for preparing that for us appreciate it okay that's going to be the next thing we talk about do both of you have copies here I'm going to let Susie follow along these are draft documents in fact I had watermarks on them which I don't know why did you guys have the watermarks drafts on them come out no um just give you this please know these are draft this is just so you can follow along with us great thank you um so what I sent out to you as attachments is a reminder of what our four economic Visions for Old Line as well as our mission statement are these are things we voted on at the end of 2023 and 2024 and then we started our SWAT analysis for each of the various regions of town over uh we may have started in August and we went through January and at our last meeting we as a group listed 10 potential activities um for the town of Old Line to prioritize and on that um document that here in person we have it stapled together I did this this way to be transparent on how I got to where I got so um the first page is basically what I took off of the flip chart I added a couple of words because it I had very short-handed um notes on that flip chart

but this is basically what we had on the flip chart the second page is where I took those 10 potential activities and I grouped them into either what seemed to me to be either promotion and marketing or straight out development issue uh you know activities and then once I had them divided into two categories that third page is where I've now reorganized them I combined um I combined social media strategy I put that under an item so I reorganized and I flushed out some of the words um as I said in the spirit of capturing what our conversations were and I am not in any way trying to steer us in a different direction than what I perceive we shared as a group what we were talking about when we said things like um social media strategy and things like that so that third page that goes onto the fourth page those are still our top 10 prior um actions activities we don't have to do all of them but this is how I see them landing and a couple of notes that I said in the cover email one if you look at our Visions the four Visions Vision three is old Li's housing market is diverse and strong we don't address that Vision at all in these priorities I know it came up as a weakness um in some of our SWAT analysis that we didn't have Workforce housing

um senior housing so I know that was a concern of ours um during the process and um the other concern I have on this um that was the the thing I saw missing and then oh and the other thing missing from this are some things that we do so um collaborate with River Cog and eastern regional tourism District welcoming new businesses with ribbon cuttings I know some people think that's valuable others don't think it's valuable except for you know conversation um and the last thing I'll say about this um list of actions is I personally am hoping that we can be better or more intentional in how we listen to to our constituents so um the businesses the indust Light Industry Light Industry um Zone Business Leaders there our residents what do they want um as well as subject matter experts um for infrastructure or the economy um having folks from like River Cog or um the state Economic Development um commission share with us what's going on that's relevant to our own Economic Development and um process so um I guess the first thing to do is to get some feedback on the list on what we've got here and then also learn from you all if you do want to add anything about housing if you want to take anything off

the list like let's start there with how do you feel about this list Mona I do have something that I would like to share about old Li housing market I still agree that our housing market is diverse and strong I do believe we do have senior housing we have a couple of different developments that are geared towards senior housing um and we do have housing that is less expensive perhaps not right now and I've had this conversation with a lot of people recently you know this is just a different Market that going through so if you're analyzing our housing market right now everyone would agree there's not a lot of inventory in the state of Connecticut and it's Market driven because of forces really out of our control we've got the higher interest rates people don't want to move a lot of people have their mortgages at lower rates they don't want to lose their lower rates so they're not going to move and so there's just not a lot going on with our housing market at this moment in time but normally we do have a big variety of different priced housing I know a lot of people say that we don't but I I disagree I know when people want to move here they figure it out and they're able to find a way so I think we have diverse housing I do want to add to what Mona said the senior housing in our town is I believe lowincome senior right so it's very focused it's through the federal federal and state programs so that that is senior housing but it is very focused on a very specific demographic of seniors we're probably missing an active adult um housing it's a little higher price point but for active adults people do you know maybe want a little want to stay in town love their friends but want maybe a little smaller home uh that you know is a little

nicer than than the affordable we have now they probably AR qualify their income levels are higher I think our Beach Community provides a tremendous amount of opportunities for people who want to downsize into smaller properties and smaller homes there's we have a lot of homes in the Beach Community and we have a lot in the Rogers Lake area too and those are great communities for people who want to downsize Jeff can you hear us okay perfectly could you hear yeah yes okay Scott could you turn up the volume if possible on Jeff for me sure thank you um well I would agree there's different priced housing um I also see people who are active volunteers or active members our of our community who want to move into um and you know I'm going to say retirement community Loosely because I'm sure there's real definitions to that but um who don't want to maintain their own property right they want more of a condo sort of setting um so that they're not mowing their lawn or hiring someone to do their lawn and all those things that come with owning a single home like as you would do at Rogers lake or the beach so I would agree with you there is potential in for people who want to have different Siz houses I think they're all relatively you know expensive old lme's an expensive Town um compared to some other places but I would also say if you I don't like to give personal

