Receive Update on Strategic Plan Initiative - Corridor Improvement Program

The City Council's Strategic Plan includes an initiative to improve the image of key corridors such as Highway 10, Highway 47, Nowthen Boulevard, and Armstrong Boulevard (this is not an all inclusive list). On April 12, 2016, the City Council directed Staff to engage stakeholders along these key corridors to identify issues and solutions to said issues. Given that many of these stakeholders are community business owners, the EDA's input is appreciated on approach and deliverables.

Notification is not required at this time.

Key outcome indicators of the Strategic Initiative itself are an adopted Statement of Goals of how to improve the image of key corridors as well as targeting 30% of properties for clean up per year of the plan.

A significant amount of discussion took place at the April 12, 2016 City Council Work Session where this topic was discussed. General consensus of the City Council was that the City should not define the issue itself nor simply propose a list of solutions to area stakeholders. Instead, direction was given to look more comprehensively and collaboratively and engage stakeholders. Council did clarify that this should be a simple engagement process, perhaps as one (1) or two (2) meetings. Finally, the City Council clarified that this initiative is not about code enforcement itself, which is a separate process. This initiative appears to be more incentive based and collaborative.

One step in the process prior to engaging stakeholders was to define the goal of the process. In other words, what is the question we should ask attendees? For purposes of starting a discussion, but not necessarily recommending as the question to be asked, Staff poses the following:

• "How can the City improve the image of Highway 10 (and other corridors)?"

Additionally, in order to maintain momentum on this initiative while the broader policy discussion unfolded, the City Council felt comfortable in the City (Staff) identifying 'low hanging fruit' (low-cost, high-benefit) initiatives that will incrementally improve the image of these corridors. A copy of findings from a recent Staff tour is included for review.

This case and initiative are being handled as part of normal Staff duties.

Generally, Staff would like to seek feedback from the EDA on an option to evolve this into a broader Highway 10 Update for area stakeholders and use that as a spring board to discuss the image initiative. Staff would also like to discuss the merits of individual business visits as opposed to a workshop/open house setting.

No formal action is being requested. Feedback on the above discussion points is welcome.