Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Secretary here. Don't forget to turn on your microphone like I just did. And um also I'm just going to we do we need to re-record the uh attendance since the microphones won't Okay. All right. We're going to do this again. Do it again. And uh yeah. And that's a big reminder to turn your microphones on every time. Otherwise, people that are attending on Zoom cannot hear you. Absolutely cannot hear you. All right. So, we have uh Chairman Patter here. Commissioner Jacobs here. Vice Chairman Zinsky is absent. Secretary Moon here. Commissioner Donaldelson here. We also have in attendance city council liaison, council member Kate Bashan Helman. staff leaison Carlos Tjo director of planning and community development as well as myself Don do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do senior planner and I'll hand it back to the chair all right thank you Miss Dodie uh now for public comments I see we have the usual cast of characters um we have no one in attendance Dodie is there anyone online begging to ask a question not at this time sir okay move right along um EDC C 5-year economic plan of which we have a freshly pressed copy in front of us.

I was going to do it from the podium, but I think this might be easier. Okay. And sorry, guys. Here we go. So EDC um since we have some new members uh and liaison today uh our procedures and responsibilities uh so this EDC is one of the three commissions called out by code uh we have uh well I mean I don't want to read what's on the screen but uh we do follow Robert's rules of orders and our basic responsib responsibilities are to advise the city council visav economic development. Uh within our packages there are uh there are some more details on these but I won't get into that. Our presentations we give a staff gives an overview um and we sometimes welcome presenters. Uh our last our previous meeting, our last meeting was Greg Gowitz uh where he went over the Olive Crossing development. Uh we do all of our voting by roll call and we record all of our uh meetings. They are located on our website under the agenda center. Um we will not have any meeting minutes tonight, but we will someday have meeting minutes for EDC. uh and they those will also be on our website. Uh live streams uh sometimes experience delays. So um if there is an online participant, we ask for them to raise their hand which is in the bottom center of your screen, a little black button with a little hand on it. Uh but if you uh do give us your

patience, we appreciate it. We like the city council, we have an opportunity to welcome uh public comments, which uh actually already went through uh and it is also limited to three minutes. Uh so for the I kind of launched right into the background of uh of our economic development plan. uh our pursuit of our economic development plan because we have our new 2024 comprehensive plan which detailed in chapter 2 and goal E to proactively lead economic development, attract and retain desirable businesses, grow tax base, increase workforce diversity, encourage private business. very basic, but there's a lot of nuances in there. We have previous plans, so I kind of I'm not seeing that it went the way I wanted to, but uh one of our oldest plans uh besides our 2006 comprehensive plan is our five-year economic development plan. There is a copy in uh your packets in front of you of the five-year economic development plan. It's very detailed um in terms of strategies, goals, objectives um and tasks that have been you know previously recommended for EDC to do things that we have done and can proceed to do. So, and where did all of those lovely Don't tell me it just chopped up my presentation. So one second unless unless there were some pages

taken out on purpose. So our current business license year uh we we have 271 individual businesses that have already submitted their business licenses. This is approximately 85% of our business universe as we know it. There are the 15% that are stragglers as they were or as we are saying uh because I'm very uh purposely and intentionally trying to get a hold of them uh trying to contact them by any means possible. Did you and Don just give a little bit of feedback through through our municipal code um all majority of businesses and this is this is almost universal uh throughout the state of Missouri uh we have the ability to require a business license. Uh I've heard it interpreted two different ways whether it's a tax or it's a fee. There is an important distinction between the two and I haven't figured out yet. I've heard differently from attorneys of what exactly it is because a tax anything that's adjusted has to go through a vote. A fee is just approved by council uh in there. So the state statutes identify or and also the state requires businesses business uh licenses from variety of businesses. All businesses from or registered to the secretary of state and then there's a different section where you can obtain your state license. uh in there you register your EIN number and that's how they know and follow you through the IRS and what you're doing. Uh city of all of that we require um qualified businesses to obtain a license from the city uh and we issue those licenses annually. We used to do it uh by calendar year um from January

to December, but after the pandemic and in an effort to help businesses and and everything that was kind of chaotic at that time, uh we changed it to go from May to May or to to some extent uh in there. That's been good. It also falls with our fiscal year uh in there. And then businesses were getting confused because at the end of December, your business license was due, your liquor license was due, you were also getting all your stuff with the IRS and the state and and all that. So, this was an effort to try to help um businesses and kind of minimize some of the confusion uh in what this process is. Uh, one thing I'll note is that there are a variety of businesses that the state has exempted uh in there. So, this does not reflect that the city only has 271 businesses. We have 271 businesses with licenses. Um, there's a lot of sizable businesses that are exempt. Uh, we actually do capture most of our exempt businesses currently. Um, this was not always the case, right? Um so like but with old bottom school and the number of teachers that they employ it is a you know uh it's an interesting question and reporting at the lease you know the fact that they don't have to send us any money makes them not mind as much. Uh however the there are a number of businesses that are exempt uh and it's hard for th to work with the those that are exempt on their reporting at all. Um they feel they are exempt period. They are exempt from reporting it. They are exempt from reporting the number of employees or really any information about their business. However, our code is is kind of clear um on you know to do

business you must obtain a business license. Uh we we have uh different types of licenses. Uh this uh this page here is a breakdown by the business sector. This does not take into consideration our our quadrants or our business license types. This is what they have reported to us are their b are their major two digit nace code sectors. So that's like the that's like the most basic major heading for in which all of the different types of businesses fall under. So um it is interesting to see how many uh professional and scientific technical businesses are here. They make up 17% of our total businesses. On the next is not the next page. This is another one dedicated to our number of businesses and where they are spread out. uh the commercial quadrants that is also this entire page is dedicated to number of businesses. We have uh or in the past had a more uh difference or or sorry a more manufacturers uh and fewer well there's about 20 merchants missing there but our services are doing really well. Uh, as far as manufacturers go, there are a number of businesses that had, you know, or that had manufacturing aspects to their business that they're not really doing anymore. Um, and there are other manufacturers that we haven't captured yet like um Emerson, Fisher, Rosemont, uh, they will be in there as a manufacturer. Uh, so that will will

boost those numbers as at least for number of manufacturers. Now, I got a little cute with the combining of of the graphs uh to show where things are by their business type. Uh the only thing that I couldn't really get the total numbers or the number number totals then uh but they are here on this page. Uh yeah just because a business is a retail type does or well I'm not that's a bad example. Just because a business is in a more something that you might assume is manufacturing, it might be under a merchant or a service. So I wouldn't take, you know, this a lack of service or a lack of of any one particular type of business as a as a like an absence or something that's missing. Uh it's simply just what is So then we go to employment and do we have any questions about the number of of businesses either about the locations or um or types? Looks like there are some businesses in homes here. But what is the threshold? you know, do is anybody who has a small business running out of their home, let's say an LLC, um, supposed to be registered with their business license? They are. Um, it depends on if they are operating their business from their home or if they are

working for a company from their home. So, if you are just working for your company, that is not their company, you know, that company operating out of their home. So we do not count you know uh people who work at home but we do say if you have a we have restricted businesses so only certain kinds of businesses can be uh homebased businesses um if there is a cleaning business and um they she meet he or she meets all the criteria uh they can be located within their home and operate their business from their home. uh they have to meet certain criteria for that. But uh we don't have a cap on like the number of homebased businesses that we can have in town. And that number for homebased businesses has grown really kind of exponentially as people have been looking for alternative forms of income. And is there data sharing with the state? Like if they're registered with the state have an EIN? Yeah. Uh do you know do you get any type of info from the state saying these are how many people we have registered for your city? Uh no we don't. That would be very efficient. Yeah. But uh I mean less jokey it would be the way that they define their businesses does not exactly match up with ours. So, um it could be a a good starting point like if we were doing like a search and find on every single business. Um and that could be something that we need to consider if we find that there are a large number of of homebased businesses that are not reporting. Uh that would definitely be a way to go

about it would be to get uh and you can track that through sales tax receipts. I believe that there's a number of things that uh and magic that uh our accounting department like so that uh Darren has mentioned previously that if we didn't you know if the retail numbers weren't matching up that we could look at those sales uh numbers that were reported uh as far as the locations of businesses that would probably be something I could pull through the secretary of state as far as how I would do a bulk data that just would like tower thing. What is the it's got to be it's got to exist since it's in the database. What is the contribution of margin not margin revenue from our business license payments that we receive? What percentage of the budget is fed by business license? Uh I would so as far as the percent of our budget I did not I did not prep like prepare anything on that. Um I do have uh some slides later on here dedicated to revenue in terms of and it's but I'll I'll get to those after I do the employment employment um and so I'm sorry I'll get back to that. Thank you. So employment at least you know from an economic developer standpoint employment and encouraging employment is is a very big goal. Uh noticing that our and you may already notice that our top number of businesses and our top employer employing businesses are not the same. So we have more professional scientific

uh businesses, health care, etc. Other services, construction is down here at number five. So there's only 24 construction businesses, but there are but they make up 25% of our employment, which is interesting to say the least. Um although you know that professional scientific and technical services that does you know they've still got a nice healthy 12% still a quarter a quarter of our of our employees that is just reported. Um I have a little stack of unprocessed business licenses on my desk already uh that have some heavy employers that I would have really loved to have in these numbers. Um, and I had intended to look at the um like restaurants all like limited and um full service eating establishments. Uh it was difficult to assign their or like analyze their numbers considering how we keep um keep our records separate from uh merchants and service. But uh to see the difference um as far as your your number of businesses does not mean that it has the most amount of of employees, I guess is the is the moral of that story. We do have a lot in retail trade, but you could say that we're not, you know, incredibly heav he heavily leveraged on that. And keep in mind that 71 um is where all your restaurants are actually going to to be. Oh, no. 72. 72 is where your restaurants are going to be. So, we have a pretty healthy 7% uh employment there.

