Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. I call the November 12 planning commission meeting to order at 06:03PM. Can I get a roll call, please?

Here. Ron Heiberlein? Here. Matt Constantine? Here. Andrew Carr? Janis Emilova? Here. And Jennifer Willard?

Just in time. Here. Thank you. Right on. Thank you.

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Hopefully, I think we might have a little feedback on the audio, so hopefully it's okay. Okay. So moving forward to citizen input. So this is the time that citizens have the opportunity to address the planning commission regarding any item that is not already scheduled for a formal public hearing or work session tonight.

Therefore, if any member of the audience either here in City Hall or via Zoom would like to speak about any other matter of concern, please raise your hand or send a message to the recorder using the Zoom chat function so that we may hear from you now. If you have not already, please fill out a testimony card and give it to the clerk. Please also state your name and address for the record or state that your address is as provided on the testimony card. So I'm not seeing anybody in the audience in the room, and I just wanna ask our team.

Do we have any I do not have any attendees currently on Zoom.

Okay. Seeing none. Then we're gonna move over, to the the next agenda item which is the consideration of the October planning committee, commission meeting minutes, as previously distributed. Are there any corrections to either sets of the minutes?

Yeah. I had a small correction to, my statement in the meeting minutes for our planning session. It's it was recorded that I made a note that, it was about PGE's vote, and I was actually talking about citizens' vote, not PGE's vote. Yeah. Yes. Which meeting? Planning commission meeting. Yeah. Page six of that, of those meeting notes. So the one on the eighth? The one Yeah. So not the join session.

I'm just giving the team a chance to find it.

So the reference was PGE voted, but it was supposed to could you Yeah.

The more for more context, it was a it was piggybacking on on a comment that regarding, like, kinda locus of control over outcomes, and my comment was about that citizens have that kind of control by ways of voting. Okay. Great. Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you. Are there any other edits to the minutes? Okay. So, would you mind making a motion to, amend and then adopt the minutes just as as you have asked. I make a motion

to amend and adopt the minutes

as I've asked. Perfect. Do I have a second?

Second.

Perfect. And then all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. And none opposed. Cool. Perfect. Thank you for flagging that. Okay.

We're going to move on to our work session for tonight, which is on the economic opportunities analysis and the economic development strategy. And so this work session session is a chance for the planning commission to gain additional understanding of and provide guidance on ongoing legislative projects prior to a public hearing. So as time permits, we'll allow for public comment on the topic after staff have presented, the report, for the commission's purpose of continuing to understand the project. It should be noted that this is not a public hearing, and any participants are encouraged to also participate in future public hearings. So I'll go ahead and ask the city team and, yeah, guests to present, the information. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Nicole Underwood with Echo Northwest. I've got Beth Goodman, online. She's joining from Echo Northwest as well. And then, obviously, Cindy and Matt are here as well from the city. So we're here tonight to get your input on two key work products from the Wilsonville Industrial Land Readiness Work, the EOA, and the economic development strategy. So the economic opportunity analysis or EOA, I'm gonna call it that probably all night. So so, sorry.

I'm not used to managing my own PowerPoint. There we go. By way of background on this project, the industrial land readiness project has two tracks, one focused on Basalt Creek, which you all have had work sessions on before, as well as a citywide track. So in the July work session, we came to you with some preliminary citywide findings, including the buildable lands inventory and employment forecast. And so tonight, we're gonna recap the EO EOA conclusions and spend the rest of our time really working through the economic development strategy.

So as you can see here, we're nearing the end of this project. We have completed the engagement and the technical analysis. This is our second time coming to planning commission, and we'll also go to city council in December with hearings, hearings scheduled for the 2026. Alright. So, like I said, we're focused on the EOA.

I'm gonna start with that, and then I'm gonna pause for your input, and then we'll move on to the economic development strategy. So back in July, we presented on the buildable lands inventory and economic inventory, and we asked the planning commission for feedback on which employment growth rate we should use. The commission recommended using the Oregon employment department's regional growth forecast. City council agreed, and that's the methodology we used. And so using that forecast, Wilsonville is expected to add about 6,100 jobs, by 2046.

