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~~~ <br />~~ <br />.ver <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Mayor & City Council <br />FROM: Scott Clark, Community Development Director <br />Catherine Mehelich, Director of Economic Development <br />DATE: May 8, 2006 <br />SUBJECT: Discussion on Briggs Proposal <br />Introduction <br />At the April 10, 2006 City Council work session direction was given to staff to review <br />options regarding what was called the "Briggs Proposal." There were a number of issues <br />that were discussed: <br />1) A concern that certain types of businesses (in this case "educational venues" such as <br />dance, gynuiastics, music, etc) have a difficult time in finding commercial space that <br />have low enough lease rates to make their businesses profitable. There was an <br />assumption during the discussion that converting some industrial property to <br />commercial was a method to create the necessary economics in order for the <br />aforementioned types of uses to be profitable. <br />2) The second discussion centered on concerns of converting scarce industrial property <br />into commercial space. One idea that was brought forward was creating a "Tier 1" <br />type of zoning where both commercial and industrial land uses could be elected. <br />This report is written in two parts; the first section discusses the "economic policy" <br />considerations regarding the City's ability to affect lease rates to a point of making businesses <br />profitable and as part of this review, a look at the City's commercial and industrial inventory. <br />The second part discusses zoning, and if the Council wants to create acommercial/industrial <br />zone, and the policy issues that need to be discussed and agreed upon. <br />Inventory and Economic Issues <br />The proposed "educational venues" are currently allowed to locate within the commercially <br />zoned areas. The attached table indicates that there appears to be sufficient inventory of <br />commercial land sites and building lease space, with varying lease rates, in which these types <br />of uses would be allowed. At the same time there is an extremely limited availability of land <br />sites for light industrial/manufacturing uses. <br />