Wondering And redevelopment authority to order.

Roll call, please.

Bowie.

Here.

Coleman?

Here.

Joast.

Here.

Naker?

Here.

Yang, here.

Chair Johnson?

Here.

And Commissioner Kim is excused.

There are six present and one excused absent.

Item number one is MIN 26-15 approval of the April 2026 HRA meeting minutes.

Alrighty.

Well, I hope everyone had a chance to review the minutes.

Our oh so important meeting minutes.

I'll take a motion from Vice Chair Jose to approve.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Six in favor, zero opposed.

The minutes are adopted.

Item number two for discussion is RES 26-752.

Authorization to designate DC Commercial and JBang as development partners or another entity that is affiliated with the control affiliated with and controlled by DC Commercial and JBang developer.

PIN 1929-22210112, District 6, Ward 5.

Thank you so much.

Exact project we were talking about.

And so we did have a chance to hear from the developers last week as well, or I guess two weeks ago, yes, because it was last week, was the fifth Wednesday.

But we had a chance to listen to them.

We asked a few questions.

Also heard from Commissioner Kim, who, while she's not here today, she did give a lot of responses and a lot of comments around and in support of the project.

And so would love for those to be continued to be noted for the record.

At this time, I'll take a motion from uh Commissioner Ying to approve.

But is there any discussion?

Commissioner Yang.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

Well, I see the representatives from DC commercial on JBang here with us in the crowd today, so I want to say thank you for coming back and joining us.

So I want to say thank you to you, David, and I wish you success in your project, and also thank you to the representatives from JB Vang for your important role in playing um the role of a mentor.

I mean, you have clearly been in the space of being an emerging gene developer too.

So it's just so great to see the ways in which you continue to really invest in other companies to grow to be at your scale too.

And so I I commend you all, and again, wish you you and the entire team success on your project here.

Thanks, Commissioner Yang.

Any other commissioners?

Well, I echo a lot of your sentiments.

I think one of the things that's really unique about this project is just how that the mentorship component I think is super notable.

It's something that I hope in that uh we continue to see as the years progress, especially with the full knowledge of how hard sometimes it can be to break into being a developer.

Especially, you know, I think one of the questions especially is being a um ULI ready cohort alumni.

One of the questions that came up in our cohort was around um how long are you emerging, and you know, just how long is an emerging developer emerging before they make it, and so I just really was excited to hear from David as well.

So as just hearing from the strategy behind the partnership with JB Bang.

So Commissioner Yang has moved for a motion for support.

All those in favor?

Aye, aye.

Aye, all opposed, six in favor, zero opposed.

The resolution is adopted.

Item number three, sr twenty-87.

Permit ready plans.

Alrighty, so the next two items we'll do a staff report on them.

I am glad to see Mr.

Spencer back with us.

Miller Johnson, excuse me.

But yes, welcome.

Come on back.

Chair, commissioners, good afternoon.

Yeah, my last name's a mouthful, so thank you.

Um, I am back here to talk about permanent ready plans today.

Excited to give you guys an update.

So uh just in background to start us off.

Uh, how'd we get here?

I think you know this, but in 2023, the city council adopted the one to six unit housing amendments.

These comprehensively overhauled the residential zoning districts in the city by allowing up to four to six units on almost all residentially zoned properties.

As an additional implementation step, PED published the new dwelling toolkit last fall.

This is basically just a guide to add an accessory dwelling unit to your property if you'd like to.

Uh, Emma Brown gave a presentation on this um in the fall about it.

You might recall that.

And since then, there's been continued interest in decreasing barriers to neighborhood scale uh infill housing across the city, and we understand that to be a key priority of the HRA.

So, in response to that, we are embarking on this permit ready plans effort.

Now, permit-ready plans are a set of technical construction level documents that are best prepared by a consultant.

So, to procure a consultant, we release an RFP in March with responses due in April.

We received three responses and selected one team that we're really excited about.

We're currently contracting with that selected team, and the budget for this project, as outlined as a program of the HRA Housing Trust Fund, is 200,000.

So the overall goal for the project is to develop at least five plan sets for different small-scale housing types that the city can make available to the community for free.

To do this, the consultant will begin by conducting a design analysis focused on understanding typical site and lock conditions.

So they'll review architectural characteristics that are unique and important in St.

Paul.

And they'll also take a look at different surrounding property scenarios because we want to ensure that these plans work in a variety of places in the city and fit in with what's around them.

They'll also conduct a feasibility analysis to understand anticipated financial viability of each plan.

The consultant will provide some guidance on maintenance.

So, like what are the thresholds for when the plans need to be updated in the future because of some sort of like zoning or building code change.

And we'll also work with the CAO on liability and ownership of the plans, because that could influence how we roll them out publicly.

The consultant will also prepare the different plan sets, right?

So perhaps that could include an ADU, a single-family house that's um maybe uniquely set up for a narrow small lot.

