Minutes: Redevelopment Authority; March 21, 2006 7PM

Evansville Redevelopment Authority

Regular Meeting

Tuesday, March 21, 2006, 7:00 PM

City Hall, 31 S. Madison St., Evansville, WI

MINUTES
The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM. Present were Ald. Anderson, Betsy Ahner, Dean Arnold, and John Decker. Ald. Aikman was absent. Chairperson Hagen and Vice-Chairperson Eager arrived during the discussion of agenda item 8a. James Otterstein, Rock County Economic Development Manager, and Bill Connors, Executive Director, also were present.

The agenda was modified as follows: add item 8b, trade market analysis study; add item 8c, discussion of encouraging Main Street businesses to apply for financial assistance for alternative entrances; add item 8d, discussion of date of April regular meeting; and change preliminary agenda item 8b, closed session, to item 8e. The agenda was approved as modified.

Motion by Ahner, seconded by Anderson, to approve the minutes of the February 26, 2006, regular meeting with on correction: on page 2, it should read, “Based on a suggestion by Mr. Otterstein.” Motion passed.

Citizen Appearances Other Than Agenda Items Listed None.

Unfinished Business
The commissioners continued their discussion of the “pay back” provision in section 5 of the agreement with Triple B Investments regarding the Badger Coach Building. Mr. Connors presented two versions of possible new text for the provision and a calculation of the annual payments that would be due from Triple B Investments to the Redevelopment Authority under either version of the new text. Roger Berg for Triple B Investments said the owner would prefer to have the city assessor increase the value of the property on the property tax roll so that it complied with the target value in the agreement. The commissioners directed Executive Director Connors to ask the city assessor to look at the property again and see whether the value on the property tax roll should be increased.

New Business
The commissioners discussed why the property at 357 Union St. was omitted from TID No. 5. Jim Krueger, the owner of the property, said his parcel should not have been excluded based on a conversation between Executive Director Connors and Rick Symdon of Symdon Chevrolet, as disclosed in email message from Mr. Connors to members of the Redevelopment Authority and Plan Commission. Mr. Krueger said there never was an offer from Symdon Chevrolet to purchase his property. He wanted to know how the city was going to make this right.

Mr. Connors said he had a conversation with Rick Symdon months before the Redevelopment Authority started discussing the possibility of enlarging TID No. 5 in 2005. Mr. Symdon asked Mr. Connors if Symdon Chevrolet’s and Mr. Krueger’s property could be included in TID No. 5. When Mr. Connors asked what improvements Symdon wanted to make and might seek assistance for, Mr. Symdon said the dealership might want to acquire Mr. Krueger’s property, knock down the building, and expand their parking lot. Mr. Connors said he told Mr. Symdon this would not generate tax increment revenue, and instead would reduce the amount of tax increment revenue, and so it was not a good candidate for tax increment assistance. Mr. Connors said that months later, when the Redevelopment Authority started discussing enlarging TID No. 5, he remembered this earlier conversation, and excluded Mr. Krueger’s property from the list of parcels to avoid creating a risk of losing tax increment revenue. Chairperson Hagen said he spoke with Mr. Symdon, and Mr. Symdon told him Symdon Chevrolet has no immediate plans to acquire Mr. Krueger’s property and to knock down the building. Roger Berg said he also said he spoke to Mr. Symdon, and Mr. Symdon never asked Mr. Connors to exclude Mr. Krueger’s property. Mr. Connors said that is correct.

The commissioners asked Mr. Krueger what sort of redevelopment project he might come forward with if his parcel is added to TID No. 5. Mr. Krueger said it is not his obligation to come forward with a proposal in order for his property to be included in the district.

Executive Director Connors suggested that the Redevelopment Authority could publish a notice asking if anyone wants to have their property added to TID No. 5. Motion by Eager, seconded by Anderson, directing Mr. Connors to publish a notice informing property owners that they could come to the April meeting of the Redevelopment Authority and request to have their property included in or removed from TID No. 5. Motion passed.

Mr. Otterstein informed the commissioners that the Economic Development Committee has been working with Sortis LLC to identify economic-development related grants the city might apply for, and tentatively concluded that two grants the city might apply for could be used to fund a trade market analysis study. A trade market analysis would examine where the people come from who purchase goods and services in Evansville and where the residents of Evansville purchase goods and services. This data could be helpful to existing businesses for ideas for new goods and services to provide, and for potential new businesses in Evansville. The estimated cost of the study is $19,000, and would take 3 months to a year to complete. In addition to or instead of the grant, sources of funding for the study could be the Economic Development Committee, Redevelopment Authority, and the Chamber of Commerce.

The commissioners discussed how to encourage Main Street businesses to apply for financial assistance for creating or improving alternative (i.e., rear or side) entrances to their businesses. Ms. Ahner expressed concern that no downtown businesses have yet applied for this assistance. She suggested that maybe the Redevelopment Authority should establish what it was willing to contribute to such projects, e.g., 30% of the cost to a maximum of $1,000 of assistance. Mr. Otterstein suggested that the Building Improvement Grant Program could be modified to provide assistance with alternative entrances.

Chairperson Hagen suggested that maybe there should be a meeting between David Sauer, City Engineer, and downtown businesses owners to discuss how difficult it would be for them to create alternative entrances to their businesses.

Tess Gruenstein, intern from Beloit College, briefed the commissioners on her efforts to reach downtown businesses owners about the 2007 Main Street Reconstruction Project, and asked for suggestions on how to encourage business owners to speak with her. One suggestion was that Executive Director Connors should work with Mr. Sauer to create a fact sheet about the project to distribute to downtown business owners, in hopes this would stimulate their interest in discussing the project. Another suggestion was that Ms. Gruenstein should seek assistance from Becky Heimerl and Trish Graves at the Chamber of Commerce.

Executive Director Connors reported that the next regular meeting date for the Authority, Tuesday, April 18, conflicts with the Council reorganization meeting that evening. The consensus of the commissioners was the next meeting of the Authority should be on Tuesday, April 25.

Motion by Eager, seconded by Anderson, to go into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. Sec. 19.85(1)(e) to discuss possibly pursuing the purchase of or acquisition of options to purchase property located within TID No. 5, subject to approval by the Common Council. The motion passed unanimously on a roll call vote at 8:20 PM.

Motion by Anderson, seconded by Ahner, to adjourn. Motion passed.

The meeting adjourned at 8:52 PM.

Prepared by

William E. Connors, Executive Director