Economic Development Authority Meeting Date: September 28, 2026
To: Members of the Economic Development Authority
From: Scott Wopata, Community Development Director
Emery John, Interim Program Coordinator
Title
Work Plan Updates
Body
Action Requested:
Discussion and Input.
Summary Report:
Staff and committees have continued to make progress on the approved EDA workplan. As previously discussed, our timeline is a living document, meant to reflect a dynamic and honest projection of internal capacity and external constraints. Please review the original and redlined workplan timeline, attached.
Priority #1: Financial Assistance Overhaul
The Loan Committee has met and discussed the focus of downtown and legacy businesses, even those outside of the downtown core. They also discussed the difficulties with maintaining large historic buildings, which speaks to a different scale of financial assistance than a $25-50,000 program per award.
While the pilot program to be launched in the coming months is likely in that “mid-range” scale, larger buildings with bigger maintenance needs and historic significance are likely going to be a focus for future (potentially near term) programmatic design.
Staff have continued to develop this conversation into a drafted program, though now needs EDA input to:
Gather consensus on committee work
Determine the relative budget of the program.
Priority #3: Redevelopment Committee Work
The Redevelopment Committee has been busy reviewing the specific barriers to redevelopment of some critical sites while reviewing proposals of potential redevelopment.
The committee reviewed the proposal for 5th and Washington from Good Neighbor Homes/Street Front. The original priorities of a liquor store location, commercial, replacement parking, and affordable housing were not deemed feasible by Good Neighbor Homes. As the only financially feasible option was a Senior Cooperative which would require land donation and TIF, the committ...
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