Now, to revenue. Sorry, can I ask the question real quick? Yes, please. under that accommodations and food services. Does that include the accommodations? Is that like Airbnbs? Not specifically. Uh as far it it would be everything that's under the 7200s, right? Or 72,000s. So, uh hotels uh would be included. Airbnb revenue would not necessarily be or would not be captured because we don't have an Airbnb business license. So all of this data is related to business licenses that I've, you know, pressed into the system. Um and so truly I'm kind of regurgitating just what the numbers in the system give me. Um the but since we don't have an Airbnb business license, we don't have anybody reporting their or we don't have anybody paying for that. Got it. Uh and that would be interesting to see, you know, if business if uh if Airbnbs if they would be regulated as, you know, a a business and have a business license associated with that. I don't know that. Uh certainly our current breakdown of service table A service table B we don't have any it's not a slot but uh it is it it's something that we might you know I mean that might need to be considered by council should we regulate them. Um, so for back to revenue, we have our currently, and I do say this currently because of that small stack of unprocessed business licenses that are

on my desk. Uh, the McDonald's one could really make a little little dent in this somewhere. uh because you have your uh total amount uh paid or collected uh by quadrant and then by type. Um our merchants licenses are almost always going to bring in more revenue because they are based on a percentage of sales and manufacturing is as well. And I think I kind of cruised past that slide or It's ahead of us. Nope. Here it is. So here again at cute with the with the bar graphs. So uh the difference or why manufacturers are such a small p you percentage of our number of businesses but yet they have kind of a significant amount you know in terms of revenue. It's because it is a percentage of the sales, a $50 minimum. There are plenty of businesses that um are at the $50 minimum. You know, they don't make enough sales in the year. They don't or they don't make more than $50,000 in sales per year. So, that's kind of like the the cap. And then uh fees as far as fees by category and type. Um I'm happy to go through all of those with you. The only um one that has a fee associated with the amount of employees are the categories on service table B. Uh, and you can see this one is my is a

screwy uh bar map bar graph because I had to bump the manufacturers up to the front for their for their smaller contribution to the revenue and it's it's it's sl uh you know it's slid down quite quite a bit over the years but um it's something that we have definitely you know still made up in uh for merchants. As far as the amount collected, uh this is a little distribution map. All of the dots are in the same exact spot as they were on the zoning map. Uh this is just a uh a heat map, but yeah, I guess technically uh heat map by red being your highest uh revenue contributors and Did you have a question? I do have a question. Sorry. Just reme remind me. I I do know this. I just can't find it in here. Dealman Price is exactly where like what is that area? Let me get you back up to see I knew that this would be a good map to have here. So this is the area like behind CVS and all that. Yeah. Right. So do you see where my little Uhhuh. Yeah. But that's where that is, right? Yes. Okay. And and then Dealman Rock is Right. Right. I knew that. I used to have property back there. Well, it does include this area here. So, this price um Dealman price and the break of of olive uh is they are usually in the COS, but it's not necessarily. I just couldn't figure out where that was. So, thank you. Yeah. No, no, you're good. Um, and yeah, please guys, you know,

throw up a hand. I'm I'm so happy to get to questions. So, uh, and I did have Yeah. So as far as our the top uh revenue uh contributing companies follow a lot of along the lines of the most or amount annual gross sales. We do not have annual gross sales for all businesses only merchants or manufacturers because those are the only businesses that report their annual gross sales. service businesses like um you know any any salon or 314 sports they well no that's a merchant uh but like I'm trying to think of yeah like the nail salon um that if they do not sell products ah they are not a merchant if so if you're going to get your nails done sell polish and they don't sell polish or any other things which there's plenty of places that don't. Uh then it is purely a service business and then and so it the rate or the fees are just you know so completely different. Food is still a merchant right? Food is yes. Were there any did you have one? Why why is our revenue falling? our revenue falling as far at we have lost some major contributors to our merchants license. Uh I did have um I have a list I don't have it in front of me but I went back through all or

every year to see where those numbers were coming from. um Enterprise, they had a very large um merchant bill that they paid. Uh and um let's see, US Bank, they had a service license. It was a larger amount than a normal normal service license. However, um I wouldn't say that that's one of the, you know, the big reasons for the dip. U those are two huge employment losses. Um as far and we don't honestly know if Enterprise had, you know, the 1500 jobs or 1600 jobs that they had reported to us, you know, at one point in time. It never really seemed like there were that many people that were actually physically there as far as cars in the parking lot or people, you know, going out to lunch. Uh there just didn't seem to be as as much foot traffic there. Uh Emerson since they've come into town and boy have they been active. Uh not just in the city, which is really great to see. You know, parks, everybody pretty much knows who they are. Whereas that was a you know it was not I want to say difficult but it it was always kind of catches catch can you know did they call the person that you had given them you know did their you know paths ever really actually cross no Emerson got a hold of them and they are doing street you know cleanups and all kinds of things uh but also the businesses have said you know we see those employees

coming here and eating. So, uh it you can really feel a business presence, you know, whether it's 250 or 1,500. Yeah, I guess that's my point because or my genesis my question is that in the last five years, we've actually seen a tremendous growth in business on the strip and by the number of businesses we have, but our revenue from business licenses is falling. And so, Either we're not capturing all the data which is potentially or it's not included or the way we're calculating the fees associated with our license isn't the most accurate to absorb the amount of revenue we should from what we have now on the corridor or the mix of businesses is changing too which means maybe the calculation of how we're creating our fee structure needs to be revisited. How much like what what's our gross uh receipts in terms of business license? 185,000 insurance. It's where are you looking? It was on the for right now. Got it. I got it. I got it. Okay. Is it the bar one with the Yeah, cuz when you No, the four. Sorry. The yearly trend one is the one up. Oh, next one. The other one. Yearly trend one. Yeah, right there. That one. Got it. I didn't read the stuff. Yeah. So, the following one even shows them additive together and the numbers are going down which is like the opposite of what I would expect to see like right there in the top. I see where you are. Okay. In the last few years, we've seen all this growth and now we're not seeing the revenue tied to. Now, again, this is a maybe a rounding error when it comes to our annual budget, but still not the right direction you would expect to see. Well, to answer your original question is what percentage of our total budget

is business license? I rounding error was my guess. Rounding error. Yeah. Yeah, that's my guess. But still directionally. Um I I will say that uh there there there are 15% that remain uncaptured. Um so that is one at least one reason why that 20 26 number is so much lower. I do expect to capture more than that. What What is the average because I remember years back the average capture rate was even lower than 85%. Especially during COVID we like we basically didn't have any pay it seemed like. So I have had I've had more businesses this year catch up in a rears than any other year. Uh I've put four Yeah. which is great again which is why these numbers are uh the opposite of what you would expect is that will 2026 grow as we keep getting that whittling down 15% other reasons that yes um I do I do hope that I it remains to be seen what Aldi will do next year as far as the retail sales and amount it will remain Like so for a lot of our brand new businesses uh because of the reporting um which is way back on like the one of the first slides uh the reporting term is that January 2024 through December 2024. So, we're backwards looking. If they weren't open during that time, then the sales that they would report on in May on May 15, 2025, uh if they didn't they weren't open, there would be no sales. So, we're we're lagging behind those new businesses and

seeing the revenue come in. So, our 2027 numbers should be really strong. I would put a caveat on that because the the bars you see here are kind of reflective of state receipts. We've seen a uh like a a peak throughout the state in terms of sales tax revenue collection and that's impacted you know the region and all the other munis around here. Um and there all of it has been been in in pretty good shape and we still are but I think you'll find that that's kind of reflective of what you know what the state has been noting uh uh during this budget you know budget year that uh that sales tax revenues are not coming at the same rate as they were before whether that's a product of the economy or we're getting out of the pandemic and going back to normal there there's different things in there and I think that it's an excellent question and things to look at but I think when we look at it here, you know, maintaining, you know, that, you know, they're still pretty close. I know it's 187 to 208, but you know, we're we're keeping that pace of that those pandemic years were really good um in there. And again, there there's a lot of unknowns and we'll talk about the budget further down. uh a lot of unknowns that are kind of coming around um in there and uh but that's a it's a good question and then on the second thing we we'll talk about it later too we traditionally uh either August or October we'll have uh Mr. man, our finance director, kind of talked uh to the commission and he gives a pretty good overview of of of that aspect of it. And then the u overall receipts represent 9% of the entire budget of the general budget, the license receipt of the license receipt. Oh, so

