HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconDevAdv 2012-02-22
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES
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February 22, 2012 City of Kitchener
The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Councillor Bil
Mark Bingeman, Glenn Kohler, Peter
Ioannidis; the following members were in attendance:
Benninger, Adrian Conrad, Rebecca Short, Darrin Snider, Steven Voll, Councillor Scott Davy,
Ashely Reid, and Steve Sachs.
The following people sent their regrets: Amr Kebbi, Brian Bennett, Councillor Paul Singh, Shawn
DeBruyn, and Lisa Polonoski.
The following people were absent: Dr. Takhar
Staff in attendance: Rod Regier, Cory Bluhm, Janette MacDonald, Silvia Di Donato, Hilary Abel,
Mistie Brown
Introductions:
Rod introduced two new staff members in the Economic Development Division
Hilary Abel, Downtown Marketing and Program Coordinator
Mistie Brown, Public Relations Intern
Business Items:
1.1 Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the January meeting were approved.
New Business:
2.1 Downtown Action Plan
With the assistance of a PowerPoint presentation Cory Bluhm provided an overview of the
Downtown Action Plan.
The committee offered the following comments:
Encouraging independent stores is great but don’t discourage the chain stores from
coming downtown
There might be a challenge regarding the population of residents looking for different
housing options because they are at different points in their life and they might want
something different. Cory pointed out that all of the data shows those two age groups
are the ones who want the independent stores.
Concerns about the apartment vacancy rate, staff pointed out that is an extremely low
rate
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Cory Bluhm will present this action plan to council on Monday February 27 and will provide an
update of their comments at the next EDAC meeting.
2.2- Economic Development Strategy – Key Areas of Focus Working Groups
Rod Regier proposed the idea of changing the structure of the EDAC meetings. DAC has
recently completed this change and it has resulted in a positive outcome. The meetings would
still be two hours in length. The first hour would remain the same as the current meetings and
the second hour would have the group breakout into small groups and discuss four specific
areas of focus including: start-up city, cluster building, talent and innovation district. The
purpose of these groups is to have the committee brainstorm action items that we could take
on to advance the four strategic themes. The groups would start out with a discussion of
information around these topics, review priorities, and possibly how much staff time involved.
There should be key players around the table that we should have conversations for each topic.
Stakeholders involved in each group
Start Up City
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College
o
Laurier
o
Waterloo
o
Communitech
o
Small Business Centre
o
GTAN
o
Federal Government
o
MEDI
o
Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade
o
Velocity
o
ITAC
o
Legal and Accounting Firms
o
CTT
o
Cluster Building
Stakeholders
-
MIN
o
Solar Industry networking group
o
Talent Strategy
Stakeholders
-
Challenge of attracting art talent
o
WRIEN
o
Colleges and universities
o
Innovation District
Stakeholders
-
Universities
o
Breakout Group Sign Up
Start Up City Cluster Building Talent Innovation
Scott Steven Rebecca Rebecca
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Glenn Mark Steve Darrin
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Bil Ashley Shawn Adrian
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Rebecca Bil Jeremy
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Rod Regier will provide each breakout group with one staff resource. He will send out a
tentative group list to the committee, draft very brief terms of reference
Information Items
3.1 Project Updates
Janette
Janette MacDonald provided the committee with an overview of the project updates
Rod Regier provided an update on the progress of the City Centre
Peter Benninger brought forward a discussion regarding the Country Stone project. It was
discussed amongst the group.
Rod Regier provided an update on his role with the Regional Economic Development Study
On motion the meeting was adjourned at 6:05pm.
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Next Meeting will be March 28 at 4:00pm.