They may come up with a couple different duplex layouts, the types that will kind of determine with them throughout the project.

And then finally, they'll package all this information in a well-designed program catalog that I'm personally really excited about because it's an opportunity for us to get kind of like a marketing deliverable out of this, where the community members can actually like flip through this program catalog, look at the different variations of the housing types, and understand it in a more user-friendly way than just like those construction level documents.

For city staff, we will focus on outreach opportunities.

So we're hoping to do some interviews with developers and anticipated users of these plans.

We'll also be responsible for internal coordination with departments, and that'll be primarily um particularly important in this project because we're looking forward to partnering with BSI in a pretty robust way because in order to get to a place where these plan sets can be considered permit ready, we'll really need to all be invested and bought into the process.

And then finally, we'll go through the review process.

So we'll bring the plans, the program catalog to you all and to the city council to go over everything.

Now we expect this project to kick off in June.

Um at that point, the consultant will just start with the design analysis.

We'll meet with stakeholder groups throughout the summer and probably into the fall, just to better understand what they're looking for in these sorts of plan sets.

Feasibility analysis will occur throughout the fall and into the winter.

At that point, we'll also be reviewing maintenance and liability of the plans.

And then we're hoping to really have one plan set that runs out ahead of the rest so that we can work through some of the potential roadblocks early and kind of get that internal departmental coordination underway.

That'll hopefully make the other four plan sets go a lot more efficiently as we move from next spring into next summer.

So all that being said, we're hoping to have the five plan sets done sometime next summer.

It's a timeline just over a year.

That about wraps it up for what I've got.

I will just note on staffing that I'm currently serving as a project manager, but I would describe myself as interim project manager until Emma Brown comes back from maternity leave, which we're expected to welcome her back later this month.

So excited about that.

At that time, she'll take over as project manager when she's up speed, and I'll play more of a support role.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

I see two hands, I believe.

Yes.

So I'll start with Vice Chair Joe's and then I'll go over to Commissioner Neaker.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much for being here.

I have a question about, so I understand that there will be permit ready plans for maybe a couple of different housing types.

How will and they will you know be able to be used in a variety of typical site conditions and locations?

How will someone, if they want to use the plans, know if they apply to their their location?

And then, second question, if if they somewhat apply, and maybe there's something that needs to be tweaked, is there any path for that person other than like um having to basically hire their own consultant to develop new plans?

Yeah, sure.

Johnson, uh, Commissioner Jost, good questions.

So uh first question on location.

I think the consultant has expressed interest in typically when they do this, they like these plan sets to be available and usable in any zoning district that that building type would be allowed in.

So that's that's the goal.

However, we do have a particularly large city, and um how that rolls out here might be kind of different than in some other places where permit ready plans have been prepared for more like smaller mid-sized cities.

We'll have to figure out if we have certain plans that might be more appropriate in some neighborhoods with certain lot conditions versus others.

Um so it's kind of a TBD, but the goal is to just hopefully they are universal and usable across the board.

Um, your second question was on uh the path for if they have to hire their own consultant.

So for that, I think you know, the goal is for these plans to be um, you know, ready for a building permit.

So vetted through city staff and um and applicable.

But um if if there is additional like site plan review needed because maybe there is an extra special unique lot, I think that is something that might still be on the table that doesn't um that diminishes some of the importance of the plans, but at the same time just getting a free plan set that you can start from, even if you have to still go through site plan review, is still a step forward.

So that that still may be necessary, but hopefully we can avoid that when when possible.

All right, thanks.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Neaker.

Thanks, Chair.

Um, thanks so much, Mr.

Miller-Johnson.

I am excited about this as well.

I think when we originally started talking about the idea of permit ready pre-approved plans, it was in the context of ADUs and the ADU toolkit.

Um, but it seems like this is gonna encompass more types of structures than just an ADU.

Um, so first of all, can you?

Maybe you said this, but I missed it.

Can you give some examples of what kinds of buildings might be covered by this?

And then secondly, assuming that ADUs are one of them.

Um, will part of the charge to the consultant also be integrating the the brochure that they come up with, the portfolio they come up with with the existing ADU toolkit.

It seems to me like it would be a very nice flow to have someone who wants to build an ADU go to the toolkit, immediately have access to the pre-approved plans and have those things really be seamless.

So those are my questions.

Yeah, Chair Johnson, Commissioner Naker, those are great ideas.

On the examples question, I we're kind of still kind of figuring out what exactly those typologies could and should be, and I think that's something that we'll work with the consultant right away in the beginning of this process to really iron out as they as they do their analysis of design and lot conditions because we really want the biggest bang for our buck here.

Like, what's gonna fit on most lots?

What will be most beneficial to the community?

Um, it would be uh we do definitely anticipate getting at least one ADU typology out of this.

Um, there are a lot of iterations, different versions of ADUs that you could have.

So maybe there's maybe we do end up with a couple.

One's just an ADU, maybe one's with ADU like over a garage or something.

