Economic & Community Development Committee Minutes

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File 2024_0208_ecdc_minutes.docx
Meeting date: 
Thursday, February 8, 2024

Economic & Community Development Committee Meeting

February 8, 2024

5:30pm, City Hall

AGENDA

  1. Call to order 5:35 pm
  2. Review & Approve December 14, 2023 minutes
    1. Doug makes the motion to approve the minutes as presented; Carrie seconds. The motion passes.
  3. Parking Discussion
    1. Guest: Johnson Hall representative - Michael Miclon
    2. Brenda Shepard - assistant to the CEO of Camden National Bank is working with JH. To use the CNB Mechanic Street parking lot for volunteers, staff and artists.
    3. Would also like to use it on “load in” and “load out” days.
    4. CNB does not want any vehicles in that lot overnight.
    5. Wes Littlefield is working on a script to use when talking with private parking owners.
    6. About 175 cars average estimated for shows, which was the number of cars that parked during a recent Kennebec Savings Bank event at Johnson Hall and there were no complaints from attendees or downtown folks.
    7. JH wants to be proactive as possible about informing downtown folks and businesses when events will be happening.
    8. Need to have the parking map done by mid-March anyway. 
    9. Question:  Have you prioritized the private parking lots?
      1. The one on Mechanic Street; Reny’s, the smaller CNB lot by the Library, Key Bank (ATM) lot. 
    10. Melissa shared 8 different samples of parking lot maps for the committee members to review and provide input on what they like.
  4. Brownfields Update
    1. A consultant company has been selected - SME - and will be signing the contract next week.
    2. $100,000 listed as the last phase of the project can be used for a variety of work, depending on needs.
  5. Flooding situation:
    1. Melissa shared that FEMA representatives have been in the area the past couple of days encouraging residents especially to go online and apply for assistance by providing the information on what damage they incurred as a result of the December 18th storm.
  6. Econ Dev Grant Funding Opportunities
    1. Community Resilience Action Grant
      1. Max $50,000. 72 specific items are no match.
      2. Due March 29
      3. 10% match if not pursuing one of the 72 items
      4. CAG2024-4-ProgramStatement_FINAL_3.docx
    2. Community Resilience Energy Efficiency Priorities - due next Friday
      1. Min $80,000 max $100,000. No match requirement. Due Next Friday 2/16
      2. RFA 202312241 EEPG FINAL.docx
      3. RFA 202312241 QA Summary FINAL.docx
      4. RFA 202312241 EEPG Application.docx
      5. Melissa was hoping that the new boiler wastewater needed to purchase would be a match for this funding, but it needs to qualify for Efficiency Maine’s specifications. embp_mcode_CI.HeatNGSoln.ReBrand.1223.pdf.
    3. MDOT Infrastructure Adaptation Fund
      1. Gardiner qualified for the program - and applied for a Maine Avenue Pump Station Generator.
    4. CDBG Downtown Revitalization - did not go for for the arcade. Project was not far enough along in the planning phase to be eligible.
    5. CDBG Community Enterprise -
      1. Would like to submit a letter of intent by Feb 23 for Dearborn Park
      2. Working with landscape architect for concept plan and drawings
      3. 2024 CE LOI.pdf
      4. 2024 CE App_1.pdf
  7. Action plan steps for downtown master plan:
    1. Melissa handed out the 10 pages of the plan - implementation overview
    2. Would like to use this plan to decide priorities
    3. Tamara will develop some parameters to assess the recommendations of the plan and send to Melissa for a rubric
  8. Planning for Incentivizing/Encouraging Economic Development
    1. It is a challenge to encourage development because it takes so much money to get the rents that might cover the investment.  And can they recoup their investment?
    2. Building owners often don’t get their return out of their investment.
  9. Adjourn at 7:06 pm.

Next Meeting: March 14, 2024