This translates to a need for roughly 320 acres of industrial land and a 110 acres of commercial land. And so the main takeaways from the EOA are listed here. Wilsonville has sufficient land for, industrial growth, but unlocking it is gonna take a focused effort. Near term development is limited by challenges like small parcel sizes, fragmented ownership, and lack of infrastructure or, urban level infrastructure in key areas like Basalt Creek. On the commercial side, vacant land is limited, but you have substantial redevelopment potential, especially in places like Town Center.

There are also several large vacant buildings including the former Albertsons, Regal Cinema, and Fry's Electronics that present near term opportunities for productive reuse. So before we shift to the economic development strategy, I do just wanna pause here and see if commission has any question or feedback about the EOA or if there are any specific areas that need clarification.

Thank you. I'm gonna look over here to see if there's any questions.

Bring it on.

Gotta have one. Okay. So in the buildable employment land, there's approximately 2,000 acres of developed industrial land. What is there a percentage that could be provided to identify how much of that land is underdeveloped? So I because I know one of the talk, one of the discussions around, you know, the Basalt Creek area, the Coffee Creek area is that it doesn't have the infrastructure set up yet.

So there's a lot of cost associated with that. But if we have underdeveloped industrial land available within the city limits already, then you don't have that same constraint. So I was curious to see if there's any significant amount. I know there's some sitting out there, but I don't know how much.

I mean, I think that this is partially getting at partially vacant and how we we did that analysis. But I'm gonna tag Beth in because I can't quite see it up on my screen, and this is why she's here.

That is true. I'm here to help you answer these kind of questions. And searching through the document for that information, I will say when you think about underdeveloped land, some of it you can think about what we've classified as partially vacant land. So that's land that has some development on it where you could reasonably see more development on it. In the partially vacant land, we really focus on on land that is above above five acres generally or sorry.

Between two and five acres. So about a 130 of your 308 acres of buildable land for industrial is is partially vacant. And that's on page 100 of your packet, exhibit 36. That answers part of your question. I think the other part of your question is beyond industrial land that is that has space on it for more development to happen, is there more infill potential? Is there more higher and better use of that industrial land? And I would say that some lands have that. It's not quantified though.

Okay.

So, and that's hard to quantify because it would be on a site by site basis and depends on how the land is being used. I think some of the anecdotes that Nicole could probably tell you from Basalt Creek about how some of that land has been underutilized aside from the buildable lands inventory are probably some of the better information that you have.

Okay. Thank you. And there's there are select properties, but I wouldn't say there's a general trend of underdevelopment. But, I mean, I can think of, like, the Peyton Building, for example, which fronts I 5. It used to be the Hollywood video headquarters before that Payless. Has a massive parking field. There were, at one point, a thousand employees in that building. That could accommodate that parking field could probably accommodate another building, but we consider it, for all intents and purposes, fully developed. So that's that sort of unquantifiable dimension to the question.

Yeah. And those were the types of properties. The Mentor Graphics campus, you know, being another example of of we probably consider it fully developed, but there's space available that could be utilized in a different way. So okay. Yeah. Appreciate that.

And, of course, the answer is pretty different on commercial land where you've

got a lot more that's underutilized, I would say. Other

questions for staff?

Okay. Saying none, I think you can keep going.

Awesome.

Thank you. So we'll move on to the economic development strategy. And so as we move through this ten year strategy, I just want you to keep these questions in mind. We're gonna revisit them at the end for discussion, but the key questions we're really focused on tonight are are the desired economic outcomes the right ones to focus on in the strategy? Does the strategy include the right mix of actions to address challenges and achieve those outcomes, and are there any missing?

And then given limited resources, should any actions be elevated or deprioritized? Okay. So we started this process by first identifying six desired outcomes that define long term economic success for Wilsonville over the next ten years. I'm gonna go ahead and read them, so we're all aligned. Basalt Creek and Coffee Creek show considerable momentum building out with high quality, high value development, and hosting major regional employers.

Town Center is redeveloping with active retail housing and civic spaces. Zoning and infrastructure investments balance the need of target industries and residents supporting both economic growth and community livability. Retail and restaurant offerings are expanded with more locally owned and experience oriented businesses. Employment opportunities and wages have increased, particularly in high value sectors. And then Wilsonville is recognized regionally for advanced industrial employment, quality of life, and high caliber customer service.

So these are the desired outcomes we're looking to achieve, with the actions we put in the strategy. So as a part of this process, we conducted engagement. We had a technical advisory committee that consisted of regional economic development partners. We also had interviews with small business owners, developers, and property owners, and we heard some consistent themes. So we heard that employers are struggling to find skilled workers, and to upscale existing staff, especially with some of the disruptions around AI.

