Crescent City Economic Development Strategic Plan Workshop

City of Crescent City Economic Development Strategic Action Plan (EDSAP) Workshop Virtual meeting via Zoom Call in number: (253) 215-8782 WEB ID: 829 4663 4359 January 21, 2021 5:30 p.m. Notice Regarding Americans with Disabilities Act: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in the meeting, please contact the City Clerk's office at (707)464-7483 ext. 223. Notification 48 hours before the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting [28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title II] For TTYDD use for speech and hearing impaired, please dial 711. A full agenda packet may be reviewed at City Hall, 377 J Street, Crescent City, CA or on our website: www.crescentcity.org WORKSHOP Call to Order Roll call Pledge of Allegiance NEW BUSINESS 1. Discussion of the Economic Development Strategic Action Plan (EDSAP) • Recommendation: Hear staff report • Receive public comment • Take action as necessary and appropriate ➢ City Manager Report and City Council Directives – Pursuant to Crescent City Municipal Code § 2.08.200, the City Council may instruct the city manager on matters of importance to the administrative services of the City and provide direction with respect to subordinates of the City Manager. (Directives from individual Council Members that are not objected to by any member present shall be considered an order of the City Council.) ADJOURNMENT Adjourn to the regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Crescent City scheduled for Monday, February 1, 2021 at 6:00 p.m., via Zoom, Crescent City, CA 95531. POSTED: January 20, 2021 /S/ Robin Patch, City Clerk/Administrative Analyst  Crescent City Economic Development Strategic Action Plan Council Workshop Agenda January 21, 2021 5:30-7:30 pm Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_95b2SXAdT7qDP_aZQBzWTw Live Menti Survey Poll: https://www.menti.com/zkn2a9sxue Voting code: 18 97 79 1 Meeting Purpose Provide an overview of Crescent City’s Economic Development Strategic Action Plan (EDSAP), review “Recipe List” of project ideas, and discuss strategies/priorities to guide plan implementation. When we are done with this meeting we will have: • An understanding of the EDSAP planning process • An overview of Crescent City’s economic resiliency efforts • Review preliminary “Recipe List” of project ideas/strategies/priorities • Receive live feedback from community via Menti polling tool Agenda WHAT HOW Welcome and Agenda • Kick off welcome Review • Review and confirm meeting purpose, desired outcomes, and agenda (5 min) • Check for agenda modification suggestions and agreement Project Background • Overview of EDSAP (15 min) • Review Economic Development Goals • Review Economic Industry Goals Economic Development Review list of project ideas “Cookbook” • Review and Refine “Recipe List” of Project Ideas (80 min) • Participate in Live Polling (see link above) • Discuss continued development of instruction manual for top projects Next Steps and Closing • Public Comment (20 min) • Share closing thoughts • Review and commit to follow-up tasks and agree to next steps Economic Development Goals: 1. Build an internal economic development team and establish strong economic development community partnerships 2. Create and maintain systems for acquiring and analyzing key economic development data and trends 3. Simplify and streamline regulations to stimulate and ease economic development activities 4. Undertake actions that stimulate the private sector creation of housing and development 5. Establish programs that retain, attract, and create jobs 6. Pursue infrastructure improvements as a form of economic development 7. Invest in beatification and tourism attraction 8. Focus on efforts to enhance downtown 9. Launch programs to acknowledge and celebrate local businesses INDUSTRY SECTORS 1. Outdoor adventure recreation 2. Tourism and hospitality 3. Fishing 4. Timber Industry 5. Medical services and healthcare 6. Craft foods and beverages 7. Professional services 8. Ecological restoration 9. Quality of life services 10. Local tribal businesses and culture 11. Niche manufacturing 12. Retail and consumer goods 13. Government Services OVERVIEW OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS (RECIPES) Overview: This annotated outline of economic development projects (or “recipes”) describes what each recipe would accomplish if implemented. In the final document, each recipe will include detailed instruction regarding how to implement each action. This annotated outline merely provides a basic summary of what each recipe would accomplish. Once adopted, this list of recipes will become a catalog of potential projects that the City Council can prioritize draw from for several years. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 1: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM AND PARTNERSHIPS Recipe 1A: Create New Econ Dev Staff Position (Economic Resiliency Staff) Crescent City lacks a staff position explicitly focused on economic development. This recipe outlines strategies to fill that gap and implement the projects in this document. Recipe 1B: Create Economic Development Commission Some cities have a Brown-Act body (such as the Planning Commission) that is focused exclusively on Economic Development. This recipe outlines strategies for establishing a Crescent City Econ Dev Commission which would review and make recommendations to the staff and council on matters related to economic development. Recipe 1C: Econ Dev Webpage This recipe identifies best-practices for a Crescent City Economic Development webpage, which would