it's not around%. N Now remember licenses are different from sales tax receipts. Okay. Okay. This is the licenses though. This is the licenses which are based on sales but Some of them are, some of them aren't. This is also the revenues, the amount that they have paid up, right? So, it's not it's not their annual gross receipts or anything. Actually, something doesn't make sense. You have that look on your face. If it's 9%, that means the budget's $2 million a year. That's not Yeah. I mean, when you take into account, you know, property tax payments and everything, we're talking gross receipts of our entire budget. A lot of that is school district that we don't get, etc. Correct. I don't know. I don't think that's what you But our budget is uh for the the last year was uh 2,725,000. That's for the general our general budget. That's for planning, not for this city. for the city for the city as a whole was 2.7 million. Oh, and uh Darren did give a presentation to EDC in January. Um as far as the like the percentage of the budget uh has the budget document open uh from city council. So, um, did you want to So, I guess I'm maybe we're looking at different numbers because right now I'm looking um at at what came through from Darren. I don't expect you to pull it up, but it's on page 59 of 140 of the budget document that was presented at the last council meeting. Yeah. Um, you would have the current one. I'm looking at last year's. So, so at least for this one, so this calls out business license spec business licenses specifically um in the remainder classification for our general fund revenue and for the

general fund revenue for the 2026 budget that's 10,545,000. So if that's that's the general fund revenue and of that percentage if we're looking at roughly 200,000 then that's about 1.9% of the general fund revenue. So, and maybe we're pulling from different efforts. I think you're right. And it is like so uh as far as you know what I've what I've pulled out of the system so are are strictly from the business licenses and Darren has more information than I have uh as far as the budget goes. The for you know just pulling the amounts that was all the amounts that were there if there were things that were missing or data that didn't get counted or if u so Darren's is also by the fiscal year or uh and ours is by the business license year so it's not going to completely match up right so like it's the ones that are expiring in 2026 Darren would have never had those numbers because we've started collecting them. I mean, you know, in May. So, you know, there's like kind of no way or he would have been operating off the 2025 uh numbers. That's fine. I mean, the 2025 numbers are about are just under 10 million for the GE general fund revenue. I just wanted to give a reason for the inconsistency because I don't want it to, you know, feel like a bait and switch. Uh, you know, when you're looking at the budget documents as opposed to the business license cycle

stuff, they are different time periods. Um, I went for kind of brevity and and speed uh for our business licenses. So, it is it is slightly different. Um but off of revenue to the annual gross sales um our our largest uh sales reporters again the only businesses that report their annual gross sales are merchants and manufacturers. Uh the top businesses are listed there. HDIS is on the top of all the list pretty much and manufacturing you know for being such a small percentage to have a you know a nice annual gross sales uh amount the uh dealman price u still the the main money there that's schnooks that it's reporting and uh that deal price as that as that big red dot And then uh that is all I have for that portion. Uh any any questions on the business licenses reported? Ber, what is your goal with the business licenses, you know, 100% total domination. Um I I really would um there are businesses that have simply taken, you know, that connection and then boom, I'm getting their their filings, you know, a

month ahead of time, you know. So, uh it it could be as simple as that with some of these. Yeah. Other ones they may never, you know, it it could be something that we have to take further. Um, as far as what my goals are, uh, truly if I can have all the data, you know, if I can have everybody reporting all of their their data honestly and I can regurgitate that information honestly to you all, that would that would make me extremely happy. Yeah. Other than that, um, I want to see our businesses do well. The right types of data that you're collecting, is that what was shown in the slides? So like employee numbers and gross sales. Are there other data points that that you collect that weren't represented in the slides? Oh yeah. Okay. Is there like a online where we can find like what businesses like a survey or whatever it is that they fill out that So um I can give you an application which gives you an idea of what we collect. Um, as far as things that I didn't show that we collect still, like so I didn't get into the nth degree of the business sectors because they because they all break out. Um, salient points are your employment amount and annual sales. Um, but there are in the quadrants. Um, Do we collect any data from businesses um in terms of like feedback for the city? No, but it has been it has been you know discussed. Uh we do not have um

any current or like a survey or something like that could be easily done with our ARGIS software. Um we would be able to with the data we collect from the business licenses be able to do it digitally. Um it's a cost factor. Um but yeah, we have as far as like what we collect, there's a lot more that we could do with it. There's a lot there's not as much that is easy to display, you know, as far as, you know, charts and graphs. Uh it's it's just not easy to look at. Um but as far as uh also keeping the business's information somewhat obscure uh so I I did you know list the top five businesses for your you know all of the different aspects that we looked at. However, you know, I didn't put in the values for any of those because, you know, it it does it looks different. You know, when you see that, you know, that this this company made $63 million in sales, you know, well, what does that mean really? It only it only relevant that they're in the top five, you know. So, you can get a lot more detail, but is that detail helpful? Is it something people need to know? um you know can you convey it without giving out all the information? So I'm sorry I may not I would I would say this is this kind of discussion is important because it actually gives us a snapshot of what we are and what we're good at apparently. So the idea is um you know what do we need more of what do we need less of um and how we can basically incentivize

people to do what we want them to do. and and that's kind of why we're we're we're kind of looking at this this whole thing. I I think um the the caveat to that is that um why we collect business fees and licenses um probably because we can't because the code because the thing is um K you me you mentioned feedback um you know we've done some outreach and stuff like that actually we were you know over the last couple of years we were tasked with just going out just scribbling a few notes when we talked to someone and you know hearing the complaints and it was difficult tabul tabulate all that different stuff because everybody's got a different take on what's good, bad, whatever about the city themselves, how they fit in. But um it's it's kind of like um yeah, we collect this money, we utilize it, we don't necessarily utilize it for those businesses. So, and that's that would be my only comment here with regards to that. I mean but collecting the data is you know important having a you know a good overview of of of how it makes us look. Um I have been with the uh with all the mailings and things I'm getting a better sense of our lost businesses uh you know things that were in the in the system that didn't need to be but also uh you know offboarding. Why did they leave? did they have constraints uh in in their physical space? Could they just simply not expand on location type of a thing. Um and a lot of those questions we can't do anything about, right? It's always after the fact. And I would say, well, no, or not always, but well, I I'm I'm saying with regards to making a decision as to where to locate um you know, business

licenses are kind of after the fact. It's kind of like, oh, I'm going to go to all that and do this. Oh, I need a business license. Okay, fine. Hopefully, I get something for it sort of thing. Truly, you have to have your commercial occupancy inspection certificate and business before you can have your business license. So, yeah, no doubt. Even even if there even if it's a homebased businesses, we don't have an inspection, but there is uh you know, a process for that. the um questionnaires and surveys. IEDC as I had mentioned that's international economic development council uh they literally write the books on these and uh surveys are one of their top recommendations uh for you know working with your existing businesses and in IEDC's opinion existing businesses that is where you need to concentrate your efforts because 80% of businesses they grow from within uh we certainly need to be connecting with them to make sure that they don't leave. Um, can we actually affect their decision to leave? That's another question. Um, but but connecting with them would be a step further than we already and actually that's a good discussion. just um in in the essence of moving on I think we've got a had a good discussion about this and it's uh food for thought about you know considering incentives of the things we need to be the the things that we need to do to attract the right kind of businesses and keep the ones that we have. I mean, um, we've done some things and, uh, it's very difficult sometimes to get businesses to respond, although they do have their brothers about what we're doing, right? Whatever. Um, but yeah, um, just kind of moving along, think about things in the future that, you know, we can bring up and say, okay,

this is what we can do in terms of a survey. But always always well done uh, and appreciate all the the detail and data. Well, thank you. Just one last Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I would love to whenever the finance person wants to present the structure behind how we create our business license fees, I would like to have a better understanding of what that is and whether or not that can be adjusted because like a Murphy company who has 500 employees, our biggest employer, not saying that they should pay the greatest business license fee, but I just like to understand why and is it malleable and can we show revenue growth into the future because our costs aren't going down as a city. So we should we support the reason they pay the fee is because we provide them services in our community, our fire department and so on and so forth. Well, they also pay property tax right which is a huge amount more than it is though an afterthought. The business license as a business owner is an afterthought. They're like, "Oh yeah, I got to pay that $310." Yeah. So it's not that small for Murphy for or whatever. Or maybe it is because they weren't on the top five, but they're in the number one employer. Oh, that that's a good point. So there it it is very possible it would be you know if it's a service table A and they don't pay an employee fee then they don't pay an exponential amount more for their extra or for their you know large number of employees which is something what I'm suggesting in the future we revisit the structure behind how the fees are calculated that's all and so um that's a good point as as Carlos was mentioning earlier the fees it has gone back and forth between is it a fee or is it a tax a fee is something the council can

