Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I am council member Roblaard, chair of economic development, and we'll go ahead bring this meeting to order. First thing on the agenda is our public comment. If you can play the message, please.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. We have no callers online and we have no speakers in the chambers. So I'll go ahead and move on to item number two, which is our presentation on green business attraction and incentive program overview and associated Thrive Inland SoCal Catalyst Funding Award. And Carlos will be going ahead, and Miranda will be giving that presentation.

Good afternoon, honorable committee. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come and present today. My name is Miranda Evans, deputy director of community and economic development. We were last before you on this very topic in July 2025 with just a dream, and now we are here with that same dream and some money in our pocket to help grow that dream. And so now I'd like to turn it over to Carlos on our team who will give you an overview on our efforts applying for some grant funding and the path forward. I'll turn it over to Carlos.

Good afternoon chair and committee members. My name is Carlos Aguilera, part of the economic development team. Excited as Miranda said that we are bringing to you money today. In July 2025 last year, we spoke about this idea, this concept to apply for a grant that would give us funding for a green revolving loan fund. So we're happy to say today we come from concept into application and then implementation and impact.

Next slide please. So just kind of some program overview. This program is a city of Riverside initiative designed to accelerate clean technology, advanced manufacturing growth. What we've consistently heard from early stage and expanding clean tech firms is that there's a barrier to access flexible affordable capital. Some of these companies want to stay in Riverside but unfortunately the funding attracts them in other places California, so you know they they begin here, they start here but they really wanna continue that growth in the city of Riverside and we wanna continue to see them here.

So the green business attractive and incentive program addresses that gap by providing low cost capital to through the revolving loan fund. In doing so, it reduces barriers to clean technology adoption which is one of our our goals, right, green tech, it expands access to capital in in the in our communities and strengthen Riverside's position in the IE as a and not just the IE but in the state as really that hub for green technology. How it works, these are low interest financing tool, it's designed to attract, support early stage and expanding Green Tech businesses in Riverside. The fund will offer loans ranging from 25 to $100,000 so we're still working on making sure we can understand what the businesses need and what with our funding, what we can provide to best support. Next slide please.

These funds can be used for equipment purchases, scaling operations, hiring local workers and investing in sustainable innovation, so again having that incentive for companies to remain here in the city and also provide them that funding that they need to get to the next step, that next level. More importantly, this is a revolving loan fund. So as loans are repaid, we continue to use that capital to reinvest it for future borrowers. This creates self sustaining model that drives long term creation of jobs, economic growth, and an impact in our community. It's more of a long term investment rather than a one time expenditure of public dollars.

And from a timeline perspective, as you can see on the slides, we secure the funding in 2025. The Thrive grant we've established are working on establishing the fund policies, underwriting, application systems. We're also continuing to seek additional funding. $250,000 is phenomenal, but that's only the beginning and we'll continue to get more funding. We outreach recruitment and loan application review and then we hope to start active lending and incentives with our workforce alignment and reporting in 2027.

Next slide please. So why Riverside? Riverside again is a well positioned to successfully deploy this type of tool. We're we're of course a foreign trade zone which has many benefits to companies. So again, they they're here in Riverside. They wanna stay. They know the benefits. We also have our own public utility of course that utility rate is really important. It's one of the main things the city has relative to other places in the Inland Empire. We have lower operating costs than Los Angeles, Orange County, and we're business friendly.

So we wanna welcome those companies and by being business friendly, we wanna show them that we're creating these tools such as the revolving loan fund for them to stay. So again, being also strategically located in the ports near major inland logistics hubs, those again demonstrate our commitment and why Riverside is the destination to do business and to stay here. Next slide, please. So the economic impact, we're expanding access to capital again for early stage and emerging clean tech manufacturing. It helps a firm stabilize operations, increase capacity which supports local hiring, strengthens the regional workforce pipeline and over time that translates to the creation of long term clean energy aligned jobs and builds the foundation for a more resilient innovative local economy.

