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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCEDC Minutes 2004-06-02 RegularCommunity and Economic Development Committee Minutes June 2, 2004 The Community and Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, June 2, 2004, at 8 a.m. in the second floor conference room of City Hall, 910 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood, Texas with the following members present: Chair Gregory Crinion, Tony Banfield, Sr., Maurice Estlinbaum, James Gerland, Brent Goswick, Gary Harris, and Zekie McVeigh. Also present were the following liaisons: Friendswood Chamber of Commerce President Carol Jones and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Jim Reinhartsen. Staff members present were Karen Capps, Ron Cox, and Skipper Jones. Also present was Gwen Griffin of Griffin Integrated Marketing. Absent from the meeting was Kevin Candee, Bob Bertrand, Trish Hanks, Tracy Goza, and Dr. Sandra Mossman. Call to Order. Chair Crinion called the meeting to order at 8:07 a.m. with a quorum present. 2. Approval of Minutes. Gary Harris made a motion to approve the May 5, 2004 meeting minutes. Maurice Estlinbaum seconded the motion and it passed unanimously in the committee. 3. Discussion regarding potential economic modeling and projections that could provide a financial picture of the city in the future. Chair Crinion stated that creating a financial picture of the city at various times in the future is an integral part of several other CEDC 2003-04 strategic goals. This goal ties into other strategic concepts the committee identified last year during their goal setting retreat which are to: 1) develop a financial plan for economic development, 2) develop an action plan to implement Vision 2020, and 3) provide recommendations to City Council on how to deal with approaching build -out. The committee's discussion regarding this subject related to the need to assess the impact of future economic development projects and how the projects will affect the tax base of both the city and school districts. Some questions that arose focused on where the city is now regarding valuations, and where do we need to be at build -out? How does build -out affect the schools' tax base? If we achieve the 80/20-tax base split, will there still be a gap in revenue in order to provide the same quality of city services as what is provided currently? How will the city be affected at build -out when there will be almost no revenues derived from new growth of home and commercial construction, but there will still be the need to maintain aging streets, water, and sewer lines? The committee decided to place this on next month's agenda to recommend what items and questions need to be addressed as part of the financial picture study. 4. Discussion concerning planning along the proposed Brittany Bay extension. Skipper Jones, Capital Projects Coordinator, discussed the current status of the Brittany Bay road extension. He said the road extension of Brittany Bay is in the planning and study phase. The study will take approximately one year to complete and ten percent of the study has been performed. The road will need a right of way of about 120 feet and engineering is being done from FM 2351 to where it connects in League City. He said this will be a city/state cost sharing joint project, adding that the state funds 80 percent of the planning costs and city pays 20 percent. Skipper provided a map to show some possible routes of the road extension. The committee was interested in seeing if the road extension could potentially change the future use of some properties to commercial if located adjacent to this major parkway. The committee noted that the location of the extension at FM 2351 and at FM 528 are generally known, and further consideration should be taken over the possible rezoning of properties in those areas. The committee determined it would be difficult to identify affected properties between those points without knowing the final route, so there was consensus from the committee to further pursue this once additional information is received. 5. Reports: A. Regional economic development partnerships Galveston County Economic Development Alliance Karen Capps reported that she and Ron Cox had met with the GCEDA's new President, Don Gartman. She said that Don has been added to the CEDC committee as a liaison and will start attending the City's monthly meetings. Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership Jim Reinhartsen provided an oral and written report on Ellington Field and the National Keep It Sold (NKIS) trip to Washington. BAHEP is working closely with City of Houston officials and both state and federal legislators to keep Ellington Field off of the base realignment and closure list. Part of that plan was to reposition Ellington field as a joint reserve base. 2,300 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps troops will relocate to Ellington Field from a current site that is nearby M.D. Anderson Jim provided an update on the prospective NASA site. He said the new facility could add 500 to 700 jobs to the Bay Area if located here. Jim said that one-third of those jobs would be relocations from other facilities and about two -third would be new jobs. Jim also gave an update on the Bayport Container facility stating that ground breaking should start soon. Another project that BAHEP is looking into along with UTMB- Galveston and the Galveston Economic Partnership is to create a mapping and demographic information system through GIS/Geographical Information System for Galveston County. B. City and Chamber Broker/Golf Tournament Day Gwen Griffin reported that she, Karen Capps, Carol Jones, and the Chamber Golf committee have been working on finalizing a sponsorship letter and package for the broker/golf tournament day that is scheduled for Thursday, October 14, 2004. C. CDC Rezoning Karen Capps reported that the City Planner, Diana Steelquist, with the help of the City Attorney and Mike Hodge, would create a property description to use on the rezoning application for the CDC property. Once this is complete, City staff will ask the representative of CDC to sign it to commence the rezoning process. This should be complete within the next few weeks. D. Marketing Gwen Griffin provided a marketing report and copies of new articles that have appeared in local newspapers. The local newspapers ran the editorial piece written by Steve McKinney, owner of Velocity Sports Performance. GIM rewrote a question and answer informational sheet on the City's municipal grant program and reprinted business inserts for the e.d. package that is mailed out to prospects. Gwen said she is working with the Houston Business Journal on a story for Friendswood's Main Street, an e.d. educational awareness editorial by a local resident, and the June and July e-newsletters. 6. Adiournment. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.