Title
City Council Discussion of Economic Incentives to Achieve Community Development Goals
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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 goa...
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