Next steps are that staff will monitor loans issued, what jobs are created, we'll use that again that capital reinvested as it's a revolving loan fund and continue to make sure we seek out more funding for the loan. And in closing, our team would like to thank the committee for its support with this concept that was first discussed back in July. The direction it has enabled our staff to pursue, secure this funding. We're now in a position to move from planning to execution and we look forward to continuing the efforts with our committee and and in our city. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, Carlos. I'm looking for any comments. I don't see any comments and no speaker cards in chambers. I'll go ahead and defer to my associate I

think I think you answered the question, but I I just wanna make sure I heard it correctly. So, the funds, since it's low interest, you said will be kind of reinvested back to grow the fund? Or will that sort of cover what we anticipate would be costs associated with the program?

There's the funds themselves, there's an interest rate that they have to pay back. So with that, as those are paid back, we'll be able to continue to issue funding out as the loans are repaid. Of course, the more funding we have, the more we can provide more funds and then the bigger it grows as there is more funding involved.

Yeah, that's great. I support this. Anytime we can help support business and care for the community, sort of thriving areas of interest and help us focus on where we're headed as a city. I think it's great. And it sounds like you're looking to get more money into the pot because at the amount that gets divvied out, we're two and a half to 10 potentially businesses would love to see 50 that we could give money to. And so maybe if I heard you correctly, that interest that we receive will go back into grow the principal. Is that

It'll grow the principal and also for the expenditures such as staff costs. So there's Okay.

So it's kind of a company.

It's kinda yeah. It's kind of both. And again, as mentioned, we would love to have more funding because right now with what we have, we if we provided $25,000, that's already 10 companies right there. So again, we'll have to continue to seek that because in exploring with companies, they've mentioned that they need bigger loan amounts. So again, we'll continue to explore what options are available.

That's great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Council member Hemingway, if I may add, this really is just the initial seed funding. And so we know it's just a drop in the bucket. And as Carlos stated, we would love to grow that bucket. And so whether they're philanthropic sources of funding, also, we've had the conversation with our partner Accelerator for America about tapping into their network, and they're extremely interested about the growth, particularly with GreenTech here in Riverside. And so there investors who are eager to put money behind our vision as well. And so we're exploring every avenue possible to grow this fund. This is just the very beginning, but to be able to have grant funding, we're very excited to move that forward. And I did just wanna clarify. Sorry, Carlos, to to jump up. I don't wanna steal your thunder.

This will be an item taken to the city council to formally accept the grant funding, and so that will be on the agenda coming up.

It's great. Thanks for turning over every rock and you being creative with how we can continue to support business. Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. This is something that we've been trying to work on for a while now. And, Carlos, you joined me up in Silicon Valley with plug and play. We're we're as council member Hemingway mentioned, we are turning over every rock trying to find money and especially capital to bring to this community and and to our residents who are business owners and who are taking that risk of starting a small business and especially a start up in the green tech industry here in our city.

And as we're looking to our peers, we're looking to what are the limiting factors. Capital is always that limiting factor. Every single business like, yeah. Money would be great. And it's like, sorry, the city is not gonna give you some money, but we do have this revolving loan fund and and I think this is a model that we can use for other five areas of excellence that as we're attracting businesses, if we can show that this model works that it is effective at getting that. You know, it doesn't take much for business to stay here. You know? It all takes a little bit of love. Even though, you know, a $100,000 would be half this fund, but that's not a lot of money for a company. But that might be saying the city put in when I had nothing, and that's just gets them to stay here.

You know? And so I think it's a huge return on investment for us. So I'm very happy to support this, and I look forward to it when it comes to council. But thank you. Alright. We'll go ahead and move on on our agenda to the discussion calendar. On item number three, have off-site advertising regulations and policy review pertaining to existing billboards. Go ahead and play the message, please.

Public comment is now open for this item. Available in both English and Spanish. Call (951) 826-8686 and follow the prompts to access the meeting in either language. To request to speak, press 9. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID for both languages can be found on the agenda.