affect a tax is something the voters that has to go to the voters so then I suggest it remains a fee and something that council could then review in its wisdom and that's our job is to recommend to council right what to review and I think a decline planning revenue on business licenses with all these businesses growing doesn't make sense. So our recommendation to council would be to review this structure. Yeah. And if and when we review it, I think we should also start with the question of what is our goal of getting to 100% or having business licenses period. Is it to maximize revenue? That's my assumption. 2% is not nothing. But also is it to gather this data? How valuable is the data? What are our trade-offs between the people responding and the level of fees we you know are requiring them to pay or what is their um you know friction with those fees? What it what do the fees do? I assume again it's an afterthought but does it have any impact on people wanting to come or staying? My assumption there is probably not but uh I maybe it's me being new to this but don't quite you know would would like to start with what is our ultimate goal of a fee or a license in general. I agree that's good. Uh and we've done some uh we've done some cursory research. It's r u on uh what other communities do. Uh so it's definitely we've we've been looking at how we compare uh to see

if we need to make any changes like immediately type of a thing. uh we haven't seen anything like that but it does it it's definitely you know something to align our you know create that goal and align there. Yeah. And we'll bring it's been something we've been kind of progressing or working towards to to do. We have the data of what other communities charge um in there and we can bring those for comparisons. Uh several of them go by square footage which is stays consistent. Um I'll give you a little bit of history. I didn't come across the collection of of the business license fees till about like 2010 2012 when I saw somebody submitted the form to the wrong building and the data that was collected to calculate the fees. And as a planner, you're like, "Wow, you know, I didn't know there was that many people there and all that." And we had all this data, but it was just looked at at at an it was taken in from an administrative reception and collected and put in in the bank. And that's that that's all they were, you know, they send out the notices, they collected the funds, put it in the bank, and realized that we had tons and tons of data in there. So that became helpful to be able to identify the businesses and then kind of look at you know different things that kind of popped out. You saw here that of the five biggest sales tax contributors only ones on Olive, we have these treasure trove of businesses in our industrial parks that are not big boxes uh in there but have some of the highest sales uh in there that we collect. And it's understanding those businesses and we're small enough and personable enough that we now know many of these, you know, owners like Starbeam um and their the Murphy company and all that. But

then we saw some of the other things. We also did try uh at one point like we would send out the application along with a little business newsletter to kind of inform people what this money was and how it contributed to the budget and and all that and and and and it worked for a while but we you know uh and there we don't do that as much anymore and we may go back or look at something like that but the other thing is we found you know some of the inconsistencies of the process and it not being very equitable. So you we we will have like for instance a uh construction company that maybe offices are run out of the house and they pay a flat rate and a construction company that is in an industrial park that has in the tens of employees they pay the same flat rate as the twoerson firm. And we we started noticing these inequities and and all there. And then we started noticing what other communities are doing uh by going through a square where there was a square footage. The um the the sales tax or percentage of the sales tax is always great because you get a percentage as long as the sales tax is going up, you know, but we did hit, you know, the past three years where we kind of peaked uh at all that. So we one of our goals and we've talked about it through this commission over time is re reassessing that. Um, I'll note, and I know this is not what you guys in intended, but you know, it it is a collection form that all municipalities have. Uh, we're not the only ones to do it. Uh, and it's it's pretty common. Uh, and there is we have the opportunity to do so, just like we have for building permits. It's not like your fee to the building permit isn't going to then I'm going to turn around and and give it back to you in there. It's it's all about it. It's a process of of uh uh in there and I think uh Councilman uh Pashan Helman is is correct that the the

overall budget is 10.5 million in revenue or around there and this represents about 2% of our collection uh based on that number. Uh and there we'll have Darren come in. he's been one that's been kind of advocating uh for making some of these changes and I think this kind of helps build that that platform where where he comes in and you guys got to see him some of you got to see him last year uh in there and he's really good in terms of how those projections are are made and talking about numbers and uh and he enjoys his stuff so I think it'll be it'll be pretty exciting. Yes, he does. Great. All right, moving right along. Um unless if there are any other comments, questions, concerns. No. Um distressed and underperforming parcels. So again, trying to I'm going to take this from Don trying to take a look at different aspects and now that uh we're we're under a new comprehensive plan and looking at ways uh to improve the corridor and and and look at that. This is going to be like an you as a as a first time. We had something similar to this I think about 12 plus years ago where we had a map and identify potential redevelopment areas that was incorporated in our old comprehensive plan uh in there. Now that we have a new one kind of talking about these parcels, these are the ones that keep me up at night because the market is changing, things are happening, and there's also expectations that are coming in. Uh so I'm going to take you through a couple of properties just to kind of create some discussion or get some feedback um in there. And these are all along Olive. And I'll explain why I identified these uh in there. So we'll start on the uh on the right hand side there by I 170. And the next slide, Don, uh will show uh this apartment complex. It's the entrance to the Olivette, you know, coming off of 170. It's been there for I think they were built in the 50s or 60s

uh in there. I believe there's maybe about 50 units plus or minus uh in that. But all these properties are now under the ownership of a company called Quick Truck who's also bought some adjacent parcels uh in there. All of it is in a good position. Those properties are zoned SR single family residential. Uh and if you were looking to do something outside of residential use, you would have to reszone and that puts the council in the lead of making that determination. Our comprehensive plan kind of looks at this corner for future kind of mixeduse development. So it's not a si the goal is not to get a single type of user or a box development. Uh in addition to that the city owns a strip of rightaway that actually is the cities. So they control whether they want to be part of the cell or not uh in there. So the city's kind of positioned well they've owned this for since I've been here anyway. Yeah. mixture has and they have a couple other parcels in there. The position it puts me in is pushing them for maintenance. I mean, they just can't hold on to these properties. Uh we've had some issues with some of the single family homes that you see kind of in the back of there and then and and then the intent that we want them to this is our interest. We want a better, you know, we want a better presence when people come into. Uh so it becomes this pushpull thing because our goal is now to push them to to uh you know to fix up these properties. I think there's people living in those homes. Yes. And in the apartments. Yes. Okay. Oh the the I think they own three or four homes and to the best of my knowledge two are vacant and I they've been vacant for years. actually the um the ownership by QT was that about the same time that Nolles wanted to do something on the other side of of it's

possible. I know that somewhere we we found out like about five years ago I think it was that that they they had acquired a parcel. Sometimes it's difficult because there's layers of Yes. corporate ownership etc. I weeded through that when I got here. That was my first thing. So, as why we can't, you know, I mean, the the ownership is public information. It's not, you know, but we we have sat with with them and and kind of explained what we just explained to you that it own residential. Our comprehensive plan is pretty well set in terms of what the expectations are. uh the city owns property uh in in those grounds and you know we while we can't tell them what we believe the council would do or so but that they need to be aware of of those aspects of it. Now we're kind of looking at it as like, you know, hey guys, you guys, you know, as we've gotten to the the Irvington place, uh the cross c the u the crossings, uh they need to start investing in their property or you know fixing, you know, maintaining and fixing them. So the next uh three or they're going to be four here. No, three here and you'll see the little map there on the upper right hand corner. Uh they're all south of Olive and there are all these, you know, nice little structures that are along Olive, but their value and future use is pretty minimal given what somebody would have to do. The first one is what we used to call the Turk building at Dolores and Olive. It was used for office or p personal or office type of functions. Uh in there and that's our goal. Uh, and there there's or circulation, there's more parking. Um, and there it's a lot of building, and it it's kind of like a remnant piece. When they were building the shops

at Price Crossing, we tried to get the developer to go all the way to Dolores to get rid of that building knowing that we would get stuck with a building that would be difficult to kind of redevelop. uh in that process. Um 9306 which you go up uh two parcels down is a little law office and you can see in the Google Street View there's a little tarp there. We've been on them about what's going on there, what he covering needs to be fixed up. Um and they're to a point that we're close to if it's not done within a reasonable time frame. We have no other you know um we we've been trying to work with them unless we have to get to a point that we have to issue citations and we try to avoid that uh in that process because then becomes a court uh type of issue but the building needs a lot of TLC a lot of TLC um in there and it it there is parking in the back. We do know that other uh other property adjacent property owners have been looking at the parcel um in there and we'll see where where it goes. But we're trying to get it, you know, you know, keep an eye both from a maintenance perspective and then pushing that maintenance. What does that do and uh what does that open? Whether positive or negative. If you go two parcels further, you'll see the dentist building and you can see again the Google captures it great the the maintenance of the the the west side of the the building and you can see the you know the the paint the exposure the lack of paint and now I think there's some bubbling in in the um um in the siding too. So we've made some outreach to them about the need to Is that probably still in use as a dentist office? Yes. Seriously? Okay. So, and the law offices are still in use, too. Yes. I drove by there today. I was actually going to bring this building up tonight because I was like, what is going on there? So, it looks like it got hit by the tornado. Yeah. And it stuff hanging off of it

