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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEcon Dev Adv 2009-03-25 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 25, 2009 City of Kitchener The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Jeremy Auger; the following members were in attendance: Alan Anderson, Bernie Nimer, Mary Alkerton, Steven Voll, Bob Denton, Len Carter, Jeremy Auger, Dan Piedra, Mark Bingeman, Peter Benninger, Brian Bennett, Councillor John Smola, Councillor Christina Weylie, Mayor Carl Zehr, Rebecca Short The following people sent their regrets: Mark Collins, Adrian Conrad, Howie Budd The following people were absent: Brent Richardson, Staff in attendance: Rod Regier, Valerie Bradford, Tracey DeVille, Robert Morgan, Brandon Sloan, Alain Pinard, Janette MacDonald, Robert Pettipiece, Cory Bluhm, Ken Carmichael, Tony Konstantinidis, Jeff Willmer 1. Minutes & Agenda That the minutes of the meetings be approved Moved by Peter Benninger Seconded by Brian Bennett Carried. Update on the Downtown Advisory Committee Due to time limitations, the Downtown Advisory Committee update was deferred. 2. Business Arising / Updates Kitchener Growth Management Strategy Update Brandon Sloan, Senior Planner, provided the Committee with an overview of the work that has been completed to date on the Kitchener Growth Management Strategy. He advised that the strategy is designed in such a way to provide recommendations to move forward for a better Kitchener. He then directed the Committee to the City’s website for the complete document. Some highlights of the presentation: This document will be brought forward at the March 30, o Development & Technical Services Committee Employment land review will be taking place and their may be o opportunities for committee participation A monitoring report will be done to update on progress o Questions / comments: - What do the grey areas on the map represent? The development in the grey areas is high priority just as the green o areas are – they identify a different type of development (other than residential) - How does the KGMS relate to the new subdivision guidelines? Neighbourhood design guidelines are approved and in place and o new growth in the recognized areas will be subject to that, - What are the neighbourhood design guidelines? It is a document that contains 9 primary principles, see the following o link for more detail http://www.kitchener.ca/city_hall/departments/devtech_services/planni ng/design_brief_suburban_development.html - Do any supporting documents exist that may show potential job creation as a result of the KGMS? We do not have anything specific, we do have a summary of o estimates based on assumption, one of the objectives is to raise employment / development density and we want the neighbourhoods to be close to employment - Staff advised that the studies we have done show the City is capable of carrying the employment / land development Ian Cook advised the committee that he represented EDAC on the KGMS Steering Committee and he feels that the challenge facing the development community is over regulation. Kitchener has the highest density population next to Toronto and Kitchener has been effective in planning for growth and infrastructure. The KGMS is more about controlling Greenfield development and supporting intensification in the core when the reality is people will choose to live where they want, while city staff and others have done an excellent job on developing this strategy, there still needs to be work done to keep development and land charges down The KGMS is very similar as the previous staging development, it is o a tool that assists in coordination and approach to ensure investment in the right - What is the development industry’s position on this? The draft was circulated and we did receive comments from land o owners, and we did present to the Home Owners Liaison Committee – they did not specify their level of support for the plan but they did ask for further clarification and staff did provide summaries of such things as building permits issued over the last 10 years. - This document will be something that we will review every 2 years - If a developer wants to front end a development ahead of the city’s schedule can they do that and staff will work with the developer to ensure that it is in line and can be done to make sense with the KGMS - Have staff looked at what other municipalities are doing to make sure that Kitchener is on track and we are not loosing any economic growth by indirectly detracting development? Yes we did look at other municipalities when developing this o although we did not look at all comparisons outside the Greater Golden Horseshoe since they are not part of the Places to Grow plan. We do know that Kitchener has great opportunities available for development and part of this plan is to ensure that the remaining land is developed in such a way as to provide the best use for the community. Councillor Christina Weylie thanked the Committee for allowing the presentation to be brought forward and she commended staff and volunteers on the hard work that was done to create this document. She also reminded Committee members that they are more than welcome to come to the Development and Technical Services Committee meeting on Monday March 30, 2009 to hear the presentation. Corporate Visitation Program Valerie Bradford, Business Development Officer, provided the Committee with an update on the current status of the Corporate Visitation Program. - Focusing on the financial services sector - Some head offices are located in our neighbouring cities and we will work with both Cambridge and Waterloo to visit these offices - Provided an overview of what we are expecting in the way of feedback - Groups of two staff primarily taking the wheel and committee members will come along as observers - Next meeting we will have meeting dates and you can sign up then The Committee provided the following feedback: - Have you any thoughts on what you are going to explore with these sectors talent o labour force o growth o how well equipped are we to supply the people that are needed o what would make this community attractive to make this area right o for growing this sector The Committee asked to have the questionnaire brought forward to them for review prior to the visits and staff agreed. Long Term Parking Strategy Rod Regier, Executive Director, provided an update on the long term parking strategy and advised this is a strategic issue for economic development and for the downtown. We have been working on this strategy for a long time and we will have a more thorough presentation at the next meeting in April. This discussion will set the stage for the larger discussion in April. The process we are involved in now is to identify the challenge, analyze the supply and demand to develop a sustainable parking model to carry us into the future. This will be the base for the long term parking strategy business case. We are at the stage to discuss with the advisory committees, build a set of recommendations for Council to be brought forward to them in May. Comments / Questions: Is the new courthouse going to have parking? They will have 60 spaces; the province is a partner on the Charles and o Benton parking garage as well as the civic district garage so they are providing parking but not directly on their site. At the south end of the core we will have a good number of parking available. What about the north end? The north end of the downtown does have a bigger challenge and we o are doing some work around possible solutions for that. The other benefit to the civic district parking garage is evening use and supporting the parking needs for the Centre in the Square. The greatest change over the last time we discussed this at EDAC is the support that we have received from the Province – their commitment in financing has created the ability to construct the two new parking garages. We do have a short term parking strategy in place to 2013. What about checking to see if people can switch spots is there an opportunity for an exercise of making sure that the spots that people have are the best options for them. - Yes there is an opportunity to look at that; however, most people have been put on a waiting list for a spot closer to where they work What about evening? – We do have space available for evening parkers but they do need to be gone by 8:00 in the morning to make way for the day use folks. What about the Centre Block spots? - Once the development is constructed we will have approx 40 – 50 fewer spots there we are thinking about how those spots will be utilized for optimization of space and we may need to do some shuffling around and it will represent a bit of a crunch in supply and when the construction is on- going we will be displacing the current spots that are there - Majority of impact of king street reconstruction will be the on street parking and we are working with engineering to work on a solution for the least amount of impact. Economic Reality Check Janette MacDonald provided an overview of the labour rates, noting that we have one of the highest unemployment rates but at the same time we have a very high participation rate – in other words we have a lot of people working. She provided a thorough overview of the current numbers, including losses and gains by occupation, city and industry. She advised that if we look at employment by occupation we are more inline with where we should be. Due to time constraints, Ms. MacDonald agreed to distribute the presentation for Committee review and we can discuss further at the next meeting. On motion by Brian Bennett the meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m.