stories in our recording but I'll give two I have a son who Moved home and there was he want or moved back to Old Line he wanted to live in town there was zero in like not even out pric there was Zero inventory the 3 months that he was looking and he couldn't find something that a single person who doesn't need a whole H three-bedroom house whatever and doesn't want roommates he wants his own place there was Zero inventory for him and he was working in nanch so he wanted something local other communities had that so he went to another Community I also so see myself and my husband in 10 years not wanting our twostory home with the you know with all the landscape to take care of and everything and I see us moving to another town at that time because I don't know where we would go in Old lime like I don't see us buying but see I think if people think that this is a problem I don't understand why they don't then just build that Community for themselves rather than look to the town to to to build I you know to build it I mean a lot of people within our government are talking about you know building affordable housing well it should be Market driven yeah you know and so I don't think it's something that we can change I'm not a construction person I'm not a builder I'm not a land owner and I personally don't want it but if if I were in that position and let's say I wanted it I'd buy a piece of land and i' i' build a community for myself and for other people there is except that 's not a place in our town that's zoned for that but then you you know somebody could come to but that's not us that's that's zoning and somebody should go to zoning there is past um past Rogers Lake and

stuff there is a street that has a housing uh District up there past the senior housing there's a district up there that's got affordable housing I think they're rentals and off of Mile Creek there's affordable housing as well they're just kind of hidden and they're tucked away where people can go and have you know single level smaller places I mean we don't have anything that's like very gorgeous or anything correct but I don't understand how that's an economic development issue when we're talking about housing I think that's not something that we should be concerned about that's just my opinion because I feel like we talk about it so much but what are we going to do unless you're going to go and build it for yourself or move to another community and quite honestly I just had this conversation the other day with somebody else when my husband and I were looking for our first place to live we didn't live in the town that we wanted to live in we rented an apartment in another town because we couldn't live where we wanted to live and then when we went to buy our first house we couldn't buy our first house in the town where we wanted to live and I feel that younger people maybe they need to learn a little bit of sacrifice I don't know go live in Niantic or New London or somewhere else that might be less desirable I didn't get what I wanted when I first got out of college do you know what I mean so I don't understand why I I know what you mean I I lived in a town I similar I own my first house when I was 27 it was a split level not the town I grew but it was what I could afford so yes I that resonates with me Mona that yes thank you because I feel like we have this conversation all the time and I just don't understand how it's an economic development issue for us to solve the housing crisis I don't think it's for us to solve but we can certainly when zoning is looking at its regulations over the

next two years I think I would say you know we're losing cap you know Capital we're we're losing people from Old Line as they go over to tic Meadows or wherever they go we're not we're not because somebody else is coming in and still paying those taxes we don't have empty houses in our town but you but you lose lose human capital you you lose the people that contribute to the town in other ways and you you lose that connection to the town so you know it's not a pure yes from a monetary perspective you have someone else that moves into the home and pays the taxes but you know you a lifelong resident who's contributed to the town and continues you know you hate to see that person have to leave the town as we know people don't like to volunteer as much as our generation does the younger folks but I think I think the housing thing is addressed in on the last page on economic development activities ensure long-term viability of primary District support business and Property Owners investment Halls create an acual plan to encourage responsible investment and updated regulations by the zoning commission so maybe it's all bundled in there that that that we you know try to have lays on to the zoning to ensure the how you know the balance between own you know owned and Rental or you know diverse types of housing starter homes active adult homes traditional homes you know that we have a good mix and the zoning reflects the opportunity that someone wanted to go in and build an active adult community there's opportunities in town in certain are is that the zoning permits it that an individual homeowner if they have to go in and tweak you no one's going to pay to go in and and ask for a zoning