There's concern around that. There's a limited availability of developed space and undeveloped land, which is restricting opportunities for new and growing business. So this directly feeds into that third bullet, which is around the high cost. So with limited space available, the rents are very high and this is creating barriers for small businesses trying to start and expand. There's we also heard about a retail gap, so many residents and workers in Wilsonville leave Wilsonville for goods and services that they can't find locally.

And then we heard about the, that businesses are looking for stronger support from the city and whether that's navigating re regulations, accessing resources, and and really finding a path to yes. So from the engagement and technical work, we identified six key focus areas. Each of these areas represents a point of leverage where the city can make progress, through investment policy and partnership. The strategy is built around these areas with specific actions tied to each one, which we'll go over next. But as we go over the actions, I just wanna mention that we've outlined whether they can be done with current resources or whether they would need new ones, so resources being funding more additional staff capacity.

And then we've grouped actions into near term, which would be doable really within that one to five year time frame and longer term actions, so six to ten, and that really aligns with whether they would need additional capacity or not. So focus area one is really about industrial land readiness. They've there are five actions here, most of which can begin in the near term with existing staff and resources. The first action is to launch a land aggregation and resale program in Coffee Creek. So you the city would use urban renewal, to assemble parcels from willing sellers and shape them into market ready sites, and then, there would be reimbursement from Business Oregon's regionally significant industrial site program for any of the gap that that the city would see from reselling those properties.

This concept has already been introduced to council and received some early positive feedback. The second action is a is a feasibility study for an urban renewal area in Basalt Creek. That could mean expanding the Coffee Creek urban renewal area or establishing a new one for Basalt Creek, this builds on some work that I think the city is already work undertaking. The third action is really about working with Washington County to address the approval of contractor establishments, are not in line with the Basalt Creek vision for the area. And the fourth action is to evaluate and design a toolkit for, I'm sorry, financial and policy tools for overcoming infrastructure barriers.

So this could be things like local improvement districts, public cost sharing, and developer agreements, or external grants. And so this is something that you could start right now with existing resources, and this could be expanded as additional financial sources become available. And then finally, the fifth action is to promote the city's most development ready industrial sites, and so promotion could definitely start earlier, but it would be more effective once you have some of these kind of land aggregation or financial tools in place. And so then moving on to focus area two, this is really about the fact that the city has limited funds to support economic development outside of the Coffee Creek urban renewal area. And so the this strategy proposes establishing a dedicated revenue source to support commercial and mixed use redevelopment, particularly in town center.

That could include evaluating tools like a town center urban renewal area, business improvement districts, or other mechanisms that can help fund infrastructure amenities and redevelopment efforts. Actions one point two and one point four that we just looked at also, you know, really address this focus area. So focus area three is about addressing the the limited supply of commercial land by focusing on reuse really focusing on reuse and redevelopment. There's also an action here around, considering expansion of allowable nonretail uses in select industrial areas to meet some of that commercial need. Action 3.2 is about coordinating with other departments on town center and tourism related priorities.

And then 3.3, which would require new resources, is about catalyzing redevelopment of key sites and town center. So this action will likely take longer because it would require that new funding source, which could be a funding source from action 2.1. And so moving on to focus area four. This is about enhancing Wilsonville's unique retail and dining options, which was a common theme we heard in engagement. And, I do wanna note that a lot some of these actions you'll see align with the actions in your tourism development strategy and and town center plan.

That's intentional rather than creating more and additional work. We really wanted to bring in some of the work that the city's already done. So four point four four point one recommends offering targeted incentives in town center to attract small locally owned businesses. This could include things like grants, reduced fees, tenant improvement assistance. The city could begin this work now using existing resources and expand it expand it if a new funding source becomes available.

And then four point two and four point three are more more specific. Four point two looks at creating a food incubation program in town center, and four point three is about exploring affordable commercial space models and potential partnerships. So both of these could be explored with current resources, but implementation would likely require a new funding source or establishing partnerships. And then finally, 4.4 is about recruiting unique restaurants and shops to town center. So this is a a longer term effort.