that you don't see in this picture. And then you can see I mean I think well for the most part I think you can see some of the pines back there, but I not sure that one is one of the full dead trees. I'm pretty sure that that little tree there um on the uh 9318 at the dentist office is yeah next to the dentist I'm pretty sure that that tree fell um or or at least one of the trees was taken out in the big storm. Um so uh but yeah, no it's it has looked that way for a while. The complexity with these sites I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. I was just going to say um that you had you had mentioned earlier that there's hesitancy to offer a citation. Um can you explain a little bit more? Sure. Yeah, we we try to work with the business or property owners to get compliance. Uh once we issue a citation um then it becomes it becomes it goes to the court and we lose kind of control and you know a savvy person that's been cited say like a lawyer uh could really push these off and on and on and on and once we've issued our startation our we we can't just go back and issue another it they can run it through the courts for quite some time. So the goal is that they cooperate and do some and then we don't have um we don't control what the court decision is and what there if there's a judgment what that would be. Do we have any fees or fines or other levers that we pull for the fines would be establish would be set by the court. So, I don't have like if if something if you if something was incompliant with the building code, it's a I don't have a flat fee. I have to take that to to a court and they establish a fine.

Does that citation are only stick correct if we have to get there? Yes. But then it's I lose control of trying to coordinate. Do we have any carrots? No. And that's a good question in terms of I mean there are other communities that provide like facade reimbursements or or assistance in the process. We have other revenue sources that we control that we can wave in exchange like a business license, you know, things like that. Not something that would add up, but there there are things that maybe we can, you know, discuss and look at in the future or there are other bigger redevelopment tools uh out there. Not the term redevelopment to get rid of, but that you could use funds that are generated from there to retrofit or or uh or improve are there. Yeah. The the problem with these is that these parcels uh are very small. They do not have a lot of depth. So what can be done with them? And this is the problem that we've talked about at Nauseium at this panel. We've talked about it when I was on council. Yeah, they're tough. They're they're hard to I know like you look we haven't mentioned too much about 9270 but they've you took this picture before they just repainted it. They've done that in the last few weeks. Yes. I mean they're trying to get Well, and that was again trying to work with them to get them to they they fixed the a retaining wall. They fixed a uh a fence and they painted and all it is I mean it's just makeup. I mean, the windows still boarded up and there's still tape and paper around one of the windows that was painted. Yeah. office. Well, and aside from I mean well the the viability of of the properties um it's it's going to remain difficult as you know as long as these

buildings are in the you know uh position or in the care that they are. Uh the Turk building has additional complications because its floor plan is divided in two. It's not one big floor plan. Uh it was, you know, built in the in the 50s to be more like two troughs on each side. Uh the law office and the dentist, those are very small by, you know, today's standards. and most law offices or dentists that would be in a in a building that small would be in their homes or in a in a multi-tenant building. So, it's the it's there's a cost benefit with, you know, to be weighed with each one of these and the development cost to, you know, to raise it. I'm certain that people are looking for uh parcels to combine and then that makes it even more difficult than adding more people to the discussion. First of all, I think this is great because in my I don't know five years doing this or when Yep. Oh, well more than five years doing this. Uh we I think having like a targeted list of properties that we all and we used to do in the the We did actually we have done it but like now going to 9306 or 9318 and say okay these are the tools we have this is how we can bring in someone who might want to spend money to help redevelop the space because the dentist is retiring the law offices are closing as opposed to having it sit there and be a blight on the on our strip because that's what's going to end up happening right because it's not a turnkey easy development this is I think where this commission can be active in saying Okay, this is a badsized property, Rod, right?

Always has been, Becky. You're like, it's always been bad, but here's what we could do to bring in the right people to actually spend some money here. Do we do we know that they're retiring? No, I'm making that I don't He just made that. I'm assuming based on the facade of the building, but I just wanted to clarify. Or maybe they're not. Or maybe one of the things maybe they're waiting for someone to knock on the door and say, "Hey, would you like to?" It could be it could be well we do not do this but a lot of EDC's throughout the region they do have larger budgets and they do purchase property well the city could cities bought property well we we do so under the opaces city the city and I'm just sort of you know functionally that's maybe the way it happened but that's not really our edict here uh with this commission we could say we do buy it but I I don't know if that's really might make the recommendation. Um, we've done we've done some some analysis on on city properties trying to price those out. Correct. And, you know, this is, you know, I'll advocate for my department. We got new council members in in here, you know, finally having a I have a full staff, full confident staff that we can focus on some broader things in the some of these questions. We tried to tackle something like this before, but it were more about redevelopment as opposed to being proactive in terms of what existing properties in there. And I think this is an opportunity to bring that back and and and put that focus in there. Uh because these are coming in now. There's a couple of things that we've done to try to um manage what happens in in these. You know, like I can tell you right now, we get a lot of in inquiries for adult daycare. Nothing wrong with adult daycare, but they do have a a burden on services uh in there. There's a cost associated that isn't going to be made up by a business license. Isn't going to be made up by a

business taxes uh in there, but there there is, you know, services they require that that are are, you know, utilizing us, whether it's through ambulance or other other things like that. Um, our code restricts some from any of these parcels, you know. So, people that have called and inquired and said, you know, you know, yeah, but you know, but you need to have 80,000 square feet. None of these properties have 80,000 square feet. That 80,000 square feet was developed for a specific purpose in there in the future. And and these things are organic. They should be re-evaluated all the time. If there is interest that the city needs some type of a adult daycare facilities, then we should look at that 80,000 and adjust it or consider it on a case- by case basis. At this point, we're in a position where, you know, we're we are now trying to address these, but we're not under a pressure that something's coming in or I take it these are owner operated for a majority. Yes. Except for the 9270 which is vacant. So, but it was previously owner occupied. What what is our objective in talking about this here? I think our goal is to develop one of the parts of the five-year economic development plan was to develop, you know, you know, to utilize the resources of the EDC to to look at how to either improve these properties or get these properties redeveloped. One or the other. And I don't mean redevelop to tear it down, but to get, you know, what other type of users would be interested in getting those and to bring those back into investing in in the structure itself or in the property itself. Actually, we've um under our species, we can recommend to the city that they use certain levers um taxing districts, etc. This is this is a really small type of thing. It's actually really hard to to figure out

what to do because these parcels are so small. But, you know, things like um when when we sold the um city hall, we had a discussion about well, what is the property worth? Because um it was public entity and it didn't actually generate any any property tax. And um you know from a commercial standpoint we had to kind of figure out how we could kind of horse trade with developers to say we'll give you this if you give you if if you do this uh you know other things um there's you know with the bigger um things like um shops at Christ price crossing I was I was I came on right after that but I know extensively how that how that worked out especially over the long term with regards to tax abatements, that sort of thing. Um, and currently the u the gateway um shops, well the um Yit's property, Y's property all the time. Um there's um you know there's a number of incentives there. There's tiff money um which basically precludes the idea that there's going to be sales tax revenue, that sort of thing. So, but you know, when you're dealing with something like this, um, it's really difficult to be creative and and to find something to do with these things. Um, and are we trying to do something now or are we trying to propose like, hey, owners, looks like you not might not be doing so. I think we're for me I'm kind of looking for guidance that you know we're gonna I don't want to say we're going to start making it known you know that they they they need to do these improvements and take a more assertive approach uh in this and that puts the potential that you know they got to make some major decisions and I don't know you know in terms of you know somebody had mentioned retirement you know how long that Dennis

has been there or is that something under consideration or it's a whole new young group or or so. But I think from our end, we we we don't see them contributing to the character of our community and and I think they need to start doing some investments whether they just started or they've been there forever. You know, it's either you know, you know, repairing the the driveway, the the deck, doing some landscaping. I think there are investments. This is owner private owner property private privately owned property that that the behemoth of government can't necessarily just go in and and take it. We still have code we do have yeah and I think use you know starting and utilize the code or utilize some of the levers I'm talking about to for for incentives to do what they what they can but it's for for the size of these things and the usefulness of these structures I I I'm at a loss. I mean, what what really can't be done? Well, yeah. I mean, I mean, not a nice nice little ice cream shop would be great one of these places. Dispensers business here. I like that. And and that's one of the things that we want I want to get some guidance on that discussion because that's what it triggers. So, let's say like the the the law offices. I think it's it's it's cute. It's a nice architecture. It's very simple and all that. Another attorney comes in, they go through an occupancy process, they do some improvements. A retailer or a confectioner goes in. They're it's not just a zoning thing. Now, they have to bring ADA accessibility. They have to bring in the bathrooms uh compliance. They have to level the the the floors. And we'll talk about one uh later in and in there, but It opens up on other things. It's easier. The easiest thing for to happen