variance for an individual house that's just I think that's just cost prohibitive so maybe it's just that we kind of encourage the zoning commission to try to meet all types of Housing and we say stay away from specific identify this or identify that it's kind of a generic Economic Development Focus okay so are people good with not specifically addressing housing in the um the list of 10 well no it's well I think you get to it yeah yeah not adding anything I should say and and the other thing is um there's only so much time in a in a day week month year right right right you can't you may have a desire to do a lot of things but maybe that isn't the current number one Focus okay Mona is that okay does that work for you to to not really to your point to not specifically address housing more in this list than it already is well because there's not you're saying we can't really ourselves do anything about it so you know zoning or whoever will will address it yeah and I think sometimes when we try to approach things I think it could be taken out of context too okay yeah all right so we'll leave that as is um and then let's talk about the list itself what are people feeling now that they see this kind

of in a more robust um listing my only object I mean I'm sorry I guess objection was consider creating a process for the town to acquire priority properties I just don't think we have the money in the budget for that yep should we take that one off that's the very last bullet the second the last or no it's number eight I think on page one last um on this sheet of 10 it's oh we're looking at the third and fourth Pages like this all right sorry I thought I had that stapled together oh yeah it is whatever page I got it 10 priority action and it goes on to a second page okay Y no I have the second page okay great I was just looking at the short list yeah no now we're looking at the the longer list okay that's reorganized and has more complete ideas around it um so as a reminder um that idea of the Town Fund I think MJ raised that at the last meeting and we just put it on the list we can certainly take it off the list if people feel they want to take that off the list the town funds yeah having a Town Fund almost like an space open space but having it be a commercial space fund so that if some critical property which I don't want to name a critical property in our public meeting it was discussed in terms of some of the um properties with uh the derc properties in the St or like a key location or something right that goes along with the Blake discussion right it it was part of the blight discussion and how how to move a property away from that was was the was the just to that conversation if I

remember right does that sound right Scott yeah yeah okay good because in other towns when they when they blite a property they'll condemn it and the town will take ownership of it of course they're not getting taxes they put a lean on it whoever owns it but that's what they used to do in Bristol then they knock the house down and then try to sell the property yeah they would resell it to recoup so let's keep BL separate from this fund which is the last bullet uh do people feel like they want that taken off our list for reality I think Jeff's correct our current budget situation is probably not GNA allow for that at at this point in time that doesn't mean it's not something to consider but certainly not a top priority for now considering the budget okay I don't see the residents in this Town supporting right right yeah I just don't it's a good idea but I don't see the reality it's gonna happen I agree with Scott okay Mona do you agree let's take that off I agree I agree it would be it would be a stretch right above that since we're talking about the blate so what is now the last bullet on that fourth page um working with Sherine Gateway and um sound View and land use when I say land use I me land use I mean zoning planning and Inland wetlands and the land use office um to work toward improving that sound view area and Shore Road um the stretch with the blight um right now our Lea is on as you

know is Joe cayan who's quite involved in the blight um research and options should we leave that bullet as is yeah I think so I mean when we looked at the taxes that the shoreline Gateway in the sound view area generate it was over $300,000 and that's with a lot of closed businesses you know so imagine if that was reinvigorated it would be probably equal to the light industrial and the Halls Road area wow or at least moving up in that direction yeah okay very good let's keep working backwards I know this um now at the bottom of the third page we have to ensure the longterm viability of our primary commercial District support businesses and Property Owners investment in Halls Road um and I think by the time we finalize this the February 27th public hearing and perhaps the meeting after that of zoning will have passed it's out of our hands right now so um I kept it open I said create an actionable plan to encourage responsible economic investment in the Halls Road area following any updated District regulations by zoning including any approved overlays to the district create future oriented online materials what this refers to is we were talking about um if property owners are putting their property up for sale their realators um or they themselves could go on to our website and pick up some you know EDC approved wording on

what is AA you know what is appropriate or doable on Halls Road or not um and and demographics about the town that sort of thing um and then um again apart from the overlay District um I think Jeff is now our Hollis Road Improvement liaison and working to improve the um you know the Vitality I have viability I think that should say Vitality of the commercial District um and if we wanted to include any you know examples of that things like connecting the arts district what I mean by that is having worked in the arts district there's also often patrons of the museums and galleries who would like to you know walk to shopping you know like bow bird is a great attraction to them or to a restaurant they'll walk to the Hideaway or something so um you know leaving their car at the Museum and then going and walking down there um or um improving parking or anything like that so we could either leave that open or include some things we would want to you know what our Focus would be Jeff as the lia on I think we should leave it open until we see the resolution of of the uh proposal okay so I'm just going to cross out that parentheses at the end of that last build it there and again I'm CH I'm changing that to improve the Vitality of the commercial district and then just leave it there and remove you're include here things like blah blah blah okay so I don't know if you saw but you probably