Um, we'll see.

We know that can work on a lot of lots in the city.

Um, I think the small lot single family house is something that fits uniquely on like HRA owned sites or um or just narrow lots in the city could be really useful, even if it's just a single family house, it's still like for these underutilized properties, something that we could really benefit from, I think.

Um, as we go up from there, uh, there's a lot of different also versions of duplexes you can have.

We have a lot of them in our housing stock in the city, so side by side, up and down, those sorts of things.

Um, we'll see if that could make sense on um or kind of give us a good um output for this project as well.

Uh we've I've kind of started to think about like beyond that, what other like would it be worth doing a triplex or fourplex?

Um, and you start to have some diminishing returns on like how how universally those can be used, just based off lot size.

Um, so all that to be said, I think we're figuring it out, but um, but that'll be kind of a critical decision, and um, happy to bring that to you too once we get to that point.

Um, your other question was on.

I wrote a note, but I can't read it now.

Compiling, just integrating the toolkit.

Yes, the idea tool.

Um, that's a great idea.

I don't think we've really thought about that.

I mean, if there's opportunities to integrate um integrate this process with that, I think that's great.

That is set up to be like a user manual, definitely at like the highest level of kind of understanding, it's kind of an education tool, too.

Like, hey, you can do this, and this is like a quick version of how promote ready plans will obviously be be very technical.

That program catalog, though, that you mentioned, um, uh will hopefully pair nicely with that.

So I think that's a good flag, and I'll bring that up to consult.

Thank you, Commissioner Neaker.

Commissioner Coleman.

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks for this presentation.

I will be the fourth person today.

I'm really excited about this.

Um, I think this question applies more if we were to get into the larger, like three, four units, but it seems to me that the primary purpose of having these uh permit ready plans is to make it easier for people to develop in the city.

Seems to me like a secondary benefit is maybe to get the type of development that we want to see, development that fits in, you know, the architectural characteristics, melding with existing neighborhoods, etc.

Um, so I'm thinking about ways in which this having these permit ready plans cannot just make it easier, but we can kind of use them as an incentive potentially for people who want to develop.

Like if you're choosing these plans, obviously they're permit-ready, it's going to go a lot faster.

Which is a long lead up to ask a maybe simple question, which is how how much time do we anticipate that this would save for a developer or somebody who is just developing their first project to uh yeah, Chair Johnson, Commissioner Coleman, great question.

Um, I you know, I'm happy to report because of some of the uh recent ordinance changes or especially related to like the planning commission.

Our permitting times are going down, and and we're able to be more efficient through the process.

So that's great.

This will be an incentive to um you're absolutely right.

This is an incentivizing tool that I think we um can we should all brainstorm as a collective how to how to roll this out to to get the biggest benefit.

Um, you know, the HRA properties always stick in the back of my head is like a key thing.

Those are unique sites, and hopefully these can apply to them.

Um but uh let's see the question on a timing.

Um so I I do think you know, if we can it depends on the size of of uh uh housing types that have to go through site plan review.

Um and sometimes you know, like a single-family house, a duplex doesn't typically need to go through site plan review, so we're already saved time there.

Um, but having a plan set that you don't have to like reach out to and and kind of do your own um due diligence on to uh with different consultants or however to prepare for your lot.

I think um we'll save time like more independently, so it might not save as much time, like through the city process, but it would save time I think in your own independent journey.

Um that being said, I I do think that this should um when these are prepared just like straight away for building permits, it it will um decrease the time by a few months, I would assume, just in terms of the process that you'd have to go through.

Cool.

Thank you.

As we go forward, I feel like more of the questions are being kind of provoked by just learning more about it.

So I see the hands as curiosity.

So we'll go to Commissioner Bowie and then back to Commissioner Naker Acre.

Thank you, Chair Johnson, and thank you so much, Spencer.

I just have a question or two questions.

Um, one is what is the reach?

You might have said this a little bit earlier in your presentation, but what is the reach?

Because I just um imagine that there's so many different parcels.

I mean, there's massive amount of parcels, they have unique conditions, and might have different zoning types, different type of residential types.

So that's my first question.

And my second question, I'm I'm curious to know what the consultant as they're looking at, you know, uh potential sites or potential plans for uh areas that's ready that's permit ready.

If we're also taking into consideration, uh, like the cat board, which has their own jurisdiction of zoning, and if like the the county or Met Council, I know um I was in a development, pre-development meeting earlier around looking at uh utilizing uh min dot land and you know, not even knowing if MINDAT has like their own, I'm sure their own um technical process.

So I'm just curious to see if there's some partnership with the other entities as we're looking at what could be uh potential uh land for residentials that may not be city property or may not be just private property.

Just curious about that.

Yeah, Chair Johnson, uh Commissioner Bowie, those are great questions.

Um I think you know, again, I think the the goal is for these to be as universally applicable as possible throughout throughout the city.