Okay. We're gonna go ahead and have Daniel Palafox. Palafox? Palafox. Palafox. Palafox. Go ahead and give the presentation.

Well, good afternoon honorable chair and committee member Hemingway. It's a pleasure to be before you all. Like I said, Daniel Palafox, associate planner. The item before you this afternoon is a review of the city's regulations pertaining to billboards. So when we're talking about billboards, the technical term in planning and across state laws off-site advertise ments. These these are signs that are promoting products, businesses, or services that are not located on the property where the sign is located. So on the screen before you, we have a few examples of what common billboard types are. So on the bottom left, we have a double sided digital freeway oriented sign. So these signs can be static, meaning that the image isn't moving like the one in the center. And they can also be single sided.

The example on in the middle is located here downtown. It's a double sided static sign. And then on the right is a double sided digital freeway oriented sign. Just a little bit of background of the regulatory framework that are regulating billboards federally at the state level and also here locally. The Federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was drafted and and intended to reduce the negative impacts of outdoor advertising along the federal highway system.

And here in California, the Outdoor Advertising Act implements the Federal Highway Beautification Act. So what this means is anytime you have a billboard sign that's located within 660 feet of a freeway, I know that the slide says six fifty, but it should be six sixty. 660 feet within the freeway, it requires an outdoor advertising permit from Caltrans. And in that, some of those requirements include the billboard sign being located on a parcel that is zoned for commercial or industrial, and also making sure that the billboard is located within a thousand feet of commercial activity, just for example. Billboard signs aren't aren't permitted on classified landscape segments, and these are essentially areas of the freeway that are designated for landscaping.

So areas where you would wanna have your your trees, your your your shrubs, and in in general, just where landscaping is on on on the freeway. So here in the city for a little bit of context, prior to 2005, billboards were a permitted use within the commercial and general industrial zone subject to a conditional use permit. But after 2005, billboards were prohibited in the city in order to address the visual and the aesthetic impacts. But within the billboards ordinance, there is language that allows for the relocation of certain billboards if certain requirements are met through a relocation agreement. And I'll walk you through what some of these relocation agreements are.

So first, in order to be eligible for a billboard relocation, the billboard must have been legally established by Riverside County, and that built that parcel of which the billboard is located on was annexed into the city legally. At the same time, that billboard relocation request must be city initiated. This means that the city must have a cause and and and want to request the billboard relocation, and it can't be an applicant initiated request. The billboard relocation must also be located on the same parcel. And so what this means is if there were wasn't otherwise eligible location for the billboard somewhere else in the city, that would not be possible under the current framework.

As part of the relocation agreement, the billboard must not also have a size increase. It must have an aesthetic improvement to the the property. And also it must match existing lighting of the existing billboard sign. And digital signs are not permitted as part of the current relocation agreement framework. At the same time, the applicant must pair bear the responsibility for the financial costs associated with the relocation of the billboard sign.

For a little bit of context, last year, the city received an unsolicited proposal from a national outdoor advertising company. As it currently stands, given the city's current billboard framework, the proposal is is prohibited from title 19 and the municipal code. And in part, that's because the the city's billboards ordinance did not allow for applicant initiated requests. In order to address proposal, the city would need to pass a zoning code amendment to accommodate the proposal if if accepted. Just for a bit of context of there are currently approximately 75 billboard signs located throughout the city.

Highlighted in the red circles are areas that are designated classified landscape segments, generally along Columbia, the Sycamore Canyon area, and Indiana at the South side of the city. As part of the proposal that was received, the proposal identified five to 10 signs to be relocated. The first five are located along these generally, along these freeway locations along the 215, the 16, the 91. And then there are also proposed just generally the five billboard look billboard locations along the arterial streets. And in exchange for the five freeway oriented signs and the arterial signs, these there would be a replacement of 10 signs located throughout the city.

