Title
City Council Discussion of Economic Incentives to Achieve Community Development Goals
Body
Issue/Request:
City staff is seeking feedback and direction from the City Council as it relates to the potential use of economic incentive tools to achieve broad community development goals.
Key Issues:
At the May 3rd City Council meeting, staff presented the Mayor and Council with an overview of the City's adopted Economic Development Incentive Policy. Policy guidelines and processes currently in place for considering incentive requests were highlighted. The Policy guides and communicates the manner in which Lee's Summit considers economic development incentives. While some general discussion was held regarding the Policy, the Mayor and Council asked that additional time be dedicated to further discuss and work through any proposed amendments or changes to the Policy with staff assistance. Our hope is to improve upon our current policy and to create clear guideline statements that communicate the broader goals we want to achieve through the use of incentives. Ultimately, we want to help the potential investor seeking incentives to better understand our expectations in order to be given full consideration of an economic incentive request.
The Policy contains information which provides areas of focus and targeted outcomes, however additional information or policy guidance may be appropriate for inclusion. Additional emphasis on how the use of an economic development incentive may benefit the City, achieve a specific purpose, or fill a public need may provide further direction. Some examples or ideas for inclusion may be:
* Public Infrastructure (which may be improvement of existing, creation of new, or expansion of existing)
* Opportunities that open up area(s) for future development
* Reinvestment or Redevelopment of existing or challenged areas
* Blight remediation
* Neighborhood Stabilization
* Furtherance of community goals or objectives
* Project creates or adds synergy within specific areas of the community (provides complimentary uses that benefit surrounding area)
* Project creates opportunity for positive revenue enhancement to the City
An additional consideration for inclusion within the Policy is direction or guidance for staff to prepare and present some form of risk analysis for projects requesting incentives which could be categorized and color coded such as: (will ask Creative Services to prepare a visual once we get the language for this refined, but this is what I came up with for a start)
* Green = minimal risk with overall positive outlook and clearly beneficial to the City
* Yellow = generally positive with some cause for caution
* Orange = questionable aspects related to the proposal that must be considered
* Red = concerns or challenges with proposal which should either be worked through or may require shift in policy
Staff has provided these ideas purely for discussion and dialogue with the Mayor and City Council for the work session
Proposed City Council Motion:
No motion necessary - staff will be seeking general direction from the Mayor and Council on proposed changes or amendments to the Policy after discussion.
Background:
The City's Economic Development Policy was created in February of 2015 by Ordinance #7588 and has been amended from time to time and should remain a living document that changes as the community needs or desires change. Revisiting the Policy on a periodic basis with the Mayor and City Council has proven beneficial to adjust and revise as the dynamics of the community and economic development environment changes over time.
The powerpoint presentation from the May 3rd City Council meeting has been attached to this packet as well as the current adopted Economic Development Incentive Policy for review.
Presenter
Mark Dunning, Assistant City Manager, Development Services and Communication