did that a lot of people that are opposing the Halls Road overlay right now they're seeing it as the potential to actually eliminate the business investment because of the opportunity for an investor to come in and uh overdevelop housing and so then it could potentially minimize our local businesses I'm not sure if you've seen that so the first thing you said was the take away the business investment what do you mean by that the way that the the way that the hallroad investment is is written up so it's like the the storefronts on the very front they need to have the storefronts on the bottom and they then the housing on the top but there's nothing that requires businesses to stay businesses behind that nor any requirements that they would have a storefront so in essence what people are speculating based on those regulations that we did not approve because we are not right qualified in our wording yeah but I will say that I have heard from zoning from numerous people on zoning that we they said EDC gave it a rubber stamp well they have the letter that I read verbatim from our meeting which said and I don't have I could probably pull it up in my and I did look at it and I was like well I could see how they would interpret it and that was my fear that was exactly what I felt that they were going to do is that that it would be used as our rubber stamp on it so there's a lot of conversations happening online with potential drawings of what it could look like and in essence where Big Y is and where bow bird is and all of that stuff could turn into residential developments with parking garages and we would no longer even have a Big Y in town or a bower bird we would have no shopping except for what's on the stor

fronts I I don't know if you've seen that but that's what people have they have taken those regulations and extrapolated what could be approved so in our wording to ensure the long-term viability of old lies primary commercial District support businesses and properties owner investment in Halls Road it may be it we no longer have a grocery store in town we might not have a Big Y we might have to go to East lime or to Old SE Brook to buy our groceries with the hols ra Road overlay District so what would we be doing as economic development to ensure the long-term viability of old Li's primary commercial District if investors can take advantage of the Halls Road overly dist overlay district and just obliterate business well first of all whoever owned the marketplace would have to sell the marketplace and then the marketplace owner would have to decide I'm not going to keep this keep this building that houses the Big Y that has a lot of value in it and I'm going to remove all that value and build new um I I think if someone has that concern they should go to the zoning public hearing well I think they how do we keep from losing our grocery store I'm just asking from our plan here and our priorities What would we be doing to ensure the long-term viability of old Lim's primary commercial District support businesses and Property Owners investment in Halls Road well what do you think what should we do I'm not sure I mean you have your create an

actionable plan to encourage responsible economic investments in the Halls Road area following any update so I mean I guess what Jeff said we'll just have to see but you have to um recognize that what what the potential is with the with those zoning regulations that they put in it could happen I my feeling and again it goes back to our conversation where we said you know we're Economic Development we're not zoning I think perhaps zoning has to put in something I don't know what because I'm not on zoning I don't understand their limitations where you know we have to somehow not lose a major grocery store and the way I'm saying that doesn't sound very um articulate but I'm I think it's a fair question Mona and someone should raise it in the public hearing and make sure that zoning addresses that especially if it's a concern from Economic Development if it is our concern you know if it is if it is here on our sheet of 10 priority actions that we want to support businesses and in and Property Owners investment how would we as economic development feel if an investor came in and we didn't have a grocery store anymore right good questional Investments yeah I mean big why could leave at any time right we could have a void at any time that could leave now and say they're sales per square foot or not you know they they they they run the risk today on the existing Zone they could leave at any time we could be we could lose we could lose our grocery

store tomorrow yeah we could so maybe there something that we we you know support our existing and future businesses and a to encourage responsible economic investment in Halls Road but maybe I think we should maybe make a commitment here here at the meeting that yes once the dust settles on this hearing and there's a resolution that we'll come back and revisit this one and we all realize as a balanced Economic Development between grocery retail and other aspects or importance of the town so maybe if we have a understanding amongst ourselves to revisit with a balanced approach that's maybe that's the best we can do now right I mean is it a Town's responsibility to say you know we want to keep a grocery store in this footprint you know I don't know yeah I mean that's you know I'll draw I don't know even if you said it would you really have any control over that right just I don't think there's any other meetings okay thank you just make sure that you don't put the alarm on for okay thank you I mean I think like we did in the last thing with housing to kind of keep it generic you know maybe we should keep it generic on Halls Road and support existing and future businesses you know under whatever laws and regulations are passed we start saying we support grocery then should we go back and revisit we support um active adult housing so where where do you stop between specific and being generic so do we want to leave this wording as is or am I putting in the word existing before support well I think I agree with what Jeff said I think we almost need to wait until after the February 27th meeting to