This is an example of what some of the billboards generally could look like. On the left is a rendering of a digital digital billboard sign showing some signage for the city. And on the right is a ward landmark rendering just highlighting what potential public benefits could be as part of any changes to the billboard ordinance. In order to advance the proposal, like I said, the city would need to amend title 19 to authorize applicant initiated requests subject to a billboard relocation agreement. And as part of those amendments and a part of the the billboard relocation agreement, the city council would be designated as a sole authority for the negotiation of the terms for any relocation agreement.

And also, the city council would be designated the final approving authority for any relocation agreement. These would remove the the barriers that I discussed in the current relocation agreement provisions. And at the same time, staff would coordinate the preparation of a billboard relocation agreement template, essentially outlining what the the terms and the negotiation for any billboard relocation. And then lastly, identifying what any proposed locations would be for any relocated signs along these would be along major freeways, arterial streets, ultimately subject to the direction from the city council. With that said, if the committee direct staff to proceed with the zoning code amendments to address the proposal.

Staff next steps would include taking this item to planning commission tentatively scheduled as directed by the by the committee for February 12, and then to city council for a March. With that said, staff recommends that the economic development committee provide staff with policy direction on potential changes to relocation requirements of existing billboard signs. That concludes my presentation. I am available for any questions or comments.

Okay. Thank you. Go ahead and look for any callers or comments in chambers. No callers. We'll go ahead and move on. And, I'll defer to my colleague. Not for this one. Yep.

Thank you, chair. I hear the word relocated a lot. So just for clarification on my mind, it looks like what we're talking about today is potentially as the city's grown and evolved, maybe there's better locations. And so we're not adding per se, we're just relocating. Is what we'd be approving here is the consideration for relocating?

Correct. Yes. So as drafted and in the proposed text amendments, new billboard signs are they're they're prohibited as is today. All that would be is all it's proposing today is just amending the relocation provisions to make it easier to address the barriers that I discussed about the site location. So billboard new billboards are still prohibited, just allowing for the relocation and cleaning that language up a bit.

Great. Yeah. And of course, I think it makes sense, like I said, as things sort of move and change and evolve when a city continues to grow and develop, rethinking where the right spaces are. And then of course, updating potentially with new modern kind of technology or appearance is sometimes those signs that I've seen even as a kid, they get pretty old and tattered. But anyway, so I think what you've outlined here works for me. And I'll let my colleague, the chair, continue on the conversation. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes. Modernizing our billboards is always a good thing. I hate seeing the old, small, ugly billboards. I think this would be a great opportunity. And, the three added or was it five that are going to the freeways freeway facing that we're adding, I think it was. You know, we we really do have a low amount of billboards in our city as it is, you know, and most of them are on these kinda smaller side streets. We don't have a lot of freeway billboards, and this is not gonna dominate the landscape as you're driving through our city. It's gonna be pretty spread out, which is, I think, is a good thing. And also, you know, the one I have in Ward I have two in Ward 3.

I have the one right there on the freeway. And then also there's one at Magnolia Avenue proposed along Magnolia and Central, which is at the center of the new Midtown area. It's where I think it would be a a great opportunity for local businesses in Midtown to advertise and make themselves known because a lot we hear from a lot of local businesses. We have a pretty strict sign code. You can't cut out flags. You can't do a lot of things to attract people to their business, but a billboard in the area can help bring attention to your local business. So think it's a great thing, I will move this recommendation to proceed and push us forward. Alright. We have two yeses. We'll go ahead and say that is good and confirmed.

Alright. Moving on. We'll move on to communications, which is item number four. Our business excellence series on arts and tourism. And we'll have Desiree go on ahead and give the presentation.

Good afternoon, honorable chair and committee member Hemingway. It's my honor to introduce a new senior project manager we have on our team, Desiree or Desi Masay. And Desi has really been instrumental in leading our area of excellence of arts, culture, and tourism or really what you'll hear about today, the larger quality of life and overall lifestyle that everybody enjoys and experiences in Riverside. Whether you're the CEO of a company, a family, we have something to offer for everyone. And so today for our business excellence series, we really wanted to shine a spotlight on this area of excellence and all of the great things happening. And so with that intro, I will turn it over to Desi.

