HomeMy WebLinkAboutDraft ED Priorities with narrative 10-06-10 i
2010 Economic Development Council
Priority and Recommendation List
Presented to the Bozeman City Commission
In the performance of its duty to advise the Bozeman City Commission on economic
development issues, the City’s Economic Development Council (EDC) has developed a series of
policy recommendations that build upon our City’s existing advantages and position the
community to excel by supporting and encouraging growth and expansion of existing businesses,
attracting and retaining new businesses, increasing investments, and creating jobs.
We urge the City Commission to take action to approve these and other reforms that will further
improve our City’s business climate. Equally important, we strongly believe the City
Commission must identify the promotion of economic development as long-term priority. To
this end, the city should carefully monitor and measure the reforms it enacts; survey the
effectiveness of steps taken and continually seek additional opportunities to improve Bozeman’s
economic competitiveness.
1)Ongoing financial commitment to Economic Development.
Bozeman is a premier city in the Rockies that enjoys a ‘competitive advantage’ economically
along with a high quality of life compared to many other towns. At the same time, City and
community leaders recognize that there are a number of necessary and important steps
needed to make Bozeman a more business-friendly community. The success of promoting
economic development in our community hinges on Bozeman making this goal a lasting
priority—along with the necessary long-term commitment of resources, time, and emphasis.
The EDC applauds the actions and reforms already taken by the City to promote economic
development. Further improving the business climate in Bozeman will provide benefits for
local companies, employees and families.
Areas of investment in economic development include:
a.Continued support for an Economic Development Liaison working to support the
business community from within the City Manager’s office;
Mehl
5 yer commitment for funding the position
Title is important to public perception
b.Host a yearly local Economic Development Conference or Summit;
EDC Subcommittee (Tracy)
Mrch 2011
c.Fund the production of materials such as resource guides and helpful tips
brochures;
Resource task force
Partnership (MSU/Chamber City)
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d.(DATA DEPOSITORIES )Increase program offerings and/or incentives, i.e.
revolving loan funds, business counseling/strategic planning assistance, data and
industry research services including data and resources available through the
Bozeman Public Library and/or captured by the City of Bozeman and other
agencies and institutions, i.e. geographical information services and city
see Recommendation 2
applications, licenses and permits (); Build connections
between businesses within the City to facilitate industry and business clustering
and examine cross-marketing, knowledge and resource sharing opportunities; and
Edl
Part of job
Ongiong
Include detais of ongoing projects (licence applications, library resources,
ets)
MSU Business Relations Survey
See new resource guide.
see
e.Invest in infrastructure that will attract, retain and grow businesses (
Recommendation 4
);
City commission
Capital improvement plan
Annual Budget
Other infrastructure?
Ongoing
Refer to rec 4 a - 1
EDC
Free
ongoing
f.(FUNCTIONS - EDC) Conduct forums, roundtable discussions and surveys
designed to elicit timely and relevant feedback from the business community.
2)Commitment to a business-friendly process with a focus on retention and expansion
of existing local businesses.
The Bozeman City Commission has determined that the City of Bozeman will become
the most business friendly city in the State of Montana. Staff is currently allocating
resources to researching improvements to internal processes. Additionally, the Planning
Board intends to make recommendations to the Commission concerning suggestions for
improving processes which may result in speedier decision-making for all parties
involved in the process including the Planning Department staff, boards, the City
Commission and the applicant.
In addition to looking inward to improving existing processes and services, local
economic development should also look outward toward the local business community
and beyond to understand their needs and provide value added services that support
business growth and job retention and expansion as well as create strategies for attracting
and growing new businesses and facilitating new job creation.