So we are fortunate to have um actually a you know very robust uh block and street network that sets up our lots to be pretty streamlined compared to a lot of places in the country.

Um so I think we know, even if we're rolling this out at a large scale, that they should these plans should be able to work in the vast majority of places in the city.

Um but your question on um just other jurisdictions, I I that's an interesting one.

I hadn't really thought about that and made me think about um when we do stakeholder outreach, making sure that those folks are involved because at first I was envisioning that more as a reaching out to small scale developers, seeing like what they what they feel could be uh most beneficial from these plans, what they would like to see.

Um, but in addition to that, it's um maybe talking to affiliate organizations and other partners that have some land ownership or interest in the city.

Um, because I don't know, you know, with with our limited control, these will hopefully apply and be available anywhere that we have zoning jurisdiction in the city, right?

Um, so other places that may like the cat board area um is something I hadn't really thought about yet.

So I think um we'll let me think about that in the outreach process and be happy to get back to you on that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, Chair.

Um, just a couple thoughts that have come from the conversation.

One is I really appreciate Mr.

Miller Johnson, your comment that one of the types would be smaller single family homes.

I don't know if we officially have tiny homes in our zoning code lexicon.

I know that has a lot of different definitions, but the idea of making it easier for people to do more on smaller lots or harder to build lots um makes a lot of sense, and also to have smaller, more affordable homes.

Um, it also occurs to me that what you were saying about saving people the time of having to get those plans drawn up by somebody else on their own dime doesn't just save time but also hopefully saves costs, and we keep hearing about how difficult it is to even finance the building of new construction in general, and so my hope is that this helps people get past that obstacle.

Um, and then the last comment is just and this is spurred by I thought Miss Coleman's excellent question about like how will this really save people time?

Um I hear you saying a lot of this would be saving time and money on the individual person's end.

Um, but I do hope that we also do the work to socialize all of this with DSI, with the planning commission, maybe even with district councils, with BZA, with HPC.

I would hate for someone to have this permit ready plan presented and then get a whole ton of questions.

Some of them they may need to get, but some of them we might be able to avoid by just making sure the left hand knows what the right hand's doing.

Um, so anything we can do on that front in advance, I think would be appreciated.

Yeah, Chair Johnson, Commissioner Acre.

Um that's a great point.

I mean, this is a uniquely, I think, complex project that I think we're really excited, at least in the planning team to be taking on and and starting to have some of these challenging conversations.

But you're right, like we there's a number of different departments and divisions in the city that could be managing this project.

It kind of fits in a variety of places, and and we're doing it in long-range planning, and we're excited about that, but it's you know, it's it's not a we need a lot of buy-in from a lot of people on this, and it's it's both internally and then it's also with I think different review bodies as you flagged to make sure that this is um this is put in front of them.

So thank you.

Well, thank you so much for just being able to provide that update for us and to go a little bit more in depth afterwards as well with our questions.

I think folks are excited to just see what comes of it, and so I appreciate knowing the timeline and when we can kind of expect to see some of the plans and um I think one of the things that will be really helpful for us to talk about is where along the process we would like to see um feedback or updates as it moves along.

So just thinking about that, and that'll be what I look for commissioner's feedback on, whether or not we especially as we head into the second half of the year and want to schedule to bring uh Mr.

Miller Johnson back in front of us or not, if we want to wait for the conclusion of the uh of the overall study, which will most likely be next year.

So, we'll look to you all for that guidance.

Thank you so much for being here.

Item number four is 20 SR 26-88, 2026 housing redevelopment authority work plan.

All right, so in 2024, we had um uh something that resembled a work plan.

We had the same piece in 2025.

So this year we had anticipated doing one for 2026, so asked Director McMahon to come up with um something that I felt uh could resemble what the HRA's work plan looks like for this year.

There's a lot of things and moving pieces here, but it's meant to be a working document and honestly a preliminary gut check um with our commissioners to make sure that if there's things we want to add.

I know that for myself I have a couple of feedback comments from uh reviewing it from today, but if it's meant to be kind of like a discussion and open-ended for feedback and um questions and additions.

But um, do you want to take a minute to allow uh Director McMahon to give us the run through of what is written here currently as the 2026 working uh HRA work plan, um, and just want to say thank you for taking the time to put this together and also being able to encourage commissioners and put as we move along.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Commissioners, Melanie McMahon, interim director of department of planning and economic development.

And thank you, Chair, for that for that context.

I really appreciate it.

Um, this is the opening salvable.

This is the you know, bringing it forward for conversation, and so more than happy have conversation here now, obviously, but also to follow up to follow up individually, follow up as group.

If you have any questions, if there's anything you want more information on specifically, um, happy to find more time with with any of you to continue the conversation.

I'll start with housing and our broad goals in housing, looking both at starting with affordable housing as well as housing production, so really looking at that front end the strategic goal of increasing the production and preservation of affordable housing throughout St.