A successful recruitment would likely depend on having some of those incentive tools in place to be able to offer. So we've got two focus areas on this slide. We'll start with focus area five, which is really about workforce. And the key action here is for the city to take an active role in shaping regional workforce efforts. This is about convening collaboration, not about the city establishing a new workforce program, but really working with partners.

And so this means working with employers, schools, and workforce development organizations to make sure that Wilsonville's needs are reflected in regional programs and partnerships. Focus area six is about supporting small businesses. So one action here is about strengthening city communication and supports for businesses. This could include acting as a resource, connector, and where appropriate making city processes easier to navigate. Staff does a lot of this today.

Some of this is just a continuation of that, but how much, that this might be scaled or focused on is really depending on council priorities. And then the last action we've got listed here is about offering small business grants. For example, for energy efficiency or for step facade improvements, This one would require an additional funding source as well, which could be from some of those ones that we discussed previously. And so that gets us back to these questions and the discussion portion portion. So just as a reminder, you know, we'd like to know are these the right desired outcomes that we should be focusing on?

Is this the right mix of actions? Are we missing anything? And, given the limited resources, should anything, be elevated or deprioritized?

Awesome. Thank you. Do we wanna start with any clarifying questions? Or if also, if you have any thoughts and wanna dive right in, feel free. Yeah, commissioner, send it over.

I have a question in terms of just to educate me how it works because a lot of this like expansion and growth that we want is I think coming from the OERs, from the state wanting us to have land ready for commercial development, increasing tax base and all that. How how much of it is because some of it, you know, is going to require funding sources. I hear that throughout this presentation. How much of it would be coming from the state instead of, you know, the people of Wilsonville?

So this is not a required strategy as some of the other, like, as like, the housing production strategy was required by the state. This one is not, unless I'm incorrect. Industrial or commercial.

I don't None of that is required by the state. It this is only, like, the city of Wilsonville wanting to grow. Yeah. Beth,

do you have any response to that? Or Matt, you've got you've got your hand up.

Well, I mean, so we are required by state law to maintain a 20 inventory of buildable land for both employment and residential. Residential, right, twenty year Mhmm. Okay. Outside my realm of expertise. So there is that component. And in order to maintain that inventory, that's kind of the purpose of an EOA is to take a look at what that inventory is and what that twenty year horizon looks like. So there is a state mandated dimension to this. That said, we initiated this EOA and economic development strategy development process sort of because it made sense at this point in time, not because we're up against some shot clock that the state has mandated. Is that helpful?

Yeah. I guess I'm curious, is there any funding coming from the state as you run these things in peril, the housing strategy and the employment strategy, right? Or is it all upon the city to figure out? So

the I mean, for the industrial, I know that the the REESIS program, that is through Business Oregon. So that's funding that's available in that respect. As far as some of the other elements, Beth, do you do you know what's going on at the state level?

Well, I'll I'll say when you talk about infrastructure, sometimes that's more likely to be state funded. The actions that we've got in here are really geared towards what does Wilson Bill want to do. And I'm they aren't geared towards how do we need some state mandate. In terms of paying for it, some of the bigger pieces are really going to be about infrastructure. But then you've got some other pieces that are are more local, addressing local desires such as wider range of commercial uses.

So more restaurants and commercial businesses that are local to Wilsonville. And some of that funding might come regionally, probably not much from the state from that dimension unless there's a special program. Matt, I suspect you're itching

to answer the question also.

Sure. So, certainly, there's a possibility, however remote, that the city council would commit general fund dollars to some of these efforts. But because those dollars are in high demand, you know, that that's not something we would probably count on. The other piece that was mentioned a couple times here within the context of both Town Center and Basalt Creek is urban renewal. And I don't know how steep this group is in tax increment finance.

Probably that's a separate tutorial for another time. But that is not a it doesn't require the city's general fund. It's a I would call it a reallocation of existing tax revenues and future tax revenues. And so it's not it's an indirect I'm trying to find the right words here because it is a very what? I'm sorry, Beth?

It's a way to grow the pie bigger of of revenues.

Right. Yes. So it's a part it's a way to take sort of a a slice of the existing pie in order to grow the pie, if that makes sense.

Capital investment, like, where you'll be financing it with the hope that it'll bring more income in the future to kinda cover that?

Essentially. Yes. Okay. And and then as far as infrastructure construction goes, generally, this is what we collect system development charges for. You know, at the time of new development or redevelopment or a change of use that is greater in intensity than the previous use within a property or building, the city charges system development charges for water, sewer, parks, transportation, streets.