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Realizing this goal will require continuing internal process reviews, as identified, and
additional actions listed below:
a.Dedicated effort to assess portions of City codes and processes to determine
where, and if, changes can be proposed that may streamline the process for both
staff and applicants and proposing those changes to the City Commission;
b.Identify and consolidate duplicative business related services;
c.Create economic development partnerships where appropriate;
d.Provide updated and consistent information in a consolidated resource guide and
tip and fact sheets offering economic development services from both public and
private sectors, distributed to all local public and private economic development
agencies and organizations;
e.Continue business site visits;
f.Design an applicant follow-up process for feedback on the application review
procedures;
g.Brand and market the City’s economic development initiative by creating a portal
or web link to an economic development site as the ‘face’ of Bozeman’s
economic development initiative;
h.Assign a marketing/communications designee to be accountable for populating
the site with useful, relevant, and up to date content on a regular and timely basis;
i.Utilize the internet via web pages and social networks as primary methods of
communication of a dynamic economic development outreach strategy and
initiative;
j.Develop a dashboard of local economic indicators using locally derived data and
metrics for our community the purpose of which is to provide relevant and timely
data highlighting trends in our local and regional economy. Some indicators
include information from the cost of living index, home sales, airport visitation,
room nights, Yellowstone National Park visitations, business licenses, planning
and building permits, geographic information systems (GIS), economic profiles,
see Recommendation 1
agricultural prices, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. ()
3)Stabilize existing local incubators and create a full service business incubator
program to achieve a healthy business ecosystem.
Traditional business incubators are brick and mortar facilities that, in addition to off-site business
services, can co-locate several upstart, or phase I, businesses. This arrangement takes advantage
of business synergies and economies of scale to provide assistance and support. Typically,
incubators provide clients with flexible space arrangements, affordable rents, shared business
services (knowledge and resource pooling), development training, mentorship, financial
assistance and networking opportunities. Several local companies have been served, and some
500 new jobs created in the area due to the services offered by Bozeman’s only, tech centered
incubator, TechRanch. Additionally, business incubation services have shown to be an excellent
catalyst to diversifying local economies. Inexpensive space remains a challenge for most
business incubators.
Addressing the support for a business incubator and incubation services includes:
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a.Determine the full scope of incubation services needed locally, i.e. technology,
manufacturing, retail, food service, hospitality, professional services or other
industry specific types and general business;
b.Identify what business incubation services exist locally;
c.Establish strategic community partnerships, public and private, for the purpose of
supporting local business incubators;
d.Identify ongoing funding mechanisms to assist existing incubators;
e.If new or expanded incubation services are necessary, identify a funding and
leadership model for such expansions;
f.Determine long-term location for business incubation services; and
g.Explore consolidation of incubation services with other economic development
see Recommendation 6
resources ().
4)Delivery of Core Services.
Critical to encouraging and supporting economic development in and around Bozeman is the
continued delivery of the City’s core services and support of other critical services not directly
provided by the City of Bozeman. Service delivery, overall quality, timeliness and efficiency of
construction, maintenance and/or repair projects, initial right-sizing of infrastructure (to
minimize costly retro-fits) and predictable, responsive emergency response systems, access to
information based services (Bozeman Public Library), among others, all contribute to creating
and fostering supportive environments for growing and attracting business and creating jobs.
The appropriate support, maintenance and/or upgrades to the following core service areas as well
as support for critical indirect services are particularly important to economic development:
a.Timely and efficient road maintenance, construction and repair;
b.Predictable and affordable delivery of potable water;
c.Predictable and affordable refuse and recycling pick-up and disposal;
d.Predictable and affordable delivery of sewer services;
e.Predictable and affordable fire protection;
f.Predictable and affordable police protection;
g.Support the establishment of, or upgrade to, communication networks, i.e., high
speed and ultra-high speed internet access, by encouraging local service providers
to offer industry leading connection speeds and services;
h.Support common and alternative transportation methods, i.e., bikes, cars, buses,
trains and air service, among others; and
i.Support timely and efficient delivery of information services through the
Bozeman Public Library’s unique information databases and reference services.
5)Develop a sustainable business model to fund economic development.
To date, economic development in Bozeman has existed ad hoc by disparate agencies and
organizations. Underpinning the recommendation for eventual consolidation of economic
see recommendation 6
development resources and services () is the need for a business model
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which sustains, over the long-term, the implementation of an economic development strategy
consisting of an agreed upon and well communicated combination of coordinated approaches. A
sustainable business model may take many forms and depend upon a variety of funding sources.