Paul and looking specifically in this goal at the financing and really being a resource, not only us individually with our financing, but also to help those that are you know interested in looking at developing affordable housing and what tools and financing sources are out there, whether we can be a conduit and a helpful resource to access other funding in capital as well as our own, with really that goal again to help that developer secure all funding sources to get to the closing date.

And you can look at specific projects this year for them that are there, two of which are new additional affordable housing units within our communities, two of which are rehab and updates of existing affordable housing units in our communities that would result with those closings and closing on more than 250 affordable housing units within the city of St.

Paul, but also then not just the closing and the financing, but actually getting residents and people in the buildings and looking at closing dates specifically, so really working and supporting those developers when completing the construction, getting to that certificate of occupancy, and as I always like to say, welcoming new friends to the neighborhood is what my kids would say when they're little and they'd see new housing going out, they'd be like, ooh, more friends, new friends.

Like, are there gonna be kids at the playground?

And so whenever I see housing going up, I'm like, friends in the neighborhood, this is fantastic.

More neighbors, and so wanting to have more friends in the neighborhood, wanting to have more neighbors and folks in our community with the opportunity to live um in within the city of St.

Paul.

Those four specific projects that we're anticipating closing would result in again an additional, and this would be new 252 affordable housing units.

Continuing with housing, looking both at housing instability and ownership opportunities.

A goal of preventing displacement and supporting economic stability.

Last year, opening the emergency rental assistance program, really having a goal to try and continue to refine and improve the program so that we can process additional applications, increasing our efficiencies and shortening the turnaround time to ensure that we can get as much of the money out to the folks that need it as quickly as possible to provide as many resources and support as possible.

We expect to be able to process over 700 applications this year, and with that approval rate, at what you know, looking at sort of past applications and what we anticipate for the approval rate, that would result in 385 to 455 applications, actually processed, approved, and paid.

So those are those are housing, those are individuals, those are families in our community providing that support.

So continuing to work on that to provide housing stability for folks, but also looking at ownership opportunity.

You know, a lot of what comes before you and a lot of the work that's done is on rental, but wanting to ensure that we are both wealth building and expanding our pathways to ownership.

That includes a down payment assistance fund, trying to increase the amount of individuals we can serve in that down payment assistance fund and opening the inheritance fund under the expanded guidelines that you just recently approved.

Looking next within economic development, both business supports and actual development opportunities within our city, wanting to ensure that we're investing in business as a community anchor, that we're fostering vibrant business corridors, supporting equitable business growth.

We're creating economic development strategy, and actually you'll hear next week on the economic development strategy where that is in process and what the goals and outcomes for that are.

So that's a little, you'll get a lot more details and information next week on that one.

But again, continuing to administer our commissional corridors fund, our business assistance fund, and creating and administering the downtown vitality fund.

But also looking at development opportunity, you know, just hearing from Spencer Miller-Johnson about permit-ready plans and really wanting to ensure that our land is utilized again to welcome new friends and neighbors and for our tax growth and development within our city.

So we plan on completing our eighth RFP for the inspiring communities projects and continuing to focus on those remaining neighborhood stabilization program projects as well.

We expect to complete marketing on all HRA lots that are identified as ready for sale and really hope like honey and refine.

You know, we've talked broadly about our HRA disposition strategy, but really having a year-to-year disposition strategy of what would be an RFB this year and what is next year.

Let's look out five years and be really refined so that you all know in your communities and can begin to socialize and talk with people that you think might be interested in those opportunities, so that when we put them forward in partnership with you, we can ensure hopefully as many robust responses as possible.

And then also, of course, looking at planning and HRA work being done within planning.

There's both long-range planning and you know, to ensure that we're ready for you know resilient livability growth while also modernizing our tools.

A lot of times you'll hear about plans and wanting to make sure that our plans within our community, plans that your residents, your neighbors, your folks are looking at, that they're modernized, that they're updates, that they're updated.

They're what you all support for the vision moving forward in planning throughout our communities.

And so that involves both the downtown 40 2040 plan, which you heard about just recently, as well as beginning again our comprehensive plan updates.

And this year, really focus on the work plan on completing that scope and outreach strategy, which kicks off that three-year regional planning effort.

And then for development support, this one you you already got the details and all the interest in those permit-ready plans.

But the goal and the execution of those permit ready plans and doing that now is really to ensure that our planning initiatives support increasing housing supply.

It's a really tangible way.

A lot of times we talk about goals, and it's great to have a goal.

If we want more housing, let's increase housing supply.

What's a really tangible way that an individual can, you know, pick up something we've produced and then execute on that to do it to get it done?

And I think permit ready plans is a great and really tangible example of an effort to advance those planning initiatives to support increasing our housing supply.

Again, that was it's a broad overview of the work plans for 2026, and excited to you know have the discussion now and continue the discussion however you'd like.

Commissioner Neighbor.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

Um, thanks, Director.

I have a couple of questions.

Um, I'm really glad to hear we're gonna be hearing about the economic development strategy next week because as you mentioned it, I've suddenly suddenly thinking it's been a minute since we heard about that.

I've lost track of where that is.

I thought it was supposed to be done last year, so I'm glad that we're talking about it.

What is happening in economic development while that strategy is underway?

I'm thinking specifically about business retention and attraction.

I know we have all of our funding programs, but I'd like to see some more about what we're doing to support our existing businesses and attract new ones to vacant spaces or to other parts of the city.

So that seems to me to be one like area that I'd like to see more of in the plan or know more about.

Another one is I don't see historic preservation mentioned anywhere here, and I'm curious what the historic preservation team is working on with on their work plan for the year.

And then finally, and I don't, I don't, I guess, know exactly what was what the filtering process was to decide what went into the work plan.

Obviously, it's not an exhaustive set of what everybody is doing.

But noticing that there are, I think, a lot of other studies going on in the planning department in particular, like downtown.

We talked about signage, um, I know there's the small-scale development program under housing, so just wondering: is this intended to be um exhaustive?

Otherwise, how did we choose kind of which things are in the work plan versus just also happening?

Sure, chair, commissioner.

I'm trying to focus in on HRA-related items, HRA funded, um, instead of sort of uh exhaustive department wide.

So, and I'm happy on any of the specifics that you mentioned.

We can follow up, and I can also try and do sort of a counterpart to make it more exhaustive department-wide.

I was I was trying to focus in on HRA-specific things is how that delineation was made.

Can you say a little bit more about the economic development part?

Sure.

So for the business attraction and retention, absolutely, and we've got our economic development director here who can come fill in as well and follow up with more.

And so business attraction and retention is always an ongoing effort, right?

And it's something that it's I wish there were a list where we could go through and it's sort of a lot of it as you tend to hear it's partnership with you all of hearing from you all like, hey, have you heard about this business in our community?

Like, I think it'd be a good time to do some outreach.

Like they might be needing some more support.

Um, a lot of it is partnership with our different business associations.

You know, there's a few chambers of commerce, but you also have very local business associations, oftentimes a lot of that conduit through that commercial corridor program.

It's been great to have there's always a partnership with our business associations, but being able to actually fund and work a lot more directly with some of them through the commercial corridors program, has provided that opportunity for more of the direct connection to okay, this business, you know, these businesses on this corridor hearing directly and seeing those applications, like this is their need right now, and they're struggling because there's been construction, for example, on a corridor, right?

And so these businesses have this specific need because of construction versus these, and so through our programmatic elements is part of how that work is done, and part of it is really trying to be in community and partner with to make sure that we are sort of the eyes and ears on the ground so that we are hearing from and we are responding to concerns.

And we're happy to follow up more.

I don't know.

You wanted to come up.

Welcome, Director Lloyd.

And as you make your way up, I think it'll be important for you to just know we also had a um presentation given to us today at the policy committee on the council side, where they talked about their economic development work as well, their EDA uh endeavors with their HRA.

And so just kind of prefacing of I think it's helpful to know kind of what we're currently working on, our economic development strategy on with that lens being I think the slide the slide item, if I remember from the presentation correctly, they had the potential of a million dollars being invested in some of the preexisting programs that we have here as well as some of their own work around business assistance and um they had mentioned the business the business assistance fund specifically, but also just like other opportunities for economic development partnership and bringing businesses here, and retaining and bringing folks back to um vacant buildings, downtown, all across the city.

And so, this question of just like what does it look like?

What is economic development look like right now for your team while we're waiting for the study and the strategy to get through?

Chair Johnson Commissioner Naker, thank you for the question.

I think right now the challenge has been meeting the immediate need of the community, which was Operation Metro Surge.

That took up a lot of our bandwidth in the first quarter of the year in response and didn't being trying to be responsive as we could to the business needs there.

Multi-layer to that is the strategy that I'll be speaking to you all about next week is critical to your BREA efforts that you're talking about.

The reason it's so critical is because for a long time, even um with the previous administration, there was a challenge of having kind of a pack and play playbook on why St.

Paul, what made St.

Paul attractive.

So when we would go out to have these conversations with businesses, it would be challenging not from a standpoint of just you know why we love St.

Paul, but for them to understand the business case of why St.

Paul was here.

Um we could make some anecdotal points, we could really talk to some of the data, but this plan is the strategic vision that we're putting together is the way that we're gonna start recruiting businesses to St.

Paul to be able to talk about where we are now, where we're looking to go, and how we're gonna get there, and how the business can find itself in this ecosystem.

Currently, we do a lot of outreach just in relation to what we not only hear as Director McMahon mentioned, but what we begin to know that could support programmatically the businesses in the community as well.

So your leadership as HRA has really helped us uh be more forward in the community to talk to the retention aspect, the recruiting aspect is going to come once we're able to finish the strategy and have something tangible to bring to businesses to discuss why St.

Paul makes sense for them to be here.

