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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEcon Dev Adv 2008-03-26 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 26, 2008 City of Kitchener The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date commencing at 11:10, chaired by Adrian Conrad; the following members were in attendance: Len Carter, Steven Voll, Howie Budd, Jeremy Auger, Don Zehr, Dan Piedra, Glen Woolner, Sherryl Petricevic, Peter Benninger, Bob Denton, Mayor Carl Zehr, The following people sent their regrets: Gerry Remers The following people were absent: Staff in attendance: Cory Bluhm, Rod Regier, Kathy Weiss, Valerie Bradford, Jay Athiea, Brian Scott, Rob Browning, Janette MacDonald, Rob Morgan 1. Discussion Items 1. Minutes & Agenda 1.2 Approval of Minutes Minutes approved 1.3 Downtown Advisory Committee – Update There is no update as the DAC Meeting was cancelled in February. 2. Business Arising 2.1 Park Dedication Policy Alain Pinard, Manager of Long Range and Policy Planning, provided a background on the report that had been previously circulated to the Committee. Mr. Pinard advised comments are being sought from EDAC to support staff report DTS-08-037, Park Dedication Policy & By-law. Questions and Comments: ? What was the original intend of not enforcing this on commercial type development employment lands Intention was to always collect on it – not clear why it was not done in o the past could have been a policy before where there was a report done to create it as an incentive, office and retail were always collected for. It was unevenly implemented for industrial – some people involved had the understanding that it was not collected as an incentive ? The incentive is normally a deal breaker and we have not had any deals that would be broken due to this not happening, people have been getting the message across that the park areas are important to the citizens and the city is looking to do a better job. ? We are unaware of a municipality that is close to us that does not collect Suggestion on looking into this further as it deals with economic o development ? Would a trail not be an active park - yes, a liner park ? Lands that are developable would be eligible for dedication ? Trust fund needs to be built up in order to provide the citizens of this community with the parks they require in their own area ? We will do some more research on what other communities are doing, we are not changing commercial ? In the past the city has acted as developer in industrial land but has since left that to the private sector. With the City as a developer, subsides in the industrial land cost was happening and the theory was that need to be done as an incentive to develop industrial and we were preventing the developers from getting involved, when the city took a different approach, with public private partnerships the price of land raised but the market has levelled out and the demand is not there as much as it was in the past. With recent changes in the market the 2% is not much but the requirement to provide quality of life with a park is important to draw talent attraction etc. ? Uneven application of policy and how discretionary it was – is there a basis for exemption that is recorded – there was never any unevenness with commercial, it is not clear why some were exempt in the past and for the future we need to have the rules set out very clearly. ? In order to ensure there are no interpretations of the bylaw we need to have a clear policy available to ensure that there is consistency and fairness ? If you demolish a building and rebuild, you have paid the dedication policy with the first building you do not pay again assuming that you are rebuilding the same size building ? Same as above but had never paid the dedication before – you are now subject to it 2.2 Talent Attraction – Richard Florida Video Presentation The Committee viewed the Richard Florida talent attraction video and were asked to think about and respond on the following: Do you think there is a talent shortage in Waterloo Region? Does Waterloo Region struggle to retain talent? Have you experience either of these with your own company? If so, what factors have prevented you from recruiting / retaining the talent you (they) are looking for. The Committee members provided the following comments: - says a lot of what we already know and puts it in a nice little package and outlines what we need to do, the package itself is clear in that presentation - Communitech does survey’s every year and they ask if there is anything stopping the local tech community and they advised that talent attraction is and has always been number one – they are trying to promote that you can move from one company to another within this community and they are trying to get that message across. People need to understand what there is to do here to attract talent. - Local tech companies are having to diversify and are going to where there is talent. The junior people are available from the university and they take the good ones right away - Some Conestoga students are looking to stay and those are usually the ones that have grown up here. The students that did not grow up here are not as likely to stay unless they get a great job then they will try it out. - In financial services sector people chase the job – the young people here tend to leave the city on the weekends - We need to resurrect the events listings so that people know what is going on in the downtown etc. - At lot of people are also fleeing to Waterloo as well not just Toronto Richard Florida touched on a number of indicators that assess whether or not a City is a talent magnet. Do any of these need enhancements in Waterloo Region? ? Music scene ? Cultural diversity ? Tolerance ? Urban vitality ? Technology ? Thick labour Market - Awareness is key, sense is that a lot of people in this community are still of the understanding that we are strictly manufacturing here, build the plant and they will come mentality - When we talk about attracting talent are we talking about a specific age group or anyone – we need to understand who we are focusing on, we need to understand so that we develop the proper vitality - We have a good mix of the 35 to 60 age group here already we need to do more to attract those out of university but not yet in the marriage / family aspect and if we can, create a focus on them through those years. - We do not have a problem with attracting urban tranquility it is the urban vitality that presents an issue. On Motion, the meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm.