Report Card on Elk Grove Economic Development at Tonight's City Council Meeting
April 23, 2015 | At tonight's Elk Grove City Council meeting, members and the public will hear a critique on the city’s economic de...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2014/04/report-card-on-elk-grove-economic.html
April 23, 2015 |
At tonight's Elk Grove City Council meeting, members and the
public will hear a critique on the city’s economic development efforts.
The critique, the so-called Elk Grove Market Study, is an
independent study of the city's economic development efforts that was prepared
by the Sacramento-based Center for Strategic Economic Research. The 57-page
report provided an analysis focusing on eight areas.
In the eight categories the city received four satisfactory,
two excellent and two needs improvement grades. On the plus side, the report
said the city did an excellent job of reducing up-front costs for development,
while doing a poor job on developing a comprehensive economic development
marketing plan.
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| The market study says The Outlet Collection at Elk Grove will not provide "a high-value employment base." |
The report also discussed the recent developments with the
city’s unfinished shopping center. The report noted that while completion of
the project will help the city's development center by generating more sales
tax revenues, it "will not necessarily contribute to a high-value
employment base."
The shopping center's current owner, the Howard Hughes
Company (HHC), recently announced that the facility previously known as The Elk
Grove Promenade would be converted to an outlet mall dubbed The Outlet Collection at Elk Grove. Although the conversion plan has offered a glimpse of
hope for the eyesore on the city’s south side, HHC has not announced any signed
leases for the downsized facility.
Presenting the report will be Randy Starbuck, the city's
beleaguered economic development director. Starbuck has come under recent
scrutiny not only from Elk Grove residents for the city's inability to attract
high-paying employers, but the city council, as well.
At the March 26, 2014 meeting City Council Member Pat Hume
scolded Starbuck saying he had done a poor job of communicating the city's
progress. Hume's comments came after several residents said they wanted to hear
a report on the city's efforts on attracting employers and performance
measurement standards.
"Randy, you got to do a better job of marketing yourself,"
Hume said. "I hope you heard that tonight."
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5 comments
Each council member up for reelection will probably fall all over themselves trying to take credit for the mall and any other good economic news that comes along. City staff will be the fall guys for any bad news that happens. Meanwhile, keep racking up the minimum wage jobs!
Elk Grove Thriving! - for the developers of bland tract subdivisions and high density low income housing projects and for the highly paid city staff with rich benefit packages.
If you look on page 26 of the report it talks about the importance of the SEPA.
The reports says "the City is likely to be pressured to rezone portions of this area to residential, retail, or other uses based on more immediate market demand."
It also says the "it will also be important to acknowledge that speculative development is likely to be slow in initial years; however, SEPA sites may be very attractive to firms looking for space-through a build-to-suit arrangement".
In other words, be patient and don't rush into things if you want the high-paying employers to locate here.
Anyone wanna bet this won't happen?
Mr. Anderson, agree completely. Campaign contributions are a very powerful incentive to accommodate the short-term market. The jobs sound bite is to help push through the SOI, then it's off to the races for the homebuilders and retail developers.
" off to the races for the homebuilders and retail developers"
More boring subdivisions, strip malls and apartments?
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