Commissioner, does that get at the questions that you had, or did you have a follow-up?

No, that's good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One uh additional one additional add on, and I guess um, and it might be a little bit of a question as well for our CFO for um PED, but I am curious as to several of the housing um special funds that we have.

I know we've talked about this at length, and um one of the things that I'd really like to see added to the work plan is around the the like fiducial um responsibility, and also just acknowledging that we have depleting funds within the HRA and like what is some of the um strategy going to be this year to try and identify ways to either alleviate the depleting funds or best strategize, especially as we head towards the second half of the year, which really cranks up budget cycles and budget seasons, it would be really great to know just what our current plan is for those funds, the housing trust fund, the loan enterprise fund, the parking fund, several of these pieces that are either currently a um, you know, some support of staff right uh for PADE as a department, but also for other parts in the city, but just in general, there's multiple special funds that we've identified as depleting, and I think that when we have work plans that don't necessarily acknowledge that, it's a little bit incomplete, and maybe we need to spend a little bit of time when it comes to just how we're going to address that as a body, because the last thing we want to do is have it sneak up on us, and um, so maybe just acknowledging and outlining I think an area where we can talk about that's why we've instituted the budget to actual presentations, um, and also just some other steps that might be recommendations coming in from your from the finance team too.

I would be really um I would love to see at least a couple bullet points with like an area taking to our our actual econom like our own economic, you know, um, uh, I guess fiscal ability right now within the HRA as a body and as a board.

Yeah, Chair, great point.

Thank you.

Um good suggestion for an addition.

I appreciate it.

And we'll be adding.

Um, and you're right, I'm coming late Tuesday night, so I apologize for not sending that in advance.

But I think it would be great to just see something around like the HRA entity, um, the financial ability, the financial resiliency of it or something like that.

Words method, but ultimately a couple bullet points that can talk about what our plan might be for addressing the depleting resources that we have in our special funds.

Yep, agreed.

Commissioner Naker.

Thanks, madam chair.

Your question made me think of two other things that maybe belong here, and again, I'm not exactly sure where we're drawing totally recognized PED is one thing, HRA is another thing.

Sometimes it's great.

But um, in case these two might be HRA, um, as soon as I think of getting our financial house in order, I immediately think of parking.

Um, and so it's it's been a minute since we've heard about the parking management study, and I know that that I think that that was on a previous HRA plan, and maybe it was PED, but to to figure out how we're doing our parking management generally and streamlining that so that's a thing that if it counts in HRA would be good to see sort of what our again goals and outcomes are for that for this year.

And then we have also talked in the past about this grants management loan management CRM software I can't remember exactly what it was intended to track I know Mr.

Bistadu was doing a lot of work on it to track our investments I believe and I have also not heard anything about that in a while and pretty sure that was HRA.

So would also be good to know what our goals are for that.

Yep investment tracking system and parking fund and yeah and on the sorry chair commissioner and on the parking fund and the parking RFP I should say for operations I'll tell you that we're we're closing in on that I'm looking at deputy director green as CFO but we are closing in on that and hope this summer actually to issue that RFP with a goal by essentially fourth quarter this year, first quarter next year of having the new operator our operators in place actually for the HRA owned parking ramps.

And I guess just to kind of add on to that as well I think when we're looking at this category I yeah I would just love to see a couple a little bit of um I guess Deputy Director Green I'd love to see a little bit of some of the goals of the the finance team within PED as well but also just in general just outline and quantified here as it relates to the HRA.

I know that the budget to actuals was a lot of manual labor on the team to get it together and so I think one of the real um you know it'll be identifying a budget to actuals template that we can use moving forward but I think also with some of the outstanding studies and I I can't remember offhand if the parking uh parking one is specific solely to HRA but I do know that it was brought up to us into this body and so getting an update on that would be really helpful as well for the grants management piece um I think this is also important because we'd like to know just you know I don't know if there actually are grants that we have pursued as a body at all but I think just also knowing what the funding abilities are and what kind of solutions we might have for external things that we could um begin to think about in ways that maybe if not for this year future years as well so just kind of getting into that habit of we are in May of 2026 now and so maybe it's worthwhile to look into um yes the rest of 2026 but also quarter one 2027 knowing full well that we'll have to update it as we get to 2027 but that we may not get to that until after the year in close of 2026 and so just thinking about these numbers and the reports it might be worthwhile to see if anyone has anything that they may want to mention for quarter one especially from the on the financial side.

Okay.

Commissioner Bowie thank you Chair Johnson and thank you so much Director McMahon um for this presentation I do appreciate the the framework in terms of just like what are some of our strategic goals I I appreciate the um clarity around what each of the programs are the the aspects of the work and what it's seeking to accomplish I just also want to just echo I heard it earlier today but I would like to see um you know definitely for this update on the work plan um it connected to kind of like budget to actuals because I do think I appreciate having the budget to actuals and it also lists like how many FTEs it really showed a clear picture in terms of like the cost of doing business for HRA.