And those charges to to to development is what gets put into special SDC funds in order to build new roads, new water lines, new sewer lines. And and that's not an expense to taxpayers. That's an expense to development at the time of development application.

That's helpful. That's helpful. Thank you. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. So it isn't these are these are not expenses that would be somehow falling to the general Wilsonville taxpayer. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

Other questions? You're gonna wait. I know there's a lot

to I'm ready.

Let's do it. Yeah. Go for it.

K. Thank you.

Can you go to the slide that shows the six desired outcomes, please?

There is a chance that I can. Let's see. There we go. Okay. Hang on a sec. There you go.

Okay. Yeah. This this one will work for me. How are we defining major regional employers?

It's a good that's a really good question.

Yeah. I don't know that we have a working definition of that necessarily

because I'm not sure that I care that they're a major regional employer. I think it's important that they are a size appropriate for the development in our area to make a meaningful difference. I don't know how to put that into better words, but I don't know if major regional employer means anything. I mean, you have 10 smaller employers that net the same result as as a major regional employer, do we care?

Yeah. I think that's a really good point.

Yeah.

I I don't know that we do necessarily. I think your point is well made that if you have 10 employers employing 20 people versus a 200 employee establishment, what's the difference? And I think that there's some validity to that argument for sure. Larger employers tend to, as a general trend, have better wages, better benefits, all of those kinds of things. But other than that, I can't think of any real critical difference as you're pointing out. So Yeah. That's certainly something that could be wordsmith to provide sort of an equal look at businesses of all sizes.

Yeah. Okay. And then the third one, was it intentional that we identified the business side before the resident side? And the reason why I asked that is the order of things matter and I could see there being a benefit of putting the residents of Wilsonville first in the statement.

I I will say it was not necessarily intentional other than the fact that this is an economic development strategy. So Yeah. Focused on economic development first, but I can understand why we would wanna put residents first, and I do not have a

I don't I don't have a problem with that.

Something to think about.

Yeah.

I'm not saying it has to happen, it's just something that I could see as a potential benefit. Okay, now the actions. So one of the questions was, you know, we wanna prioritize or deprioritize any. Are the actions numbered by the order of importance? Was there some sorting of them done to say, hey, this 4.1 is is the thing we think is the most important?

They were not ordered by importance so much as ordered by the you'll notice that, like, 4.1 can be started now, whereas the later ones are the ones that require additional resources. So that's how they were ordered. It wasn't necessarily an importance. I think part of the the reason we're coming to planning commission and city council is to understand what your priorities are. So I don't wanna input Okay. Our our own priorities on that. Yeah. 4.1? Sure. Sure.

But I believe there's a sequence proposal, right, of how they're implemented in in the plan?

Yeah. So right now it says existing resources and new resources, but that really does align with the sequencing. So 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 could all at least the exploration and starting those could start now. How far you get along those, the implementation may require additional resources, and so that piece would come later. So those are a little less discrete. Some of the other ones are much more. But, yeah, I think the exploration now.

Nicole, I'd also say that, you know, four point two and four point three could also be said to be sub bullets to 4.1.

They could. I was going back and forth on that. It just seemed like 4.1 could be a broader action that applied to more businesses whereas 4.2 is really more targeted towards that food cart program and then the affordable commercial space.

Okay. Three point one, can you go back a slide? How does this work right now? Because I know that we have commercial uses in select industrial areas already. How has that been implemented so far? We get a waiver? How does the how does the developer get approval to put a CrossFit gym in a industrial area? I'm assuming we have some of this already. Or is are those all in commercial areas?

So the restriction is where in industrial areas they're limited to 5,000 square feet within a building or 20,000 square feet within multiple buildings on a site. And that includes generally like indoor, outdoor, all the retail function of that particular business is limited to that 5,000 square feet.

Okay. Yeah, I think of all the actions this is the one that maybe I'm the most concerned about and just in terms of the industrial areas are meant to be the industrial areas and given that we have a lot of underutilized commercial land the idea of allowing more commercial use in industrial area because maybe it's easier because it's a big building and it's easy to partition off a section for commercial use. I'm not sure. I just want to make sure that we're careful with that idea. I don't think I'm a 100% against it.