Good afternoon, chair and council members. My name is Desi Masay, senior project manager for economic development. From an economic development perspective, arts, culture, and tourism are core pillars of Riverside strategy. After all, we are the city of arts and innovation. They drive visitation, support small business and help refine Riverside's identity as a place people want to live, visit and invest in.

These programs directly support hospitality, retail and creative economy jobs while also acting as a catalyst for downtown vitality and regional competitiveness. Simply put, this work creates both economic activity and long term vitality and value for the city. Next slide please. Arts culture and tourism are not just quality of life amenities in Riverside, they are proven economic drivers. In 2025 alone visitor activity generated over $280,000,000 in spending citywide and our signature events contributed more than 88,000,000 in direct visitor spend.

The Festival of Lights continues to anchor as a regional tourism and downtown activity while statewide recognition and strategic investments position Riverside for continued growth. What you'll see today is how these efforts translate into real economic impact for our businesses, workforce, and community. Next slide please. Looking at the broader tourism landscape, 2025 data shows strong momentum for Riverside. The city welcomed nearly 782,000 overnight trips resulting in 2,500,000 visitor nights.

That activity translated into over $280,000,000 in visitor spending benefiting hotels, restaurants, retailers and service businesses throughout our city. This data refines that tourism is not incidental. It is a significant contributor to our local economy. Next slide please. While the Festival of Life is an anchor, Riverside's strengths lies in a diversified portfolio of events.

Across select signature events, Riverside generated more than $88,000,000 in direct visitor spending in 2025 alone. These events collectively attract hundreds and thousands of visitors throughout the year with strong dwell times that drive dining, retail and lodging activity. Next slide please. And I apologize, my slides might be slightly off from what I'm showing today. We'll continue ahead.

Can we move one more slide forward please? Thank you so much. Workforce and labor market snapshot for 2025. The slide highlights the breadth of Riverside's events and individual contributions. Events like anime, Riverside, Dia de los Muertos and the Lunar Festival bring regional audiences and meaningful spending.

Community and mid sized events including Mission and Run, Insect Fair, Night of Art and Innovation consistently activate downtown and neighborhood corridors. Together events support local businesses, create jobs as workforce data here and contribute and reinforce Riverside's reputation as a cultural destination. Next slide please. Thank you. The Festival of Lights continues to be Riverside's most impactful and cultural economic driver.

As of 12/27/2025, this event generated over 428,000 visits with visitors seeing an average of 102. Less than 20% of attendees were local which highlights the festival's strong regional draw particularly from LA and Orange County. From an economic standpoint this level of visitation and dwell time supports downtown businesses and can generate millions in economic impact. Next slide please. I have a few more details but I know my slides are off so please bear with me.

Riverside's culture investments are also being recognized beyond our city. The Arts And Culture District designation as a California Cultural District affirms the strength and impact of our creative ecosystem. In addition, Inland Empire Magazine recently recognized on January 1 that the Riverside Art Museum, the Cheech Marin Center and Victoria Avenue as best scenic drive and best museums. These recognitions strengthen Riverside's brand, increase visibility and support local and continued tourism. Looking ahead, we're excited.

Riverside is focused on building upon the momentum through strategic long term investments like our Downtown Riverside Five Year Strategy, Cinema Cultures Film Festival and our Riverside Alive and Convention Center expansion. Riverside is evolving towards a bold lifestyle approach in economic development, one that elevates arts, culture, tourism and entertainment. While arts and culture and tourism remain a core area of excellence, this evolution reflects exciting future ahead and supports Riverside's vision for how people live, work, and play in our city, enhancing the quality of life throughout those who live and play here. Together, these initiatives position Riverside for sustained economic and cultural growth. And the recommendation is on the screen that the committee receive and file our presentation, which we'll send the updated version to you as well.

Thank you. I'm open for any questions.

