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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCEDC Minutes 2008-06-11 RegularFriendswood Community and Economic Development Committee Minutes June 11, 2008 The Friendswood Community and Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, at 8:00 a.m., in the second floor conference room of City Hall, 910 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood, Texas, with the following members present: Chair Jamie Ballard, Brett Banfield, Pauline Moore, Cody Owen and Troy Waters. Liaisons present were City Council liaison Andy Rivera, Friendswood ISD representative Dr. Rebecca Hillenburg, Griffin Integrated Marketing representative Deanna Wilke, Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership representative Dan Seal, and Galveston County Economic Alliance President Don Gartman. Staff members present were Karen Capps and Roger Rocker. Absent from the meeting were Kirk Lippert, Claude McEwen, Bill Provenzano, and Dr. Hilmar Zeissig. 1. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 8:13 am. with a quorum present. 2. Roll Call. Roll call was made. 3. Approval of Minutes. Chair Ballard made a motion to approve the May 7, 2008 meeting minutes. The motion was seconded by Pauline Moore and passed unanimously in the committee. 4. Discussion and possible action, but not limited to the following goals and action items to be included in the Community and Economic Development Committee's 2008-09 strategic plan. A. Mission statement — No report. B. Business recruitment — No report. C. Business retention and expansion — Troy Waters reported on work prepared by the business retention and expansion group which includes Pauline Moore and Hilmar Zeissig. Several goals and strategies were developed which include working with the Chamber to determine potential businesses to visit, prioritizing which companies to visit first, creating a survey to send out to all businesses, collect these surveys, and summarize and create a needs assessment report of the needs of existing business to stay and/or expand in Friendswood. D. Retail business — No report. E. Incentives - Karen Capps provided background information for the work session scheduled with City Council on June 16, 2008. Incentive recommendations for downtown were reviewed. 6. Discussion and possible action regarding possible amendments to the City's tax abatement program. The committee discussed the City's existing tax abatement policy. Chair Ballard asked the incentives subcommittee to further discuss and recommend possible changes to the policy guidelines for the committee to consider at their July meeting. 5. Reports: A. Planning and Zoning — B. Liaisons — Dr. Hillenburg reported on current school bond projects stating that next Tuesday night, FISD's board of trustees will review the final plans for the new Junior High. Preliminary approval was granted for the High School's expansion plans. Dan Seal reported that Council members Andy Rivera and Leslie Reid will participate in the Citizens for Space Exploration trip which is scheduled for May 19-22. There are about 150 travelers going to Washington, D.C. to advocate the need for the space program and over 300 meetings are scheduled with senators, representatives, and groups. Carol Jones reported on a successful Fig Festival event and is now gearing up for the July 4 program. The next chamber monthly luncheon will be held on June 5 at the First Baptist Church. Don Gartman reported on a small business that was assisted by the Galveston County Small Business Development Center in obtaining an SBA loan. The minority -owned business named HWPB Enterprise is a welding and metal fabrication company located in Hitchcock. HWPB was named "the Houston National small business exporter of the year" by the SBA. C. Marketing Deanna Wilke provided a marketing report. There were several articles that ran about Friendswood. Karen Capps was interviewed by the Texas Real Estate Business and an article ran in their April 2008 magazine. Karen Capps completed an interview and submitted supporting materials for an article that will run in the May 2008 Texas Rising publication which is issued by the State Comptroller's Office. Other articles ran about Jacob White's green building several newspapers. Griffin will work on the next e- newsletter and update the municipal channel slides to include information about CEDC goals, grants that were approved, and the neighborhood empowerment zone, if approved. Karen Capps will update the website to include the neighborhood empowerment zone, if approved. Creating business testimonials to place on the website was also suggested. D. City Staff Karen Capps reported that several hotels were looking at Friendswood. She met with one hotelier that is looking for property and another came in to a DRC. Ms. Capps received a free copy of a fiscal impact analysis program called Fast Trakker from Insight Research Corporation which could help better analyze economic development projects. E. Project Status updates Ms. Capps reported that the developer who owns the Whitcomb property contacted her and indicated that they may still develop the mixed -use project. The developer stated that he had several office users interested in the project and some retail. 6. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 10:04 am.