even finalize it because things could change yeah all right so power th brackets just to to be updated after this Hall's road is resolved okay everybody reads these notes and says it's dra you know draft and it's to be it's all a draft so none of it's final right to that point I swear I had a water mark on here that's a dra it didn't come up on wine when I printed it either I wonder if I lost it when I went I would put it on your footer and then the watermark as well you know it also raises the point my footer isn't on here I did have a footer because I had page I remember putting the page you know sometimes when you do send it to PDF it do if you don't click a box right I think that's what happened the word document has all that but not this PDF so I apologize for that so please write on here draft um okay all right we'll keep moving upwards from the back um the second the next bullet up is to build an environment that encourages and supports businesses and Property Owners improve the exist exting development process Mona this in part speaks to what you and others myself included have heard is that old lime is horrible to work with so we want to do our part in trying to clarify the process improve the process and that's what this is speaking to do you think do you think we should ask the people to come in and and and explain the process before we say their process is horrible don't you think we

should give them a chance to address that before we go that's actually a great Point je yeah that's a really good because I don't even know if we all know the process right we don't know the process so I think we lose credibility as a group if we make assertions like that without talking to people yeah all right listening to other people who tell us these things like we don't know I didn't go I've never gone through the process so I can't can't say I only hear it so if it's that big of an issue we should maybe we can invite them to a future you know to the next meeting and maybe explain the process how it works maybe they can run it through run us through the process and or maybe we can go observe the process during the day or something like that but I I hate to call somebody out without really giving them a chance to speak and a report that a lot of people are going to read sure yeah okay um and I would like to suggest that for April uh only because Joe caman has the work to Career person coming in at our March meeting so I am going to invite someone from the land use office or a couple of people is that yeah in zoning yeah they're in the zoning officer is in the land use what did I say April meeting so that's Eric naap and building guy and yeah okay um great idea okay so that's still draft well and Z is going to be looking at oh let me find my notes on this I spoke to Eric

naap oh yes um I spoke to Eric knap about the regulations being um reviewed and updated so um he said it's a two-stage process they are in the first stage now which is basically their consultant is going through line by line all the regulations um and looking to reformat and update the regulations to match current standards it's not right now it's not really a deep dive into big issues it's just you know making sure things are current um and that's pretty much working directly with Eric pretty soon they're going to have a subcommittee of zoning that is um you know uh hearing what the consultant has to stay say on that end as well so they're going to create an updated um current set of RS line by line going through the RS then stage two after that is that they'll be going out to various stakeholders including the EDC and asking what are the big issues from our point of view for Old Line and how might we want them addressed so um let me just follow through my notes here he said phase one should be finishing at the end of this year um I'm just looking at my notes here but okay and then after that there will be some special meetings of the zoning commission um and in that second stage when they go out to the EDC and the Gateway commission and others we would be telling them what we think would help um

old lime thrive in terms of as it relates to zoning so I think to some extent we should as we wrap up this process we should save a little time in future agendas to maybe look at some relevant sets of RS like for the commercial district for instance in that light industrial area we had talked about the ceiling height which was um different than what many towns had and was causing um an applicant some headache um so perhaps in the coming months we can figure out how to how to uh address that and then do we do we actually have to back burner this until they get through their process or well that's a good question because we could start looking now but are we looking at an outdated set of regulations we change it in the meantime yeah because they're if they're reviewing it to make sure it's updated and in line with current laws and such then we could be looking at stuff that is not relevant I'll ask ER go ahead Jeff I think we should re re review the draft and then compare it against other areas we think makes other communities okay wait for the draft I think so yeah we give us some high level comments when he comes forward to us so but you know maybe do a deeper dive on the draft Yeah we could have some you know broader issues like how do we ensure there's always a grocery store in our primary commercial Zone you know like