Strategic partnerships, public and private, are a key component to developing a sustainable
business model to fund economic development.
Some possibilities are listed below:
Economic Gardening
a.Promote principles, the entrepreneurial approach to
economic development that seeks to grow the local economy from within;
b.Approve additional general fund investment;
c.Create a bonding program to promote economic development, business
innovation and long-term growth;
d.Promote the passage of a local mill levy to support economic development;
e.Seek federal, state and local funding opportunities, i.e. SBA grants, Montana’s
Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund Grant and/or a Workforce Training
Grant as well as local economic development funds;
f.Strengthen existing MSU internships creating additional opportunities for
graduate and undergraduate students to gain experience in economic development
which adds value but little cost to the overall program;
g.Nurture relationships with MSU’s College of Business and Gallatin College;
h.Broaden and deepen strategic public-private partnerships.
6)Explore the feasibility of physically consolidating economic development agencies
and services in one location.
Co-locating the area’s economic development resources has several strategic and
economic advantages. For example, summits and round table events, forums and public
meetings, meeting facilitation with entrepreneurs, business owners, executives and chairs
of boards, among other uses, greatly increases the probability of useful, timely and
productive exchange of knowledge and ideas. Co-located economic development
agencies also provide an opportunity to share resources and defer operating costs
resulting in a one-stop, cost-effective knowledge, service and business incubation facility.
Strong community public-private partnerships with unified leadership, vision and
strategic direction must support the regional economic diversity, stability and vitality.
Co-locating the area’s economic development resources requires the following:
a.Investigate the feasibility of co-location;
b.Identify resource requirements, i.e., space needs, site location, personnel,
technology, funding, sustainability, marketing/promotion, services, i.e.
networking, business, professional, financial, and incubation services;
c.Identify strategic partners;
d.Define structure and roles of co-located partners;
e.Encourage knowledge, information and resource sharing amongst partners;
f.Identify risks and opportunities of economic development co-location;
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g.Determine return on investment (ROI) strategy of economic development co-
location;
h.Identify needs of the client base; and
i.Create a financial plan that defines financial model, pricing assumptions,
projected costs and other financial details.
7)Identification and establishment of business incentives.
Generally, municipalities choose to offer some type of financial incentive to attract, retain and
support businesses and job growth although this strategy is currently trending downward. Local
initiatives to enhance growth may include a large variety of fiscal, tax and nonfinancial tools to
attract, retain and create jobs. Currently, the following incentive programs exist in the City of
Bozeman: City of Bozeman’s Revolving Loan Fund (in partnership with the Prospera Business
Network), Tax Abatement Program for historic preservation, the Business Retention and
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Expansion Program (Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce), North 7 Rehab Grant Program,
the Big Sky Energy Revolving Loan Fund and the Downtown Technical Assistance Grant
(Downtown Bozeman Partnership). Other incentives may include a flexible rebate program that
would consider rebates of certain taxes and fees to primary employers in the city, provided that
the companies meet certain thresholds, requirements and guidelines, a microloan program and/or
perhaps smart business incentives, in partnership with a local energy provider, for reducing costs
through reducing energy consumption.
Business incentives can be divided into six general categories:
a.Financial Incentives which may include, grants, loans, tax-exempt bonds and
equity and near-equity financing;
b.Tax Incentives including tax abatements, tax exemptions, accelerated
depreciation, “circuit breaker” (property tax tied to individuals income level), tax
classification, tax credit, tax deferral, tax stabilization agreement and tax
increment financing or TIF (Bozeman currently supports the Downtown TIF,
North 7th TIF, Mandeville Farms TIF, Tourism BID and could consider a
Technology TIF in the future.);
c.Non-financial assistance may include assistance with site development, use of
land banks, establishment of industrial, eco-industrial and technology parks;
d.Creation of enterprise zones; and
e.Identification and expansion of human resources and human capital which may
include customized training, workforce development and increased local
educational opportunities and partnerships;
f.Increasing research capacity which may necessitate stronger relationships with
Montana State University and/or various University departments to locally utilize
applied research arising from intellectual capital cultivated at MSU and other
local educational institutions.
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