Alright. Thank you Desiree. That was a great presentation. We normally don't have a public comment on communications but I wanna go ahead and recognize Jennifer Gamble from the Mission Inn Foundation. You submitted a speaker card, so I'll go ahead and recognize you for three minutes of public comment. You

so much. I'm so sorry to bother you during that then. But just wanted to speak on behalf of this. As you know, we do my name, again, is Jennifer Gamble, I'm the president of the Mission Inn Foundation. So this year, we received a grant from arts and culture.

And we wanted to just share what we were able to accomplish with that money, and a very sincere thank you for it. This year, we hosted six different Riverside Monopoly events where as a community, we came together to play a competitive monopoly of Riverside Monopoly. We played in boards four, three, two, and one, along with the participating in employee appreciation day with the city employees. We looked to be more involved in our entire community building on our relationships, including hosting chamber of commerce, good morning downtown, Frank Miller's Vault, working closely with our airport. Doors open, we had a tragic endings tour that raised money to support our Safe in Arms Foundation for the police department.

Arts and culture supported by offering several activities, local nonprofits, including Riverside Historical Society, California State Historic Citrus Park, Churches, Miracle on Main, Body of Freedom workshops, hands on history event this year supported high school students that English was a second language learning research, including getting their own library card. Along with conducting city hall tours topping our impressive record, we hosted Jackson Elementary in this very room with a 100 students and their chaperones. We currently have 13 tours that showcase our amazing community, including history on the rocks that brings together business and local tourism as we travel to one of five different downtown restaurants, hearing stories of our past, ending with a final stop at the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa. We also attended some council pop up events where we made crafts that told the story of the rain cross symbol, stained glass art, and beautiful butterfly activities. We supported our city's community to becoming a Blue Zone by launching over 6,700 runners in our Mission Inn Run for the forty eighth year.

We did not we did all this, and we found our new home located at 3598 Main Street. We have also honored our community in offering a free museum open to the public for over fifty years. We are looking forward to another wonderful year where the foundation will be celebrating fifty years with our community and just wanna sincere thank you for supporting us in that and allowing us to be a part of our community. It has been a pleasure. And, just wanted to tell you how much arts and culture mean to us. Thank you.

Alright, thank you for that. And, I really do appreciate the work you guys do because you guys are very much part of the arts and tourism in our community. With that, I'll go ahead and defer to my colleague.

Well, it's just good to know which wards you're afraid of for Riversideopoly because we will you know, I'm I'm kind of a big deal. I think I could, you know, do some damage with that game. But thank you. The it's it's good to hear where the synergy is, where we're moving, all the amazing places and events going on. You know, I always tell folks, you should always be able to find something to do in Riverside because there's just stuff happening all the time. And so, thanks for highlighting that. Thanks for leaning into it and continuing to support it. And our partners that also, you know, continue to do the good work. So, that's all.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you. Yes, there's a reason why number five of our key pillars is arson tourism because it is a key to our city. And I think that every city needs a complete holistic picture. And arson tourism is, like I said, very much quality of life, but also economic development. And I think we're really leaning into the equa quality of life and the arson tourism here with some projects that are coming up. And I'm very, very excited about that. Bring because we always talk about Riverside as a place you drive through, but now it'll be a place that you stay. Yep. And so I'm very, very excited about that. Alright. Moving on on our agenda. We'll go ahead and move on to number five, red tape to red carpet awards, and we'll have Miranda Evans give that presentation.

This is a fun one. Okay. Committee, we are back, and we are so excited to be starting off a wonderful 2026 together. And in late November, we celebrated the Red Tape to Red Carpet Awards, which is really important for us on team Riverside because every business we speak to, we tell them, when you come to the city of Riverside, we roll out the red carpet for you and we cut the red tape. So late November, we celebrated these awards ceremony.

We missed you dearly in December. We did not have a meeting. And so in January now is our first opportunity to come and report back some great news. So first, we were extremely ecstatic. Our very own mayor, Patricia Lock Dawson, received the award from the Inland Empire Economic Partnership at this award ceremony for leadership in public service.