things like that we could have some broader issues that are important to economic development but then look at the the draft RS when they come out sounds good uh and then that first bullet under economic development is um assigning someone on the commission to be the zoning leaon just to keep an eye on this whole process and when businesses are going before zoning or planning that sort of thing any issues with that being on this list no okay no I think we talked about that yeah I thought that was a great idea okay promotion and marketing let's do that top to bot instead of bottom up um support to support the town's economic strength promote old lime is a great place to live visit and work um we might look into placemaking yeah placem as um a way of telling our story of old lime what is plac placemaking is um a design concept that that you think about Community Gathering you know it's a community where there's Parks there's gathering places it's you know and when you think about Economic Development there's not only traditional commercial uses but there are other soft benefits for not for-profits community events churches you know things like the tree lighting things like that so that and I think Urban Land Institute kind of that's a best practice into building a robust

community in addition to that it's things like the story of the place so we're you know a place where artists came because it was so gorgeous people wanted to paint it if you think about your home your home home is a house with a plot of land around it and some furniture inside well to you it's not that to you it's our home it's where our family gathers it's where we have holiday you know it's it's a more holistic understanding of a place rather than I'm GNA go down to the street to you know the store it's there there's a sense of it being a place to overuse the term rather than you know a location okay so telling the story of the community yeah yeah making it where people want to live and work exactly uh reaching audiences through print pieces okay we already do this um but reaching audiences through things like our explore Old Line little brochure online part Partners such as CTV visit.com and the explore oine website develop a social media strategy we have to go before the board of Selectmen um to pursue that um we talked about Facebook I put in there Instagram but Facebook for Consumer resident visitors LinkedIn for potential businesses I put in there economic influencers just because a lot of organization I'm guessing River cogs on LinkedIn paying attention the state um decd is on there and different places so it's where more business or economic conversations take place and

announcements uh pursue other marketing ideas to attract visitors increase spending in town um and then ensuring a focus on sound view um I will be reaching out to the owners of the carousel because this is their 100th anniversary of the carousel so that would be yeah so I want to support I hope we as an EDC want to support them in promoting that I think that's um a very positive thing for sound view this year yeah 2025 1925 that Carousel was built um improve the visitor exper okay this was something we talked about the wayf finding signs um this is something we would not do on our own and we ourselves don't have money for it something you know maybe the town goes for grant money or something but um to have unified signage around town pointing people to different areas um yeah I think saford andford and places like that have it that was John's idea that was a tribute John we should keep that on there okay I have to say when the arpa money was being uh the distribution of the arpa money was being discussed I brought up signage and the problem with it was we didn't know who could own that process is it public works is it EDC like there was no owner for a sign strategy so um sounds like a public works activity yeah I would think they'd be heavily involved and historic district commission as well wants to be heavily involved in that of course they

did absolutely okay so are we keeping that on there um Yes sounds good yes okay and the last one there support property owners and attracting the businesses that will thrive in their location okay this was about online materials and resources we talked about linking to the um what is that name of the the commercial MLS yes L craxy Loop net yes linking to that um thank you and having a flowchart or something that explains here here's where you go first if you're thinking of opening a business in town um and then uh working on the um doing business and Old Line guide yeah the form should be on online for a new business everything should be know writable PDFs online so make it easy for for folks who want to come to town good all right any other thoughts on this two pager no great great start all right the last part going back to um going back to the um listening to businesses and we have someone joining our meeting if you could just mute yourself we'd appreciate it thank you in advance um so how do we want to handle these um bullets that I have which are from my draft in June um

listening to the businesses and the um residents and that sort of thing should we what page what page is that are they on that was on your that was from your email from the cover email okay all right yep yep yep I think we should have a workshop or something to invite people in yeah you know let's let's let's see what the folks think about the the draft plan at some point in the spring well before before Jeff you came on and proba oh wait probably Everybody by now Cheryl had an event a couple years ago that was amazing she brought in all of the different old lime committees and commissions and and we met in here and it was a workshop on a Saturday and every person there was just one one or two people from each group they could send any Representatives that they wanted and they had the opportunity to share with everybody else something about their organiz about their group and and then share the challenges that they have I believe and then we had a couple PR presenters but uh we found it was very well received everybody loved it they said they wanted Cheryl to do it every three months Cheryl said no obviously because you guys have never heard of it probably no Jean was there and I think um was that well that one was where we were really focused on the EDC plan that came out of advanced oh that was was that the advanced CT the advanc C presentation I came because I was with the Chamber of Commerce then yeah or maybe I committee or something but um