But it would be nice to see how like for example like housing instability like is that connected to a team like how many like what is that team actually look like what is the workload of that team and how that's actually connected to um how we're um funding that staff and I know you had said like there are some things in here that wasn't included because this is solely surround HRA fund it funded but I do think it would be helpful it would it would be would have been very beneficial to even see what like the PED does manage as a whole, just because I think, you know, as this body, when we are um getting updates, it's uh, you know, we don't really use our policy meetings for PED.

We usually use our HRA board meetings to get updates from PED.

So I definitely want to um have that overview.

And then I just made a couple notes.

Um, I also would be curious to know about um how we're managing and what the strategic goals for district councils.

Um when I think about the housing instability and really a lot of like a lot of the programs that exist within um PED, it's really our district councils as the you know, the the partner with helping to promote and making sure we get as much outreach.

Um so I I'm really curious about that plan and you know, ways that we can help support that.

I know during our budget conversations, um, that was something that we all mentioned, and then last but not least, um I'm also curious about the um just uh the overall plan in terms of like our real estate portfolio, um, and the management of that, understanding that you know, a council, or excuse me, um commissioner Naker I mentioned about the park fund.

Um, I know there's uh some big plans around the uh Roy Wilkins, or excuse me not Roy Wilkins, but the Grand Casino, um, and had a chance to talk with the Science Museum and Children's Museum and finding out those are city-owned assets, and I'm just curious if that's something that PED um team oversees or if that's something with DSI.

And um, I know I said last but not least, but one more thing too.

Um, just understanding that I know just hearing from the mayor, like she really has a strong plan around on getting back to the basics and really integrating you know some of our DSI PED systems.

Um, it would be nice just to see like how that continuity is being like approached um or designed, and just seeing, you know, are we sharing different teams and if there's any um areas or like programs already in the works in terms of getting that like stronger partnership, and I think it's um the with the permit ready plan, you know, that really was uh a great um example of how those both of those departments plan to work in the future.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Yes, thank you, uh Commissioner Bowie.

And one thing I'm taking away that I want to just note for staff, we should probably find another time for the district councils to come back to this body um because of the the additional funding that HRA gave, but also just the work that most likely has been developed after the first year of having that funding change from CDPG.

Um, and so uh, and because it was HRE funded, it's an appropriate agenda item for this discussion.

So just wanted to note that and we can add that to the the um rest of the 2026 year calendar.

Um what I think would be really helpful, and it's uh not pertaining necessarily to this item, but it sounds like there's an interest, Director McMahon in hearing about PED's work plan as well for the year, um, and how that can be given to us.

I think can be done either by way of obviously kind of what I've shared as well, is that often PEDs items become HRA conversations and topics.

I know that for some of uh the items that we placed on here when they're when it has been mostly a city base, I face some resistance, um, and being able to put it on the agenda, and so one of the things that I think would be really helpful would be either getting that then sent to the spot an email uh or something that would allow us to see that or your recommendations and how you'd like to present that.

Because there does seem to be an interest in hearing about PED's overall operations.

There's a long list of things that are not on here that were that could be codified in the PED budget.

Um there's you know, so it's it's intertwined in the sense that right, we just heard from OFS how much um of the PED staff we actually support um financially, literally 80, I think 80% or so um of the staff, but we know that that's different when it how the city differentiates these bodies from each other, and so just wanting to make sure that we have an opportunity to do that because there is an appetite to hear about the breadth of the work that the staff does.

Um, and so I'll leave that up to you to kind of decide what the best way to distribute that information is, um, whether that's preferred in a conversation like this, which I'm happy to do.

Um, this one, yes, we focused on anything that related to HRA funded things that we could we could tie back to.

Um so yeah, I mean, we could probably be creative about how we fit it fit it back in here, especially if we looked at staffing um and ask for a report back on that.

But I think that there'll be other ways to to get that plan to us.

Thank you, Director McMahon.

A couple of things for commissioners because we have just the next week meeting as well as the 27th meeting because we canceled the 20th for our lovely TAP members.

Um we most likely we may have a couple items for both of those meetings that will be introduction and action, which is to make sure that we're able to fit deadlines, um, either proposed deadlines from the developers or even just deadlines for staff.

And so you may see items that come before you that are um both an introduction and an action.

That's why.

Um, just because we're gonna try to make sure that we get through the month of May without having anything lingering over to June.

Because we don't we only have two meetings um remaining.

And so you'll see those.

Just wanted to give you a disclaimer.

I know there's one coming up in my ward next week, and so there might be a couple others that require that same type of uh piece, but don't be surprised, look at it.

It'll be up for discussion um for items that we have coming up.

If you have any questions about them, you know, you'll just want to check to see when they're posted on Thursdays, and feel free to reach out, ask any questions, either to myself or Director McMahon or Vice Chair Joe's.

Thank you.

We are adjourned.