And so she was honored on behalf of the entire region. Region. And for our city team, it is my pleasure today to be able to present to the committee some great awards. We were able to not take home, but leave home because the awards ceremony were hosted here. And so today, I'm excited to present to you we won for the best city and chamber collaboration for our Riverside Business Hub.

So this really is a comprehensive one stop shop of business resources. So that's where now we have our first comprehensive business resource guide where that lives and entrepreneurs can access that for free. Our amazing partners at the chamber are fantastic partners with the small business development center and the women's business center, and we do not want those resources to be the best kept secret in Riverside. We are doing everything we can to shine a spotlight on those resources because they're valued partners. So very proud of this award and to bring that and present that to you.

And then we were also awarded today, I have those other awards to share. There's so many that are falling. Honorable mention, so our best business retention and expansion program. So that's something new that I'm very proud of my team for their efforts in launching last year. We call it the Riverside Initiative Sustaining Entrepreneurs or RISE.

And so this year, we have a goal, our road to 100. We will be doing 100 business visits, and we need your help. So we will be sharing every business we go to in ward as part of rising because we say Riverside is a community worth rising for. So very excited we have that program stood up, so we're making sure we're giving resources and attention to the current businesses that we have. Excuse me.

We also won honorable mention for the best city planning initiative, and that was for the Farmhouse Collective, revitalizing Riverside through historic preservation entrepreneurial innovation. So congratulations on that. Extremely proud to have Farmhouse Collective in our community as that contributes as we were just speaking to our amazing Riverside lifestyle. And last but certainly not least, we also received the award for honorable mention for the best sustainable and green development program as we're really working to build our green tech hub here in Riverside, not just for the region, not just for the state, but for the world. That's something we're very proud of.

So on behalf of the entire team, it's my pleasure to present these to you and to celebrate those wins together.

Alright. Thank you for that report, and congratulations on becoming ACE certified. The email came in while we were sitting here. And with Microsoft three sixty five being weird, I cannot respond and say congratulations. So congratulations, but I think that also ties into the reports of, what we've been doing here in economic development and how much focus has become to our city. And, it really makes a difference. When you are aggressive when it comes to economic development, you see the tangible effects of that very quickly. And that is community betterment. It's not just simply dollars coming to our community. It's paying for roads.

It's paying for parks. It's paying for all the things you I always hear from people. I don't like the stores here. I want better stores. And so they're like, okay. We're gonna do that. We're gonna go get the better stores. We're gonna bring the jobs that will help people pay for those better stores. And so, congratulations and I'll I'll go ahead and defer to my colleague.

That's pretty good multi tasking you can do. I like that. And I think the taglines there are great from, you know, turning red red tape into red carpet. I mean, it's Riverside, not a city you drive through. It's when you stay. I mean, I think we should just put those up everywhere and we can be done for for the day. No, thank you.

It's our commercial.

Yes. This is I think as the the chair was noting, this is these awards and these things that are happening, it's because of consistent good work. And, it's just amazing to see it all come to fruition and get the recognition here in the city of Riverside. And what just came in at 03:00, I saw it just before my iPad died. But congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Your support means the world to us, and we are partners. And none of us can do this work alone, which is why I love economic development so dearly. And extremely proud of our team because it's a team effort.

That's amazing. Alright. Thank you, Miranda. We'll go ahead and move on to item number six, legislative update, which we have no updates, and we'll move on to item number seven, items for future economic development committee consideration. Alright. I do have an item that I'd like to bring. I've brought before. It's sitting on the calendar right now for a preferential hiring for our college students. Alright. Sorry. Yeah. Preferential hiring for college students in Riverside. We asked for it before. It's been kinda sitting there on the calendar to be brought to EDC. I would like to go ahead and get an update on that and bring it to EDC when we can.

Alright. Okay. Alright. We'll go ahead and close the meeting at 03:39. Thank you.