exist as an extension of the city’s website and would be fully dedicated to economic development, business retention, and business recruitment with resources and videos. Recipe 1D: Staff Training and Prioritization Towards Business-Friendly Practices Strategies for establishing a customer service training program focused on the service industry and ways to improve the visitor and customer experience. The training could also assist City staff with enhancing their ability to incorporate business-friendly practices into their day-to-day operations. Recipe 1E: Enhance Partnerships and Collaboration with Tribes This recipe outlines opportunities to build upon the existing relationship with the tribes, especially in relation to economic development projects. Recipe 1F: SBDC, Humboldt Made, and Del Norte Made Similar to its Humboldt counterpart, Del Norte Made would guide and aid local entrepreneurs and businesses. Recipe 1G: Create Economic Development Coalition Many organizations in the regional currently focus on economic development (such as the Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Center). This recipe provides suggestions for how to form or solidify a formal economic development coalition that would be a resource for all those in the field to share ideas and continuously collaborate. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 2: DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS Recipe 2A: Cost of Doing Business Analysis Establishing and maintaining a business always has inherent costs. However, these costs vary between communities. What is the “cost of doing business” in Crescent City relative to other communities (such as Eureka or Chico)? These instructions regarding how to analyze and compare the cost of doing business would aid the city in identifying existing constraints and opportunities. Page 1 Recipe 2B: Vacancy Rate Analysis The commercial vacancy rate (or relative percentage of empty storefronts) of a commercial district is an indicator of economic health. Crescent City’s downtown appears to have an unusually high vacancy rate. This recipe outlines instructions for how to conduct a vacancy-rate study, which would help the city in understanding where and when vacancies occur and how to address them. Recipe 2C: Annual Grant-Availability Inventory A grant inventory would provide the city with an understanding of potential financial resources to implement other projects and studies. Recipe 2D: Ten Year Sales Tax Analysis and Projections Conducting a long-term tax analysis would help the city analyze current and future projections to act accordingly. Recipe 2E: Conduct a visitor/tourist demographic analysis and projection of future trends This project would aid the city in understanding the needs and behavior of visitors to provide them with the best experience. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 3: SIMPLIFY AND STREAMLINE REGULATIONS Recipe 3A: General Plan Update Updating the City’s General Plan is required by State law. This recipe outlines how to ensure the GP will have a focus on economic development in guiding future land use decisions and policies. Recipe 3B: Housing Element Also required by State law. Provides an opportunity to include a focus on economic development in housing policy. Recipe 3C: Zoning Code The zoning code defines uses, such as commercial and retail and the development standards for that zone, such as building height and density. The zoning code can be updated to include an economic development focus. Recipe 3D: Design/Architectural Standards Design standards can be a checklist of items for the city to review in determining development meets the design criteria as set by the city. Design standards are objective and create more certainty in the development process, which encourages development. The recipe outlines strategies for how to ensure the City’s standards are business friendly while still creating development with great curb appeal. Recipe 3E: Revised Vacation Rental Regulations Revised vacation rental regulations can encourage more tourists to visit by simplifying the process for property owners. Recipe 3F: Legal Cannabis Businesses Re-evaluating the City’s cannabis regulations could provide the city with an opportunity for increased economic development through increasing the number of jobs and diversifying the manufacturing, retail, and distribution industry sectors. Recipe 3G: Mobile Vendors Mobile vendors, such as food trucks, provide businesses with a different, cheaper, and more flexible model to deliver goods. Updating regulations, incentive programs, and infrastructure could increase the number of mobile vendors over time. Page 2 Recipe 3H: Development Fees/Rates Comp Analysis This analysis would help the city understand how its fees relate in comparison to other cities of similar size and function. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 4: STIMULATE HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT Recipe 4A: Crescent City Second Unit ADU Program Accessory Dwelling Units are one method to stimulate housing and by promoting them, the city can meet its regional housing needs assessment (RHNA) allocation. Recipe 4B: 100 New Housing Units in Permit Pipeline This goal is meant to encourage and further housing development by developing specific strategies for increasing the number of new housing units in the permit pipeline. Recipe 4C: Downtown Parking Lots into Housing Transforming underutilized parking lots into housing could make better use of space and create more housing in the downtown area, which would in turn improve the ability of businesses to thrive. Recipe 4D: Downtown Housing 40 Unit Plan Similar to the recipes above, this recipe outlines strategies for focusing housing in the downtown as one method to activate and attract people and activities. Recipe 4E: Housing Developer Incentive Program This recipe is aimed at encouraging developers and providing them with incentives to build housing. Recipe 4F: Promote and Enhance Enterprise Zone The enterprise zone is a Federal program that provides an opportunity to encourage housing development through tax breaks. Crescent City qualifies for the program and could put effort into promoting it. