HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-24 EDAC Minutes
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES
January 24, 2018 City of Kitchener
The Economic Development Advisory Committee met on this date with the following members present:
Mark Bingeman, Andrew Head, , Johanna Classon-Romero, Anthony Zammit, Margaret Johnston,
Barry Lowry, Barclay Whittaker, Scott Davey, Bil Ioannidis, Paul Singh
Staff in attendance: Tracey Murray, Brian Bennett, Cory Bluhm, Valerie Bradford, Kim Feere, Chris Farrell, Thom Ryan
Business Items
1.Development Services Organizational Structure & Service Review
Councillor Singh welcomed everyone and introduced Dan Chapman and Kathryn Dever. Dan provided a
background overview of what has been happening in terms of the org structure and moving forward with the
development review.
Kathryn provided an overview of the org review and highlighted the following:
5 priorities were identified by council for Dan, including an organizational review, she advised that the 3
month timeline was aggressive and highlighted what plan of action was taken and who was consulted.
What the review found is the development functions are spread out, with no leadership. This new
structure is typical and with a new GM in place there is an overall responsible party for all development
services.
The committee was advised that the development review will look in-depth at what the customers are
experiencing to allow for management to have a full understanding of where things are working and
where there is room for improvement, that all policies will be reviewed for consistency,
Dan thanked the committee for their time and advised that he will return to a future meeting once the GM has
2.Downtown Incentives Staff Report
Hilary Abel provided an overview of the downtown incentives program, the reasons behind continuing the
program and the benefits that come from the program, as well as the Startup landing pad program overview of
what the program is and some of the results to date.
The committee members discussed possible options to the program, such as combining the pool of funds and
opening the grant up in a more broad way, questioned how owners / businesses are informed of the program
and what the marketing plan is for the program moving forward. The committee suggested looking at
expanding the program to landlord housing owners to fix their units to attract higher paying tenants.
The committee asked that the next meeting allow for detailed discussion on options for the program prior to the
report going to Council in March.
On motion, the meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
Tracey Murray
Committee Administrator