I'm just concerned that you could go too far and then you take away that industrial land forever because now you've got it being utilized for commercial use. And so for the next twenty years, it's just gonna be that way. So that's something I'm concerned about there. Don't know if I wanna take it off completely.

One note about that, and I understand your concern. It is a valid concern having watched some cities turn all of their industrial land to commercial uses. It's really important that we're talking about non retail uses. So sometimes the line between light industrial and we'll call it heavy commercial is a pretty blurry line. And so I think we're we're talking about things that are more flex uses.

Can you give some examples, Beth, of of what that would be? So

architects, they often like to locate in kinda old industrial spaces that that that aren't, you know, class a office space. So it's businesses that that are doing something that is not necessarily manufacturing and is not quite traditional office. So we're not we're not talking about, you know, a grocery store or something like that or even a hair salon. I think we're talking about other things that are employment uses that are happy enough to locate in industrial areas, maybe where where space is less expensive. Is that helpful enough, or do you need another example?

Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm looking in in the section and it talks about commercial recreation, gyms, climbing facilities, entertainment venues, and offices or co working spaces that aren't directly tied to an industrial operation.

And maybe the idea there is to limit that more to to the type of employment that that you think would be more helpful to see in industrial areas or less threatening of industrial areas.

Yeah. I I mean, the the commercial recreation side, I understand the the benefit of it, but I also understand that they aren't high wage jobs, they aren't large employers. We're not getting many of the benefits that we're looking for from our industrial land by allowing those uses. So is it really something we want to focus on?

I take that feedback and we will bring that to planning commission and I think that we'll definitely consider that as well.

Cool. The desired outcomes overall, I'm I'm happy with them and you got the rest of my feedback. Thank you.

Thanks. I appreciate the focus areas. I like those and I like how the actions are tethered directly towards those focus areas. It seems to make logical sense and I think you're getting creative. Like, in this last one on the expansion of allowable non retail use, it says consider. So it is a broad term, but I I think this is helpful. Thank you.

I had a couple thoughts on the yeah. On the actions. I don't know if there was any discussion or if there's maybe interest from the commission on adding an action just around and maybe it ties to the issue four of lack of unique retail and dining experiences. Maybe just a support on how do we support, like, minority owned businesses or an emphasis on how do we bring in, you know, folks who have different identities and bring you know, that can bring a unique kind of opportunities to the to the city. So that's something that I'm interested in in potentially adding. Maybe it's maybe it's an action or maybe it's just something to to be mindful of, I guess.

Or maybe I'm thinking it lives within some of these actions as a an area for the city to focus or I mean, it could could be an action. I haven't fully thought it through. But I like, when you said that, I immediately was thinking, like, oh, this could be part of the implementation of that.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Somewhere somewhere in there. Yeah.

I'm wondering if it would maybe just be changing or adding language in 4.4 to be more explicit around, you know, diverse.

Because four point four recruit unique restaurants and shops to town center.

Yeah. And I think what you're trying to do is is is identify a couple of areas that would be unique.

Yeah. Well and actually that brings me to one of the questions I had on four point four specifically. It so it calls out town center. Mhmm. Why just town center?

This is one of the ones that was pulled from your town center plan in support of the town center plan. Okay. And so that is where you're also most likely to have additional funding if an urban if an urban renewal area were to function, that would be a place for it. Okay.

Yeah. Somewhere in there maybe just for Seth to think about opportunity to include more of that language.

Yeah. And I mean, I don't mean to overcomplicate this. I like what you're saying, or at least I understand what you're saying. I wonder if there's a question for our legal department about how you execute that without it being preferential in some way Okay. In a discriminatory manner. I I think it can be done. It just has to be done carefully.

Carefully. Yeah. Yeah. Makes Makes sense. Sense. Okay.

See a couple comments. Yeah. Commissioner Simonova and then Lily. I was curious on do we have data on what kind of unique retail experiences or dining experiences that people are traveling to other places for, like, to have more concrete information or it's just very general?

So some of this is this came up in some of interviews. It's also some stuff that I saw in your town center plan tourism development strategy. I don't know that I have an exact answer of what they're they're leaving for, but I can tell you that people have said, like, we just don't have the right we don't have enough restaurants. We don't they're they're chains, you know, and I don't always wanna go to a chain. So that's something that came up in in a couple of the interviews. But I don't have specifics. I am curious if in the Town Center plan, they call out some specifics.