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 5: RETAIN/CREATE JOBS Recipe 5A: Business Retention Plan This plan would focus on keeping existing businesses alive and thriving. Recipe 5B: Business Recruitment Plan This plan would focus on bringing new businesses to Crescent City. Recipe 5C: Recruit Government Jobs Government jobs are a stable component of the Crescent City economy. This project will focus on recruiting more government entities/jobs to locate in Crescent City. Recipe 5D: Recruit Tech Satellites, Start-ups, Knowledge Workers, and Distance-workers As “work-from-home” becomes more common, Crescent City has an opportunity to attract small tech-business start-ups as well as satellite offices for existing tech businesses. This recipe identifies tactics for recruiting such businesses to further diversify its economic industry sectors. Recipe 5E: Recruit Cannabis Manufacturing Businesses While cannabis businesses may now be allowed in Crescent City, the City has not yet invested any energy into recruiting such businesses to the city. The recipe identifies ways to do so. Recipe 5F: Recruit Niche Manufacturing Niche manufacturing is another industry sector that can be built upon through recruitment. Page 3 Recipe 5G: Recruit Telemedicine Businesses Telemedicine has been growing and would be extremely advantageous for a rural area as this. Recipe 5H: Kitchen Connect This recipe would identify underutilized commercial kitchen spaces in the city and connect them with businesses (or prospective businesses) in need of a kitchen. Recipe 5I: Home Based Business Development Program This recipe focuses on stimulating new home-based businesses and supporting home-based businesses to reach their full potential. Recipe 5J: Recruit Young Fisherfolk The fishing industry in California is aging with fewer and fewer young fishermen joining the industry. This recipe identifies strategies for recruiting young fisherfolk to ensure continued existence of this key industry sector. The following recipes in section 5 focus on starting a partnership with those entities named below for workforce development. Recipe 5K: Partner with College of the Redwoods on Workforce Development Recipe 5L: Partner with Sutter Coast Hospital on Workforce Development Recipe 5M: Partner with Area Tribes on Workforce Development Recipe 5N: Partner with Pelican Bay State Prison on Workforce Development Recipe 5O: Focus on Youth This recipe focuses on youth and how to aid them in their development and growth, with an eye to the future of Economic Development. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 6: INFRASTRUCTURE AS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Recipe 6A: City Comprehensive Management Plan This plan would compile and prioritize the city’s infrastructure and its improvements, with an eye to the future of Economic Development. Recipe 6B: Transportation/Distribution Expense Pooling This will identify opportunities for businesses to participate in transportation expense pooling. Recipe 6C: Broadband expansion This recipe focuses on enhancing the city’s existing broadband connections, which can help with business recruitment and retention. Recipe 6D: Recruit Wind Farms This project seeks to diversify the city’s economy through the recruitment of wind farms to the region. Recipe 6E: Utility Undergrounding This project is a method to enhance aesthetics by placing utilities underground, especially through low-cost and no-cost programs. Recipe 6F: Public Works Projects as Economic Development This recipe seeks to identify public works projects that further economic development. Recipe 6G: Parks and Recreation Projects as Economic Development This recipe seeks to identify parks and recreation projects that further economic development. Page 4 Recipe 6H: Construct and Implement Beachfront Park Master Plan This recipe will focus on the construction and implementation of the Beachfront Park Master Plan Recipe 6I: Harbor Facilities in coordination with Harbor District This recipe focuses on enhancing the existing relationship with the Harbor District for economic development of Harbor Facilities. Recipe 6J: New City Hall as Downtown Civic Anchor. This recipe would emphasize the new City Hall building as a downtown anchor for civic uses. