Economic Development Commission

MINUTES MEETING OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION CITY OF DEKALB August 3, 2018 The Economic Development Commission (EDC) of the City of DeKalb, Illinois held a regular meeting on Friday, August 3, 2018 in the Executive Conference Room of the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 South Fourth Street, DeKalb, Illinois. The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m. ROLL CALL Roll was recorded by Economic Development Planner, Jason Michnick, and the following members of the Economic Development Commission were present: Trixy O’Flaherty, Vernese Edghill-Walden, Jeff Richardson, Sam Walt, and Mark Sawyer. Not present was Mohammed Labadi. Also present were Alderman Pat Fagan, Mayor Jerry Smith, and Executive Director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, Paul Borek. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION Mr. Richardson made a motion to approve the agenda as posted. The motion was seconded by Mr. Sawyer. The motion was approved by voice vote. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION Mr. Sawyer made a motion to approve the minutes from the July 6, 2018 meeting. Ms. Edghill-Walden seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION None NEW BUSINESS 1. Introductions for New Commission Member The commission and staff took the time to introduce themselves to Mr. Walt, who was appointed to the Economic Development Commission at the July 9, 2018 City Council meeting. Mr. Walt is the Operations Manager for Walt LTD, which provides a unique opportunity to work with countywide manufacturing firms and great insight into that sector. 2. Review of the 2025 Strategic Plan Implementation Strategy Progress During 2017, the EDC spent a considerable amount of time evaluating the City’s recently adopted 2025 Strategic Plan and prioritizing the various economic development initiatives in that plan. A final document was recommended to the City Council and adopted as a guiding policy of what types of projects the City should be focusing on. Planner Michnick informed the commission on the progress that has been made on the various initiatives outlined in that document. The following updates were provided: Tier 1 Projects and Strategies • Strengthen collaboration between NIU and DeKalb including implementing a Streetscape/NIU Connector o The City and NIU worked together to install new NIU banners on the lightpoles located along Lincoln Highway and Annie Glidden Road. NIU funded the production of the banners and the City provided the manhours to install the banners. o DCEDC and the City have had several Requests for Information from Intersect Illinois and DCEO over the past year. NIU has been a great partner in putting together responses and marketing themselves as a tremendous asset in the region. • Support the Arts Culture and Entertainment (ACE) Corridor and continue to evaluate improvements to the Egyptian Theatre o The City has worked with Preservation of the Egyptian Theatre to investigate an expansion to the bathrooms and concession area, as well as install air conditioning. It is anticipated that the theatre will be making a multimillion-dollar TIF request to the City in the coming months. o The Citizens’ Community Enhancement Commission forwarded a recommendation to City Council to create the Paint-A-Plug Program, which allows residents, students, and visiting artists to paint the City’s fire hydrants. The commission is currently working on creating a similar program that would allow property owners to have artists paint murals on their buildings. • Market DeKalb assets such as city-owned property and the airport and create and/or improve an expanded city-wide calendar o City Council recently approved a TIF incentive for Win Aviation to upgrade an existing hangar at the airport into a certified radio and avionics maintenance facility. The addition of another type of service should increase the amount of traffic at the airport due to “one-stop-shop” maintenance that can occur there. o The Airport Advisory Board has also been working on a strategic plan for the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport that leads to further development and financial sustainability. Tier 2 Projects and Strategies • Revitalize Annie Glidden North Corridor o The AGN Task Force has been working for the past several months on drafting a plan that includes various projects and strategies for revitalizing the northwest quadrant of the City. A draft of the full plan is anticipated to be available in the coming weeks. Also, a major component of the plan is to increase transportation for residents of the area. DSATS has been working on a consolidation of the Huskie lines and TransVAC lines, which will be rolled out in the coming months.  • Pursue an NIU/DeKalb technology initiative including a research park west of the NIU Convocation Center o DCEDC and the City have invited multiple individuals from DCEO and Intersect Illinois to tour NIU and the area west of the Convocation Center. Those two entities are responsible for managing the site selection process for major economic development projects. • Continue investigating the feasibility of a STEAM Center o The second phase of this project was denied by City Council and is no longer moving forward. • Attract living wage jobs o 3M and Target have expanded their employment considerably over the past year, with Target now having more than 1,000 employees and 3M having 950. However, many of these jobs are being filled by individuals outside of DeKalb. Enhanced transportation efforts may lead to better connectivity between DeKalb residents in need of employment and employers in the Park 88 area. o Panduit will be adding some manufacturing to their existing location, which would result in some higher paying jobs than just warehouse and logistics. Stronger connections need to be made between high school students and trades programs. Tier 3 Projects and Strategies • Encourage residential growth o National home builder, D.R. Horton, has a contract on roughly 30 lots in the Devonaire Subdivision. They have broken ground on more than 20 homes, which is the highest number of new home starts in DeKalb since 2008. 3. Recommendation of Project(s) for Economic Development Grant The same grant that was used to support working with the Center for Governmental Studies to create the Implementation Strategy has a balance of $11,000 in the fund that the City can apply for. Planner Michnick requested that the commission consider all of the items in the Implementation Strategy and make a recommendation on a specific project or strategy that could utilize the remaining grant. The commission determined that it should be spent on something related to the Annie Glidden North Revitalization Plan. Planner Michnick stated he would send out the draft plan when available, and the commission could make a recommendation at the next meeting. 4. Discussion on City Readiness for Large Project Opportunities The commission discussed the City’s opportunity to bid on the Toyota/Mazda plant last year, stating it was a rare opportunity. Having finished in 4th place, it makes site selectors take a second look at DeKalb. The commission determined that the most important thing that the City could work on was strengthening the pipeline of available and trained workers. If the City had landed the project, it would have been a drain on the employment base and resulted in a potential adverse impact to other employers in the region. The commission otherwise felt that DCEDC, NIU, and the City had developed an effective process for replying to bids. 5. Business Friendliness Discussion The commission requested that the topic be continued to the next month due to the time and multiple commissioners needing to leave. ADJOURNMENT MOTION Mr. Richardson made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Sawyer. The motion carried on a voice vote and the meeting was adjourned at 10:04 a.m. ________________________________ Respectfully Submitted by Jason Michnick, Economic Development Planner