maybe because of the chamber but what's happened since then is that the board of Selectmen now run that with just the chairs and they just focused on chair business we ran it because we had that Economic Development presentation um but I I actually went to the most recent one there's another one coming up in March but now um I mean it would be great to have businesses coming in on a regular basis telling us what their concerns are um you know like we had Mr Comack last month it was interesting to hear from him what was working for him um I think when we were doing the um the light industrial Zone SWAT analysis to have the commercial realtor here that was enlightening to hear what she was saying and then following up on that we actually had the business folks come in because they had a a zoning uh present right to get our support for their zoning um appeal variance I guess yeah yeah so um I guess I just want to make sure as we go along we're listening um well it sounds like that was a great event so could we have our own event on a Saturday in the spring to have a listing session present our draft plan invite committee members or folks in from this various areas that we study to give us feedback on our plan or even just to to hear what their challenges are so make sure I'm sorry excuse me for speaking over you oh no go ahead go ahead Jeff to just validate what you know was anything we missed one final one final cross check

we could do that I I I kind of feel like we've worked really hard on this for more for almost well going into a year um and I wouldn't want to unravel everything we're doing I don't think it would be unraveling but it would be an opportunity to learn more okay tune there's something that we're missing if we have holes so are we talking about bringing in people from other Town commissions and committees or are we talking about bringing in business I think we're talking about that's where I'm getting confused the businesses learning from local business businesses their challenges and opportunities they are currently facing yeah and what Jeff's talking about is bringing in are you talking about just members of the public to assess this um I don't know I'm maybe adjusting what I'm saying so I like bringing in online businesses to listen to them and uh maybe it's kind of making sure we've captured everything in our in our plan and maybe you know there might be one or two things we miss or didn't consider so before we publish me I think the worst thing we we want to make sure we get some additional feedback you know we had select people come in and give us perspective but as you remember we got Teddy's perspective on sound View and we had a counter perspective on sound view so are there many are there more out there like that so I think okay for the plan to Happ yeah okay that's a good idea I like the idea of us maintaining our draft and then having some sort of focus group or feedback session where we're hearing how you know especially if we do it in May and we can capture some of the um

sound view are business people coming back to town and then we can step away from you know after that Gathering say okay how do we do we as a commission need to update this right and it also can inform some of the things that we say we want to do if you're getting some good interesting different feedback about their experience with the process or what they would like to see in a how to do business in Old Line yes then actually might have sort of a a better feel for what actually we need to be doing in these areas right oh that's a good idea yeah I like that point to and this will be our third or four fourth year maybe of trying to support businesses at the midsummer event so that's another opportunity for us to just speak with them about Midsummer and how they can help us to participate you know or how we can help them they can participate through us they don't have a booth of their own great and then I also know um you know sometimes when you talk one-on-one with businesses they're very um cautious in what they share because they are nervous that it will backfire on them somehow in the building so um I think we need to be very thoughtful in how we put together some questions for them and how we ask them to participate and share um so that they feel like they can help us build our knowledge while not putting themselves in a tough spot be like our own um meet and greet in some ways too with

businesses and I'm thinking maybe we could pull this off for May I don't I don't think we could for April April feels right around the corner to me right I like M weather will be should be good and to your point it probably means that folks who might not be in Residence at their business yet um in April might be as May moves forward yeah okay okay well if nothing else it's an a way that we're showing our support for businesses as economic development right I think it's a great idea okay good what is the second one we what's we are learning Ure we are learning from Old Line light industrial that's the hatch Hill area okay that too monus I don't feel bad I found it in some old notes but I was like what which one is that so the reason I have those four bullets is because they follow the four Visions so our first vision is regarding business owners in general the second one's the light industrial Zone the third one is the housing market and the fourth one is um adapting to The Changing Times the third one doesn't say it says what business amenities and services are important to help us continually improve support of the local community ensure we are learning from old Li residents business amenities and services um yeah it doesn't really address housing specifically but