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 7: BEAUTIFICATION AND TOURISM ATTRACTION Recipe 7A: Strategic Arts Plan This plan will outline priority art projects the city will lead and partner with the community on. Recipe 7B: Music and Arts Capital of Northern California This recipe focuses on marketing Crescent City as the music and arts capital of northern California through events and activities. Recipe 7C: Tourism Marketing This recipe focuses on enhancing the city’s tourism marketing efforts. Recipe 7D: Attract More Day Visitors from Neighboring Counties There are hundreds of thousands of residents in neighboring counties that can visit Crescent City with less than a two-hour drive. How many of them actually make the trip? Does Crescent City invest any marketing effort into promoting such locally based day trips? Day visitors from neighboring counties can be instrumental to increasing the tourism economy. Recipe 7E: Brownfields Grants A “Brownfield” is a contaminated site, which are often vacant or underutilized due to the contamination. The State and Federal governments offer a number of funding programs for the cleanup and re-use of such sites. This recipe seeks to identify brownfields and grants to remedy the toxic sites for future use. Recipe 7F: Custom Crescent City Brand A custom brand could unify the city in its effort to market itself and its projects. Recipe 7G: Hotel Capacity and Occupancy Analysis This project will help the city in understanding existing hotel capacity and occupancy. Recipe 7H: Attract Modern High-End Hotel Based on findings from the recipe above, the city may consider attractive a modern high-end hotel. Recipe 7I: Hanging Flower Baskets and Tree Well Adoption Programs This recipe is an easy way to involve the community and beautify its corridors. Recipe 7J: Lead the Creation of Regional Events (such as “Found the North Coast Regional Tourism Partnership”) Regional events can aid in boosting the tourism economy. Could Crescent City partner with Fort Bragg, Ferndale, Fortuna, Arcata, Eureka, Trinidad, Klamath, and Brookings to promote a “North Coast” coalition for marketing the region? Recipe 7K: Local Events Local events invite the community to participate in activities and activate underutilized spaces. Page 5 Recipe 7L: Utility Box Program This is another easy way to beautify objects which go unnoticed and involve the community to design them through art. Recipe 7M: Lighthouse Cove RV Park The RV Park is a huge asset for the city and this recipe seeks to capitalize upon that. Recipe 7N: Wayfinding Signage Wayfinding signage will aid people in navigating the city and creating a distinct experience. Recipe 7O: Establish a Business Improvement District (BID) A BID aids businesses in creating a City fund for business-related infrastructure improvements in a specified district. Recipe 7P: Collaboration with Airport The airport is another asset for the city which could be enhanced, and this recipe seeks to do just that. Recipe 7Q: Cultural Arts Center and Youth Space Youth are an important part of the economy and this recipe seeks to provide them with a space dedicated to the youth. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 8: DOWNTOWN ENHANCEMENT Recipe 8A: Art Alley/Fountain Plaza to Front Street “Design Charrette” This area can be activated through a design charrette process with community involvement. Recipe 8B: Phantom Art Gallery Program This recipe will take vacant spaces and use them art gallery spaces until they are rented out. Often, such programs decrease vacancies by making leasable spaces look more appealing and drawing attention to them. Recipe 8C: Downtown Parklet Program This project will provide for outdoor seating by replacing a few on-street parking spaces. Recipe 8D: Façade Improvement Program This recipe could provide businesses with an opportunity to improve their business storefront through upgrades funded by loans or grants. Recipe 8E: Downtown Arts District This recipe would create a downtown arts district to promote the city as an arts capital. Recipe 8F: Pop Up Business Program This recipe would allow temporary businesses to use a “pop-up” to sell goods/services as a temporary or experimental low-cost-start-up business. Recipe 8G: Downtown Beautification Club This recipe will identify a group of people to lead the beautification of downtown. Recipe 8H: Better Block Program The better block program is a way to use temporary infrastructure to implement permanent infrastructure improvements. Recipe 8I: Downtown Business Startup Incentive Program This project will use methods to incentivize businesses to open in vacant downtown spaces. Recipe 8J: Strategically Eliminate One Key Vacancy This project will focus on removing one vacancy as a means of creating a cascading effect. Page 6 Recipe 8K: Explore a Vacancy Tax This project will analyze the pros and cons of a vacancy tax. Recipe 8L: Explore High Lease Rate Tax This project will analyze the pros and cons of a high-lease-rate tax. Recipe 8M: Allow and Attract etailers An “etailer” is a retail store that primarily conducts business on-line (such as selling knitted hats on Etsy). The bulk of the leased space consists of light manfufcturing, assembly, office, and shipping, though a small portion of the space that faces the street looks and feels like a retail store. This recipe will identify regulations preventing etailers and strategies to rewrite the regulations to promote and recruit etailers. Recipe 8N: Allow and Attract Retailfacturers A “retailfacturer” is a light manufacturing business with a small storefront. These are typically not allowed in commercial districts but are a great way to fill vacant spaces. This recipe will identify regulations preventing Retailfacturers and rewrite them to promote and recruit Retailfacturers. Recipe 8O: Recruit a Downtown Anchor Tenant This project will focus on bringing in a prominent business to be situated in downtown for the benefit of the entire district. ECONOMIC COOKBOOK SECTION 9: BUSINESS ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS Recipe 9A: Create Business of the Year Program This recipe will create an award for business of the year. Recipe 9B: Annual Sustainability Business Award This recipe will create an award to recognize the sustainability efforts of a business. Recipe 9C: Shop Local Campaign This campaign will focus on shopping in crescent city versus buying online. Page 7