Laserfiche WebLink
program. He said the State also funded and worked with small business development centers, <br />which were an excellent resource for small businesses. The State had an international trade team <br />based in Portland. <br /> <br />Mr. Rygas asked if economic innovation was the same as high tech. Mr. Warren said innovation <br />was part of high tech, which was an industry cluster. Ms. Rygas asked if the State had any <br />expectations of the businesses that approached it for help. Mr. Warren said his agency had been <br />charged by the State legislature to create 17,000 jobs in the biennium, and that would be the first <br />question he asked of businesses. He would focus his efforts where there was the most likelihood <br />of job creation. Ms. Rygas asked how much staff time the department spent on the Eugene- <br />Springfield area. Mr. Warren said he tried to divide his time over the entire region, and his <br />office was in Eugene. <br /> <br />Mr. Proudfoot asked Mr. Warren if he could provide examples of things other cities had done in <br />terms of economic development that Eugene was not doing. Mr. Warren said Eugene lacked an <br />enterprise zone, which were important elements in business development. It was a way of saying <br />the community was open for business. He thought it was a huge disadvantage that Eugene did <br />not have one. <br /> <br />Ms. Teninty asked if there were any best management practices regarding streamlining of <br />regulations. Mr. Warren said there was a regulatory streamlining effort going on in Salem right <br />now, and he anticipated it would result in some best management practices. <br /> <br />Mr. Bowerman asked if the governor's executive orders regarding atmospheric warming and <br />sustainability had any impact on the department's approach to its task. Mr. Warren said not <br />directly. However, some of the incentives were discretionary on the part of the governor's office <br />and require his personal approval, so there some accountability in that sense. <br /> <br />The committee took a brief meeting break. <br /> <br /> 5. Land Supply <br /> <br />The committee heard a presentation on land supply issues from Rick Duncan of Duncan and <br />Brown. Mr. Duncan noted his authorship of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce's 2000 <br />industrial and commercial lands studies. He discussed the results of the study, saying it was an <br />attempt to determine where the community was in terms of the amount of land available in the <br />mid-point of a 20-year period. <br /> <br />Mr. Duncan encouraged the committee to think of the land supply as a component of economic <br />development. He said that 80 percent of job growth comes from local businesses, but those <br />businesses must have some room to expand to accommodate job growth. They could either build <br />or redevelop. He said the community's building stock was aging and did not fit the needs of <br />modern industrial users. For that reason, it was important to consider the location of lands and <br />the potential of redevelopment of under-utilized properties: His study indicated that the <br /> <br />MINUTES--Mayor's Committee on Economic Development March 8, 2004 Page 8 <br /> <br /> <br />