here is to get another attorney that has the investments to put put into the building because anybody else is is going to buy uh a property that it's going to be difficult to conform that structure to suit the needs that the ideal needs of that user. And then there there are some other zoning things that come into play. An attorney's office may need just like four parking spaces, but an ice cream facility may need eight. And it goes back to do we need to go look at our code? Do we need provide flexibility or in our code? Do we need to change our code? All these other things come into play. The goal here is just to get those things going and and and be a little bit more proactive about it. You're you're kind of I understand it where we're going and we're trying to be creative about this, but you also have to um consider the idea behind spot zoning. which is Yeah. which is um not something you really want to get involved with. Correct. Um I I don't know. Just bringing it up. No, it's it's a good point. I think Cole, to answer your question, like in the past, we've been very reactive to areas on the corridor especially that we didn't that were either vacant or dilapitated or undeveloped. Now, I I what I was saying initially is I'm pleased that we're going to be potentially proactive because maybe people have knocked on these folks door and they're like, "Are you interested?" They're like, "I am." And they don't know what toolkit we're ready to offer someone who's just knocked on their door. I think you're hitting on really good. And it's like, if we could sit with them and say, "We love that you're here. You have to be up to code, but if you're ready to leave, here's what the city is willing to do to help redevelop this space." And that will then fit with the strategic plan and then everyone is happy in the end until they go, you know, so we have a little more influence in the situation.

Yeah, makes sense. Cool. Something I haven't heard um that the city does is a facade improvement program. And that is where you have uh a certain amount of money that is delegated to businesses or they businesses apply for it. Uh where this revenue would come from a I just make the ideas. Um uh uh a facade improvement program would would do the type of thing if we are just talking about getting these things so that they look better on our primary corridor. That's the program for it. There are street there are street and pro u improvement programs put forth by the state. At least there used to be because I know that the city um like 20 25 years ago turned down. No, no, actually after your after your tenure. Well, that's the that's Yes. And they actually turned it down thinking well for for whatever reason. I don't want to, you know, get into their brains, but um the you know, it just certain things were were not necessarily followed up on for whatever reason, but there are areas like that which and that's basically curbing, um, street lights, sidewalks, that sort of thing. So, that's more infrastructure-based rather than specific to a, uh, to a to a business, but I I don't know how flexible those programs are and if they still exist. Well, and to Don's point about the facade, whatever you called that great idea you just had, um, is it there's got to be a grant somewhere you could apply for that with, right? I bring this up. I'm just saying I'm trying to figure out where the money's coming from. Right.

That's what I'm saying. So grant we could apply for for that in University City. If you see if you've gone east of the the Costco development and you've seen a lot of interior tenants doing improvements, some of that money from the big tiff is going into uh providing a fund to do facade improvements along, you know, east east. That's a great idea. And whether that's triggered, I mean, and you could say whether it looks nice or not, but there's been people investing on the exteriors of their buildings, uh, all the way up to where Pete's used to be, I guess, north and south and all that. and the improvement or facade improvement that relates to the business um or one great outlet awnings um signage things like that uh that are usually uh applicable expenses for facade improvement program funds. We don't have uh you know anything like that here. So, we would have to write it and the rules to go along with it. Um, it would be it would be a decent solution for a lot of these things. You we don't have a the great streets initiative um that the state has done or does. That is a really kind of um kind of a difficult like to get the to get that grant to get a designated a great street. But there are definitely, you know, funding sources that we haven't even looked at. If that's something, you know, that you want us to pursue, if that's uh I don't know, trying to get some direct. I think those are really positive moves that would be way better than fix your stuff or we're kicking you out. Yeah. You know, um so if there are I I mean I always look to you

professional folks to say, well, what are our options that are available to us? tell us what we can recommend. We I don't even know. I wouldn't even know where to start. So, I would recommend that that you could guys could tell us what our options are to re, you know, like we have facade things that other cities do. Um then we could send that to you guys. Absolutely. The other sites as we go down the the corridor on the next slide in more of a modern ABC trading Yes. And it is. Yes. They they've been up for sale for five years. The thing is for sale though, not the business. Correct. Well, I think they they've been wanting to retire but just have not had the the cell that they've wanted uh in there and there's a couple of complexities and there it's a unique interior. Uh you know it's very specific to what they were doing and how it worked for for them and the limited space. They did that addition I think in 2008 the upper level uh in there it's a strange elevator but their offices were up there to kind of open up some of the the lower room and their storage is just all over the place in there. It's really tight. Uh but they're a great retailer. I mean yeah they are all the time. Uh the the access is very difficult on Olive. It's right across from the Mercy S Silvin uh center and you have multiple entrances and the kicker is they're not allowed access onto Olivet Executive Parkway because that's a private street and that's why that chain is is is set in in there and it just makes you know it just kind of you know compounds on on on the problems for that the great location Olive Boulevard quarter property Olive Boulevard. Uh but it it's they've had difficulties getting tenants in there.

We've had inquiries like on p more like on personal services to to look into that site. But I think in the end it making it work is difficult for what and does a personal services company follow our plan? I mean don't we want more if I mean consumer oriented businesses on the border? But if it if it was a u a gym, okay, or or some some type of thing, but you know, they would weigh heavily on their membership and their membership fees to to pay that off. And that that's where the bigger risk come in. Uh next one um is uh the the next two, Enchanted Bride at the upper left and then at the lower right is uh the former hangar uh prosthetics facility. uh Enchanted Bride, I've posted that property that it's no longer occupiable and open to the public now. Correct. Working with the the owners, they they are retiring and she was retiring. So, we kind of we we knew that in advance. We knew that we had some issues there and we knew they were coming to a close uh in there. The owner owner operator is looking to try to salvage that building and create something in there, but I think it it's Unfortunately, the building is was is really in bad shape. Lived its life and they're Yeah. And it's a great place and and they're the the sweetest couple uh and they're uh they they should be wrapping up I think by tomorrow um in there and then slowly vacating what they have in in there. From what I understand, they had a thriving business for a lot of years. She's very impressive and she's got pictures of of people that have worn her gowns and and all that in there and it's a and it was a it was a hard emotional day to go in there and to kind of talk them of how how the how to wrap this up

that was saving face for uh is best for them in that process. The problem with this parcel well that the building there's multi it looks like it was added on added on added on. So there's multi level so it's not very accessible. Um they had a lot of electrical issues, some plumbing issues, and that's why we got to this point that we we were at uh in there. It was I guess partially once a house and and the storefront or or something uh like that, but it it was not in the best of shape uh in there. She said majority of of her was now going to her clients as opposed to there that most of just the sewing uh took place in there. But the other difficult part is there's no expansion opportunities on the parcel because right behind them uh immediately to your right is the u olive point and there's about a 10 10-ft grade. So it's not like they could be acquired or integrated with another development and then they're at a corner of a residential street and Olive Boulevard and then they're in that part of Olive Boulevard where you have that curve and it's just hard to get in and out in there. Uh same with u uh u hanger prosthetics. They they were one of our big uh sales tax generators u in there, but they vacated. Um we just kind of found out about it, you know, by by you know, gone dropped home that all of a sudden they were done uh in there. So again, we're trying to get a little bit more in front of these uh and to identify issues. I don't I couldn't tell you if there's issues with the building or hanger was consolidating or or or what is there is there there's a um I think a 4 acre parcel right by is it adjacent to that hanger? Uh well which is the it's the ent the four 4 acre parcel I believe is um adjacent to

the street which goes to um Oonam village. Is that correct? No, they're two two down. Mhm. Okay. So at at the at the signal light of O Bonum and Olive, you have the V the big parking lot, right? Then you have the building that's right there to to the right has a sign company and Ventech and then it's hangar. Oh, that's right. Hangar the apartment sign company and then it's a daycare facility that's run by the the Lutheran church. Mhm. The unique thing about these is you got these beautiful parcels that are over 400 deep, 400 ft deep, you know, so, you know, very deep, but they're only like 150 ft wide. And they're, you know, outside of this maybe these two buildings kind of have some cross access, but to get to the parking lot, you on the other side, you have to go out into Olive to get back into the parcel. Same with the uh with the Lutheran church. So, how much um if any sway does the city have to to increase that cross traffic access because that's a problem in for lots of correct when when an opportunity presents itself that they need an a u like some approval from the city beyond just a permit or an occupancy. we take advantage of that. So, we have uh I think I have like over 12 cross access easements that we've acquired over time because they had to go for a reasonzoning, they had to go to get a special permit or they were getting redeveloped uh in there. So, in this case, we know that these two parcels share if another retailer were

to go in there, I don't have that the same teeth I would unless the retailer requires a special permit. So let's say if it becomes a hardware store, a hardware store would require a special permit, then that is something that we can request as part of the the negotiations and you know and the approval because it helps meet our goals and objectives in the comprehensive plan uh in there. But if it's just a general retailer, they would just be going to get an occupancy uh permit and an inspection, meaning that you know that when they get viewed, they they got to do some site cleanups and painting and some other improvements on there. But to tell them that they have to give them give us an easement, I don't think that there's enough correlation between the approval that they need and the request for that. If they have to go to the commission or council, then that puts me in a different position. Does that kind of Yeah. I mean, I was kind of thinking along the lines of the um olive corridor plan. I'm not sure sure the exact name, but but where, you know, kind of identifying ways that we can reduce curb cut. Yes. Curb cuts and, you know, limit all of the different entrances and exits onto Olive. And if there are strategic ways that we can say, okay, these five parcels, we want to focus our efforts on like these are our big trouble spots. And so we want to focus our efforts and find creative ways, you know, again to work with businesses or to help make correct that happen. So one of the things I always look at is like you again if a if somebody comes in that that that is comparable or compatible to what was going on there before. So you get another retailer and you know there are some gray areas too that goes in um it it puts the city just as a a um like

