Item B - Econ.Dev.Comm. Recomm. - Laserfiche WebLink

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· The City lacks a clear policy for economic development. Committee members stressed that the City should have a clear, consistent, and focused commitment to economic development that can remain stable through business cycles. · Wages in the community are low relative to state and national averages. · The City's regulations and land use code are too complex, inconsistent, and burdensome, and the rules are inconsistently applied. · Land supply is an important issue for commercial and industrial development and there is no agreement about the existing supply of land in Eugene. · Redevelopment of underused sites should be encouraged. · Infrastructure is important. · There are few public financial incentives for new or growing businesses. If the City had incentives, what should it require in return for the incentives? What types of businesses should be offered public incentives? The role of public incentives is controversial in community development. · The City should support ecologically'sustainable businesses and business practices. · Economic development strategies, or lack thereof, have regional impacts, and policies addressing it should take that into consideration. · There is a perception--locally and even outside the state--that the City of Eugene is a place with a policy and pOlitical environment that is indifferent, if not hostile, toward business and economic growth. SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF DISCUSSION The Committee also discussed at some length whether it should move directly from issues (problems) directly to policy recommendations (solutions), or whether it needed an intermediate step of developing principles that would provide some direction for the types of tools to be considered and adopted. It discussed draft principles but eventually voted not to adopt principles, in part because of time constraints, and in part because a majority of members believed that they could get to the heart of their assignment (agreeing on tools) without having agreed on principles. At least four issues of importance to many of the Committee members are not addressed explicitly in the recommendations. The Committee believes some discussion of these issues is important here to provide context for the recommendations that follow. Additionally, the City Council should consider how future policy changes affect these issues: · Wages. The Committee agrees that one of the fundamental objective of economic development should be to increase wages for Eugene's citizens. The Committee discussed language to make incentives contingent on providing some minimum number of jobs with wages higher than the countywide median. In the end, problems with definition, measurement, Page 6 Recommendations July 2004 Mayor's Committee on Economic Development