06-19-2017 EDA MIN SPEC MTG • City of
E1k Meeting of the Elk River
River Economic Development Authority
Held at the Elk River City Hall
Monday,June 19, 2017
Members Present: President Tveite, Commissioners Provo (5:09 p.m.), Olsen,
Westgaard, Ovall,Wagner, and Blesener
Members Absent: None
Staff Present: Economic Development Director Amanda Othoudt, Economic
Development Specialist Colleen Eddy, and City Clerk Tina Allard
I. Call Meeting to Order
Pursuant to due call and notice thereof,the meeting of the Elk River Economic
Development Authority was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by President Tveite.
2. Consider 06/19/2017 Agenda
Moved by Commissioner Wagner and seconded by Commissioner Blesener to
approve the June 19,2017, EDA agenda. Motion carried 6-0.
3.1 TIF Policy Discussion
Ms. Othoudt presented the staff report. She stated the purpose of this work session
is to identify the development goals the Authority considers priority.
Commissioner Provo arrived.
The Commission discussed the following:
• An applicant should be able to review the policy and application and have a
reasonable expectation of whether their project would be approved.
• Better consistency and clarity in verbiage throughout the policy and application.
Example: public purpose language in the two documents.
• Whether criteria should be ranked in order of importance of the Authority's
goals or whether it should matter as long as they are meeting specified criteria in
policy.
• What would be the process in selecting the strongest candidates if there were
multiple applicants?
• Evaluate fee structure and consider an initial or preliminary review process and
fee so applicant can quickly understand how their project ranks.
• ■ The review process and if/where the finance committee, EDA, and Council
should be in the approval process.
Economic Development Authority Minutes Page 2
June 19,2017
• City practice has been to direct applicants towards tax abatement financing •
before considering TIF financing, so can the TIF Policy look more like the Tax
Abatement Policy and be dropped down to 8 pages.
• How much in TIF dollars should be allowed? Should it be based on a certain
percentage of the tax base?
Mikayla Hout, Springsted Consultant, stated the Authority can establish overarching
goals but also have specific criteria for individual districts located in the city. She
noted a large deposit fee helps weed out applicants who may not be as serious about
a project and helps to ensure city dollars are not being spent on wasteful
projects/staff time.
Ms. Othoudt noted there are a couple of outstanding projects waiting on the policy
development.
It was noted applicants can still apply under the current TIF policy.
Commission consensus was to defer this topic to a work session in a joint meeting
with the Council and Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
4. Adjournment
There being no further business,Chair Tveite adjourned the meeting of the Elk •
River Economic Development Authority at 5:43 p.m.
Dan Tveite,EDA President
Tina Allard, ity Clerk
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