I don't know what the right word would be but just as a a part of the step of of getting in when something unique comes in where they need to go to you know they need some type of approval to the city it puts us in the table it gives us a chair in the table uh that plan that we have for the olive corridor is is something we use because we have already planned that out. So as you go through that, it tells us where these are supposed to be. So they're coordinated in there, but it also puts us in a position. It's like we didn't just make this up. You know, these are long-term goals or or objectives and if we get a seat at the table because you need us to get this going, then this is what we're going to we're asking in return. And again, it's not always, you know, monetary or or like we're we're doing it. It becomes part of the approval process. Part of the approval process because we have already thought that out and it's in place uh you know in there. And that's a good good example where you we do have that shown that we would like this parcel to be able to access the signal to get access to that signal. It would help and improve both their you know access by their patrons and also for the community. And we have that uh Enchanted Bride is unique because there was no opportunity outside of lining maybe directly with the uh with the post office. Uh but if you go back to um go go back two slides Don or I think yeah so no one one so here I mean when the the uh child daycare operator came in they they know that our long-term goal is to be able to coordinate all these three buildings together somehow so you don't have to go out to Olive and we had a long discussion that when uh our ambulance or pumper truck has to go in there they need a a way to they they just can't

back up easily and we need to create or establish a way where they come uh in into the access. Now, we did push them uh in there, but we have a feeling that something's going to happen here and that we would we we put in place that when that does happen, we have an easement agreement on their parcel to do a connection. We didn't make them do the connection because we didn't want to disrupt anyone that wasn't doing anything at the time. Yeah. in there and whether that was the best best bet or not, that was a decision we decided at that time. You're speaking specifically of 9270 the 9306 9270 we acquired an easement when they developed the shops at Price Crossing. We acquired an easement uh from Mr. Yaitz who was the developer of that. So there is a there is a the legal framework that if we get a tenant in here, we could make that request to connect to the shops. Got it. Yeah. So, and again, I I appreciate the discussion. I didn't know where this this is going to go, but I think we're trying to kind of change, you know, what we've done in the past. And then also really, I mean, you guys have been, you know, to tap into, you know, your guys expertise uh and assistance in the process. And as you look at the five-year communication, the other the communications plan, not the five-year plan, um you know, outreach you guys outreach or if you guys are are clients or or know somebody, you know, to have them to talk to us or to talk to them uh in there and make that, you know, start putting things out. And I didn't create a um I didn't create a um a slide on the uh business uh communications plan, but that is in all your packets. Um everybody's been reaching out to

businesses. Right. Right. Yeah. And it's 271, right? Knocking on doors. David's hit hit the first hundred. Well, we can help with providing breakfast locations and uh you know if there if if there is a way that we can help provide an inn or that you can accompany you if you're wanting you know to talk to a business or if you if you have an in with a business that you know you can introduce us to them preferably it'd be great. Um, yeah. With that business communication plan, is there uh like a other than us just kind of sending you an email, hey, I talked to this business, um, is there like a I wouldn't say more formalized process, but perhaps a streamlined process. What I'm thinking about specifically is something that the parks commission just recently put in place and that's when park commissioners visit a park. They just go up onto the Google form and enter in what park they visited and there's a few check boxes to say, you know, like what people were doing in the parks and then to provide whatever feedback, you know, very quick two-minute thing that then Beverly has access to to say, oh, here's some of the feedback that's coming from the parks. Um, and that's is still in its early phases, but um I wonder if something like that might be helpful. Yeah, I think the the communication plan, I think that's one of Kiana's probably top five uh contributions to the city uh in there and it it it it organized those questions of what questions uh to ask in there. It didn't go into the aspects of codification or how we get that together. So we've had discussions here

the commun uh EDC members would just you know in their time or between meetings you know at least venture to meet with one business and then ask these specific questions. I think we haven't gotten to the point to to organize that or how we're collecting that data. we usually talk about it uh and such and then maybe even looking at the format that the parks is doing of creating that electronically uh in there is something we can look into and I I mean Don Don has the software capabilities and yeah form and I I know I've I've done it a couple times filled you know talked to a few people filled out a few forms but it's like again the kind of data you get talking to someone turns into geese sessions sometimes just oh you guys are great it's wonderful it's you know that sort of stuff so you get kind of the gamut difficult to hit checkbox but we can try I mean that I think that's that'd be great if we could do that I think we did come up with like three questions just three questions you could leave it open-ended fill in which we should do it and then we should review it every meeting like pull up the Google doc okay oh yeah you went talk to 314 sports cards David again. Again. Yes. How about that? No, he doesn't have soccer cards right now. Okay. I don't know why that's important to council, but Okay. No, but a a survey or, you know, an electronic form to to capture that is absolutely something we can do with ARGIS. Um, not a problem. Like u there's there's different ways to just do buttons, you know. Uh, but also I know that kind of what Rod's alluding to that it can be very long form, you know, uh, response is better. Yeah. I hit I hit the custom

foam guy and was like, we had a long conversation. Yeah. So, um, conversation with the Yeah. Yeah. Actually, no, I I did. I don't know if they did with me, though. In the grocery store, if I run into a three-hour trip, but putting those questions in, we're only not a problem. An hour and 44 minutes so far. So, it says thank you here. So, that usually means I know that's I hear it. I saw that. Yeah, I like Thank you. All right. Well, good. I think we've I think we've come to some ideas here. Look into the GIS or whatever you call it, your TLA, your threeletter acronym. Um, and uh we'll see what you can come up with late next time. Um, moving right along. Uh meeting minutes, we have none, so we'll skip over that. Um and city reports, city staff reports. Is there anything to report? Just a couple of things. If you guys have any questions on the developments or development activities, let me know. Um I I have a question about the development. I would love to know what's being developed with the development. Okay. So property specifically, the olive crossing. So lot three is is well under its way. Uh the footing foundation is in place. They should be pouring the floors and steel should be coming in uh by next week uh in there. That lot three will contain both the the Paris baguette and the brass tap and I believe there's a smoothie concept that will be one of the interior tenants there. Where are you talking about this? Yeah, that's what's under construction right now. Yeah, that both of those are under construction. No, that's an old Yeah, it's just one. And there now the developer uh had a a benchmark that he was required to meet this year. He went to council uh

in there to get that extended. He had to I believe meet substantial construction uh by the end of the year uh in there and that was not going to happen and asked the commission the council for an extension. The council uh did grant an extension um in there. At the same time, uh there was a some deadlines put on lot three. Um go back in there. That's the one that's under construction. The hotel component has to be submitted uh or initiate commission review by September 1st. And then the office component is uh something that's still kind of up in the air, but he has, I believe, two years to to figure out what he's going to do if the market changes or come up with an alternative. two years from from I believe that was in April. Okay. Because I our last meeting was March 30th, right? Okay. Cuz he because he came and talked to us about changes in the wind, that sort of thing to uh office. Um and um I I've talked with him and um he's saying, "Yeah, things are in the works. I really can't say anything about it which is kind of part of course report developer speak right but um but nothing concrete has come through the city on your end that with regards to which direction it's going to go with the office building correct correct I don't think that there's been a a decision yet uh on whether he's going to come up with an alternative or maintain the status quo I will say this in talking with him and knowing what's going on with the city knowing what's going on with commercial development and office buildings everywhere because of changes with COVID etc. Uh providing him the flexibility is important.