Well, mean, as far as this exercise goes, definitely heard food carts as a recurring theme and so you see that reflected here. But as far as what is it that people are leaving for, I imagine each of you could probably say what you're leaving for, and it probably aligns pretty well with the general population.

It'd be nice to have, like, more concrete goals, I guess, within there so we can specifically say that these are the things we're looking to, you know, develop in our future town center to make sure that the public is aligned on that too or they can provide feedback otherwise.

Yeah. I think 4.4 is stated in pretty broad terms, but certainly as we got if we got closer to a point where we were gonna stand up a program to accomplish this goal, we would be coming back probably I don't know if it would be planning commission, but certainly city council and perhaps other committees and commissions of the city to tailor that program to what the community wants. Mhmm. So this is broad, but we would Yeah. Fine tune it at implementation.

That would be nice to hear what the community wants because it might spark somebody to start that unique opportunity.

Go for it. So I've been out for a couple of months of catching up, so forgive me on this.

But one of the things that struck me as I was as I was reading through this, preparing was, we you talk a lot about recruiting or attracting, but we're seeing some of our beloved local businesses go out of business today. And so is there room for any supports in this economic plan now for existing businesses so we don't see our favorite restaurants struggle or our favorite retail places struggle, which we don't

have a lot of that.

Yeah. And I don't know if I how I communicated it, but four point one, four point two, four point three, like, could be local supporting. Like, this is this doesn't necessarily have to be outside areas. I mean Okay. Some of the things that we heard is that your local businesses are going out of business because they can't afford the rent. Like, it's Yeah. It's so expensive. And so when you think about exploring affordable commercial space models, that could be for people here that already like, that have a business idea and want to to grow or or already established here. Like, those kind of things could support those local businesses as well. And so if if that's not clear in the strategy, I'll make sure to clarify the language. And,

you know, when when they can't find qualified talent, qualified workers, You know, I don't just I know there's resources available out there. Like, there's a vocational rehab program through the county. Like, do but many businesses may not be aware of that, and it's so understaffed, and it's a tiny like, is that something that the city could put to connect businesses to resources that may not be city resources but other resources?

Yes. That is that is the intention of both five point one and six point one is kind of playing that connector role. Not that the city needs to the city doesn't need to stand up these programs. These programs already exist. Yes. But when you, like, when you think about when you talk to these businesses, they don't know where to start sometimes or where to go. And so being able to have kind of that one stop shop, that's one thing. It Okay. You know, so that's 5.1 is obviously about workforce and six point one is more about small business supports, but it's that kind of same connector convener I

love that. Role. Okay. So the last question I have is I recently took a job in Hillsborough and so I'm I'm commuting again. And I'm I've been quite shocked when I drive through some of the communities, like, oh my goodness. There's a new restaurant there. There's a new grocery store there. There's a new this there. And I'm so I'm wondering, do we ever benchmark with the other metro cities about what what they have done, what their economic plans were for for ideas or incidents.

A benchmark, like, using them for ideas?

Yes. Benchmark with their policies.

Yes. I would say that some of these we when we spoke about workforce connections and stuff like that stuff, stuff came up about Hillsborough. And so there's some ideas that can live under these where we can we can refer back to what other cities are doing successfully. So the food carts, I believe in Tiger, they've got a really successful program. With with workforce, we could do you know, you can talk about the Hillsboro programs. There's I mean, I'm working in Gresham right now. They've got some interesting business communication elements. So if that's helpful, we can pull in some examples, I think, is what you're asking for

a little bit. It's just I just didn't know if benchmarking with with other communities had a place in this plan.

Yeah. We we haven't done specific benchmarking. It's more of kind of examples and Okay. An idea generation.

Yeah. I'd say we're taking inspiration from other communities for sure. So the food cart launch pod program in Tigard is one example, but what we're talking about with regard to aggregating land in our industrial area, that's certainly something that's been executed in other jurisdictions. Hillsborough's gonna get lots of time in this meeting, but that's something that they've done successfully. Portland as well. These are communities. Sherwood. What comes to mind with Sherwood?

Well, just all the industrial development that's there. There's some fresh new restaurants that you see when you go over there and they don't see when I go enjoy them, they don't seem to be struggling. They seem to be thriving. Mhmm. And so that's what comes to mind is both retail, industrial, and dining.