um I'm just looking at the vision to see why I made it like I guess it was just a jumping off point to say we should be listening to Residents but about what makes this community a place that they want to stay right and rather than just assuming that we know what people mean when they say they like the small town view or yeah feel what everyone's view of that could be different right right yeah and so we don't want to just say well what do we seven to nine people think about that we want to have a broader view of what that means ideally not that not that everyone who has a different view is going to come meeting necessarily but but we also say um but then you talk also about including questions and surveys and stuff like that so I mean I could see you know parks and wck using our Survey Monkey and I think they just did actually and if we are prepared we could throw a question on the botom of that what do you you know what are the three best things about living in Old lime or what do you what do you mean when you say small town or you know whatever like we could just capture ideas every once in a while okay what is what would people like our next step to be with this I think I I would I think you know there's a lot of marketing things I think if we could get Wendy to give some feedback I know she's a a lot of experience on that so I want to make I would like to see that that Wendy uh reviews and comments on this okay so I'll make the changes that we talked about

tonight um and then when I send it out to everyone I'll I'll send a note to Wendy saying you know please um put your marketing hat on yeah for the top yeah she could probably bring a little Nuance to some of the marketing activities uh that you know she's in it every day so um your last comment on your email was about out or not last C the prioritized list does not include everything we do now so do we include what we currently are doing I think on our mission statement one of the things you have here under number three is provide resources information and guidance on services and events available you could also put something on there on our emission statement that we work try to work with other organizations or I like that support you know to do what we can to support new business openings you don't have to say ribbon cting actually the number two on there says that says we collaborate with other commissions and constituents to Foster the business environment that would be your Ribbon cuting ribbon I think ribbon cutting would be number one support the growth of and sustainability of existing and future businesses number two would be collaborating with um you know River Cog and ERD um and number three you know explore old Li I have a whole page of links to other organizations and stuff so so you're just saying that the prioritized list doesn't include this but maybe because we're already doing that yeah I mean I guess that's the question do you all feel like we need to add things we're already doing to this list of actions or should this list of

actions oh I see what you're saying so if this is our prioritized list of things that we're going to focus on we don't want to not do maybe we do or don't but we should probably include things we're already doing because there's only so much time in a day right so I think things like explore old lime the print pieces those are covered under the first bullet under promotion and marketing um the relationships the Liaisons I mean maybe we just do as part of our mission statement um maybe you need to add some type of a a supplement to you know what we are I'm sure we have this list here somewhere what we are currently doing you know even the fact that people are on other committees which I know is evident by the agenda updates yeah yeah the monthly updates so I'm sure Economic Development hasn't always had those Liaisons no no all right we'll figure out a way to kind of just make sure those things get captured okay so we're going to send out I'll send out the the updated draft and then next in well let's think about this timing in March do we approve this as our final list of priorities or do we wait on it until after May when we're talking to people so maybe we should approve it as a final draft subject to the to presenting it in our May event okay what if when we have our

meeting in March well we're gonna have to discuss everything with the Halls Road and then also we're going to have um the other subject now too of how we can work with the school is that the goal for the next me meeting Joe is inviting the work to Career person um to the March meeting I don't even know if she's available the first Wednesday night of the month so I'll have to wait and hear when Joe is back um from the Wilderness and uh see where he stands on that I would probably have her go first so that she can leave when she's done um and then the other conversation is you know what do we want to do about having either an intern a paid intern or professional help um to achieve some of our priorities here so I'm thinking we talk about that in March yeah and we should probably go ahead I think it's reasonable to do that in March to have that conversation now that we have a sense of what what our priorities are are we realistically going to be able to do that without some help Jeff are you gonna add something no I think I Echo what jean said okay all right are we done talking about the strategic planning process we are I would say so okay any new or addition or other business do we I was having some connectivity issues did we approve

the January minutes oh gosh no I I say we review review the how did I pass over that jump right I was frazzled by our technology issues yeah thank you for catching that my goodness okay uh the January meeting minutes um do I have a motion to approve the January meeting minutes so moved is there a second second yes okay je all right so Jean and then we'll give it to Jeff uh for the second any um discussion all in favor of approving the January meeting minutes say I I any opposed any abstaining everyone was here last month okay I just want to say those are very very thorough Wasing last right that's why we had to approve J credit other mons they're very thorough too um okay any other new or other business all right do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn we've got Mona and is there second second we'll give it a Scott All In favor say I I is anyone opposing a joury I can't imagine all right thank you all have a good night