11/24/09 Special Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Relationship with the City Through our existing efforts on this project, we have met with residents, business leaders, existing tenants, City staff, council members, commissions and committees, We believe it has been a healthy and worthwhile exercise that has given us a unique and thorough understanding of the players, objectives and challenges facing this project. Unlike a private development project, Ramsey Town Center is driven primarily by elected officials focused on taking what the public has perceived as a failure and putting it back on track to be the heart of the city. In this task, however, the City is challenged by the layers of bureaucracy typical of public entities while trying to advance the project in an unfamiliar private- development arena, It is critical to achieve a balance of transparency (required by the public) and effectiveness (required in the marketplace), We will focus first on developing a reporting process capable of meeting that demand. Secondly, it is critical to coordinate the efforts all parties involved, This is likely to be a combination of the following components: · A central hub for the coordination of all efforts in Town Center. · Coordination by the development manager of all efforts related to Town Center, This will include regular development meetings to update and coordinate efforts, eliminating redundancy and maximizing effectiveness, This should include the efforts of all City staff members, sub-consultants, commissions, council members and members of the public. We propose these efforts be divided into two parts to make best use of both volunteer and paid human resources, The first would be a "Political Team," tasked with advancing those issues best addressed in the public forum such as public funding, approvals for a rail stop, securing interchanges at Highway 10, and other related items, The second group would be the "DevelopmentTeam," tasked with all issues related to master planning, zoning and land use, and the disposition of the property either in its entirety or parcel by parcel. · Management of the project dashboard, budgets, and pro-forma. · Coordination of project marketing efforts, including trade organizations, · Serve as lead contact and represent the City in all solicitations to/from potential buyers, · Preparation of all Requests for Proposals/Qualifications and coordination of the efforts of all sub-consultants working on the project. This will require sufficient coordination with staff to ensure the efforts support and complement overall City objectives, but this effort will facilitate a better-integrated effort on all fronts, Finally, we believe it is critical to our ability to act quickly in a demanding marketplace that the City establishes a unified approval board able to serve as a one-stop shop for developing projects. We suggest the exploration of a single board comprised of Council, EDA, and Planning Commission members able to provide a deep base of 16