I we'd like to see it done but we have tried to uh redevelop this piece of property since the 1960s. Just make that point. Yes. There are some things I think we're we're getting closer. Um and there I'd be glad to see the hotel up uh if if he sticks to that that schedule, you know, then then by 2027, you know, the hotel will be up and running. Hopefully, we'll have an idea what's happening with the office component and with the part of the like I understand the uh the branding has changed with the hotel. It's still uh part of the Marriott brand, but I think it's a courtyard of a what? Well, it was a it was a duel before. Um um I forget what the other Marriott and um something else window u but um I I I'm not clear, but the parking garage was part and parcel for the hotel and part and parcel for the office. So, that's kind of up in the air, too. So that's a piece of the hotel we don't know about. Correct. Well, we'll find out, you know, by by September, I hope. Uh, that's kind of going to force his hand somewhat by pushing the hotel. Yes. With it'll push the some decisions will be are going to be necessary to get the parking uh aligned. Right. Could I make a request for our next EDC, Don? Could you or Carlos present to the group a summary of the Olivia Village? What's it called? Olia Village. What's that? Olio. Olio. The former Monsanto property. Oh. Oh. I believe it's confirmed. It's going to be a billion dollar development. So, there

was actually a coffee with the mayor. Oh. On it. Our our mayor or their mayor? Yeah. Our mayor did a coffee on their property. Yeah. Oh, well I mean it and it will affect us. Yes, dramatically. And it will affect the Yowitz property, I'm guessing because there's office and hotel and everything that we want going in right there. Nice. So, if you can No, definitely whatever was presented at that. But I don't I don't necessarily think it's bad, though. I didn't say it was bad. I'm saying that I bet that's going to be up before ours gets up. It's It's actually on our YouTube channel. So, you should be able to watch it with the mayor. Okay, we can get that. And actually, one thing I mentioned before, if there are things like coffee with the mayor or um or things that the city is doing that you think may be the the slightest bit interested, like have the EDC members interested. It'd be good to have a just a reminder out there. Yeah. Well, in November, there's a great one for the turkey trot that I encourage you to attend. I ripping presentations. You're going to be on the shirt this year. Yes, you are. You're going to be on the shirt this year. I did send out a list of events um in one of our recent emails. Um I also cover upcoming events um in always cover coffee with the mayor um in in this slide every every time. But uh this our social media and our you know little notifications are the best way. I I I don't want to be the only person that you get your your information from as far as like what's coming up. But when we get it from you, we know it's Uhhuh. Yeah. That's how you knew it was in that email.

That email. Uh but and then and then you know our upcoming events uh our next our next PCDC meeting was cancelled uh for the July 4th holiday. Next coffee with the mayor. I'm not sure what the uh subject for that one in July is. It's um Republic services. Oh, Republic Services. There you go. She's she's in the knowydney. Sydney. Yeah, Cindy Clark um is is our mayor and Mayor Clark has moved the coffee with the mayors to 8:30. So, they are at 8:30 at Five Oaks on Morrison unless they have a special place. Um 8:45. It's not a not a big change, but you know, for people like me, we're 15 minutes like uh and I I don't normally throw uh park stuff on there, but I did see that there's a throwback skate that's really fun, by the way. Yeah. Uh there's a kid skate and an adult skate two different times. It's at Five Oaks on Warson. In the gym. Gym. roller skates. They're bringing in a floor. Oh, Jesus. Really? They're actually No, they're not bringing in a floor, but they are bringing in like roller skating rentals. Oh. Um, so Wow. Special skates. Oh, that sounds Exactly. Though that it does not damage our Exactly. Um, how much fun that is fun. Are you gonna Are you going to bring the element that God saints closed to I I I think to a 10. But uh what? What' you say? I mean there's it's a small, you know, fee to attend. So I'm going. Yeah, it sounds sound sounded pretty fun. Yeah. So do you have to be a resident to come?

No, you know, I think that there's a slightly higher charge if you if you're not a resident. Yeah. Or or it's on membership where if you have a membership then you then it's discount that matter. like just because you know you're a resident or if you have to be a member. Okay. Council liaison report. Yes. Um you're on the spot now for your first official report. Um I just I was going through real quick because there was the question about the timing for the um Olive Crossing development. Um and the question about the uh business What is the word building where office building place of work? Oh no. Yes. Um office building that whether it's going to stay an office building or become something else. Um, a site plan is now supposed to be uh submitted um July 31st, 2026 and that's when he will notify the council on what the plans are. So, so are you saying they completely scrap the office building part of the plan? No. Uhuh. No, he has to notify the council which way he's going to go whether whether it's office building or it's retail. Um he has to notify one way or the other. Okay. Um that was not on our last meeting but just for your information um because we did have to do an extension to the substantial completion date which took

place at the what date was that? not the 24th meeting that we had, but the earlier one in June if you did want to go back and read what that entails. Um, so at the most recent meeting, we updated our or approved the updating of our uh building codes, which is great. So, we're now up at 2021 um by the recommendation of the planning department. Yep. Um and then we finalized and approved the budget which was a long time in coming especially with uh basically three new council members. We did a lot of work sessions teaching us and going over the details of the budget. Um we are in a deficit um and we are looking at um being not in compliance with our reserve policy. And as a result of that, our reserve policy is a five-year long-term thing. Um as a result of that, the council asked that the city manager and the um business director, Mr. man um come back to us with in six months with a plan to get us back into compliance. How far out of compliance are we? So, it's not until five years that we're out of compliance. And it's it's a it's an unusual thing and I don't want to speak too much on it because I'm I I'm still learning very much about how this works. Um so, it's a certain percentage of our reserves that we have to have in reserve 50% of what the total budget is for that year. Um, let me ask you this. Yes. Are we over our budget or are we

under our target? Like are we not generating enough revenue or are we spending too much money right now or both? Yes. Oh, okay. uh revenues changed significantly um as because of enterprise. Is this the increasing that because of Yes. Enterprise used to book all of their fleet sales through somehow and it was like a massive windfall of revenue and then they moved is that the Olive Crossing development has been so slow that we are not seeing the sales tax revenues that we hoping to see because things have not progressed at the rate that was expected. So you're saying like I know a little bit about how the budget works. When you say deficit, everybody's gets kind of crazy, but we're not actually well I don't want to say too much about it, but um sometimes the word deficit with regards to municipal budget is not like a like everybody has, you know, federal deficits on on their mind. It's not the end of the world. But basically you say five years. So it's a projected deficit. So we are our expenditures are higher than our revenues this year. And you have a fund which you're dipping into but it's through our reserves and the reserve it's the the amount of money in the reserves which is please do not quote me on this but it is I think in the area of 6 to 8 million is in our reserves and it's a fiveyear projection if we continue to draw down the reserves at this pace where does it put us in five years now from what I understand from Mr. Manet. I really don't want to get Please talk to him about this. Don't

talk to me about this because again, like I said, still learning. Um, we are an unusual city in that we have a five-year reserve policy. Typically, cities have 10-year reserve policies and at some point the five-year reserve policy was put into place. It's a much more conservative measure. Um the reality is it's in place and when the when we enter a phase like we are now where we are not in compliance with the reserve policy, it triggers a response that the council is now acting on that says we we need to plan um for how how to turn this around. So that's that's where the council is now. Kate, I thought that was very well explained. you did a great job for someone who just joined council. So, well done. Maybe we'll send the recording to Darren and see if he agrees that I explained it well or not. But that is that is good job, my understanding. Um, so yes. So then we also just went through our our capital improvements that scan up until 2035, our capital improvement plan. So, these are long-term plans for things that are um big ticket items. Um and approved those and um I think that was that was about it. Oh, the one thing to point out to you if you have not seen it on social media um is that MoDOT is requesting feedback right now for a small corner on Old Bonum and um Olive. So that curve coming east on down Olive, if you're going to turn into Old Bottom, you know the curve if you the worst curve of all time to repave and it's filled with potholes.

That one it's problematic for a number of reasons and MODOT is wanting to acquire land on that corner. What's very tricky about that corner is that that land belongs to St. Louis City, right? um because of the Stacy Park reservoir. Um regardless, they are taking feedback right now and I encourage you where are they taking this feedback? Because I have some feedback at that thoughtful. Yeah, they have to fix the damn street. Well, there are plans for paving um Olive and it's it's coming. I do not know the timeline on that this year. Carlos says late summer, early all the way to 17. Uh, no. Because up to Taco Bell is where the the asphalt changes the concrete, right? By dealing. Okay. Close enough for me. Yeah. Well, I just there there's didn't want the the wrong impression. Actually, they we that was basically redone. Yeah. During the uh the widening of the Yeah. And you can submit your feedback on mod potholes and pothole data as much as you'd like to on their books. I will do this. I'm doing it. And please, they will call you. I don't want to follow them. Put Rod's number down. So, and I'll find that where that specific feedback site is. I'll look it up. It's all right. But I love that that might have. It's wonderful. Yeah. All right. Cool. Thank you. Then commissioner reports, I guess. What are commission reports? We do say we have that that is reports. Uh we already we're done. Okay. Good with that. If there's nothing more questions, comments, concerns, remember

the August 25th date that would be done next meeting. So the calendar with that. Does that mean we're I move for adjournment. Oh, we're going to vote on this. Second. Oh. Oh, you don't. Yes. Second. Okay. Second. All in favor? I want to go. I I I do declare we are closed you guys. August 25th is our next meeting. We never Thank you. We just time we So then beyond that every other because we skipped June. So now we're just on every other as of now. Well, so and that was