Yeah. Yeah. Sherwood's secret sauce, I'm not exactly sure I can speak to that. Yeah. But I would say there is a a big factor here is affordable space. Mhmm. There. I don't mean to deflect responsibility, but the city has very little control over that. When we consider that a good chunk of town center, almost all of Old Town Square is owned by one real estate investment trust, you know, that changes the way that market dynamics work. Right?

It's not a monopoly, but there's certainly one major player that's setting the bar. Yeah. So, yeah, again, not to say that we're powerless and we can't do anything, but there are some complicating factors. Our proxy our the fact that we're on I five is both a blessing and a curse. You know, the the landowners here can wait for what they call a credit tenant.

And that's not usually a mom and pop establishment. It's one of these national brands that they know will pay them reliably month after month after month after month. So it's great that our commercial property is in high demand, but it does cause a degree of turnover and does lend itself more to national brands than it does the small unique businesses that we hope for.

I see. That's helpful. Thanks.

I appreciate your comment about the retention of businesses because I when I was reading through, I've kinda felt the same way. So maybe there is an opportunity to add some just language or something around retention too just so it's super clear because that that's the intent. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Go for it.

Yeah. I was I was wondering if there is anything. I the only thing I could see in the desired outcomes was a discussion around employment opportunities and wages have increased. I don't know if there is anything we can do either within the desired outcomes or even some of the strategies to emphasize the importance of maintaining and growing the businesses that we already have as well as recruiting additional. I didn't notice that it was a gap until commissioner Rowlett said something about it.

I was like, oh, yeah. That's that's a really good point that that we're not showing anything about, you know, really that that important side of it.

I will share because just to the question back to the question of if there's any actions that just in terms of, like, prioritizing, I do think the anything related to helping getting our land developed and ready for I mean, we've experienced that multiple conversations of just not being in the place to, like, bring on, you know, opportunities. So that seems like a priority to me. And then also just any kind dedicated funding sources to make things happen is a priority. So those are the things that stand out to me. Any other thoughts?

Can you go back to that main this slide with the the three questions just to make sure if there's any other comments that the commission wants to give on these? I think the feedback I'm hearing from the outcomes is overall we're supportive, but maybe I'm supportive of the the minor kind of suggestions, considerations that commissioner Heberlein gave. And then right mix of actions, are there any actions missing? Sounds like there's nothing no actions really missing, maybe just some refinement or maybe when we talk about implementation, maybe some more language around, yeah, minority owned and retention and things like that. And then limited resources, should any actions be elevated or deprioritized?

We gave some input on that. I don't know if there's anything else to add. Seeing none. Do you feel like you have what you need? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Great. Well, thank you so much for coming tonight and virtually, Beth. Thank you.

Thank you. You guys have been really helpful.

Awesome. Okay. So we do have time for a public comment. But before I go through all of these procedural notes, I maybe I'll just start with I don't see anyone in the room, and I'm is anyone online? Zero attendees online. Okay. So given that there's no one here to give public comment, I'm not gonna read through that. And then I think that concludes our work session. So thank you again. And then, yeah, the last item on the agenda are just the informational items like usual.

It sounds like we do have a, bless you, December meeting. So it'll be your last meeting. And is any is anyone else I'm just trying to anticipate. I think, hopefully, everyone will be here next year. We're we're losing we're losing our stuff. No. So that that sounds good. And then I do wanna just take a moment so we didn't get to say goodbye to Sam Scholl, but our fellow planning commissioner is now on city council. So I just wanna congratulate him. It's super exciting, and, you know, he was great to work with, great planning commissioner, and I think he's gonna be an also awesome council person.

And I myself also went through the the process, and one thing I I learned from it was that it's really cool to just be able to, like, put the way you feel and the way the things that you believe in into, you know, an application and be like, yeah. I I believe in these things, and I stand by them. And and it was just a really it was a good process just for, like, building confidence. And one thing that in that, I was thinking about too is just, I would've I think it would've been cool to see more applicants. Like, we just didn't get a ton of applications even on from planning commissioners.

Like, if you're ever interested in future opportunities, I I think you guys are amazing. Honestly, I'm serious. So I just think I I wanna take the opportunity to say, I think we're all we're all capable people, and you should consider it in the future if there's ever that chance. So I think with that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 06:55PM. Thanks.