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Special Meeting June 7, 2005 Advisory Board on Economic Progress (ABEP) Report and the Comprehensive Plan Update (Plan): Ms. Welsch said that she hoped that the Council could look at the recommendations of the Advisory Board on Economic Progress (ABEP) and see how much the Council agrees or disagrees with each one. Much of it is already in the Comprehensive Plan (Plan). The Council may, after discussion, feel strongly that some recommendations should be in the Plan, at which point, Council should determine the terminology and where it should be located. She agreed with Mr. Wagner that it wasn’t necessary to go into specifics here. Mr. Wagner agreed and he added that he thought that ABEP did a fine job on their report. He and Ms. Brot; however, are getting much heat over thoughts that sound like the City wants to tear down neighborhoods and put in development, like around the Metro station. This isn’t setting well with the Ames Place residents, for example. There are definitely parts of the ABEP report that he doesn’t agree with. He has heard some comments about adding the report as an appendix or supplement to the Plan and he doesn’t really want to do that. Ms. Welsch said that she would, at least, like to mention the ABEP report in a section of the Plan where reference reports would be listed. Mr. Wagner said he wouldn’t have a problem with it being mentioned in a bibliography, but he does not want it attached verbatim to the Plan. Ms. Welsch clarified that there was a section in the Plan where the planning staff had listed a lot of different reports that they had referred to in preparing the plan. Mr. Wagner agreed that adding a reference there was appropriate. Ms. Welsch suggested looking on page 5 of the ABEP report, which was Section III, titled Recommendations. Ms. Welsch read the first recommendation subsection - Ai, which was “The University City Council should take an aggressive, proactive role in generating sustainable economic development.” Ms. Welsch noted that the Plan already mentions many of the ABEP recommended items, 1-6, throughout the plan – such as on pages 37, 41, 42, 43 and 44. She sees a difference, in her perception, in item #1, which says “provide the resources necessary for a dedicated economic development professional.” The Council knows that she hopes that someday the City can hire an economic development director. She knows that there has already been discussion about hiring another person in Planning so we can free up Lehman, in order for him to have more time to focus on economic development activities. The Plan seems to point to some economic development board made up of citizens that would be advising the Council. She doesn’t understand what this is all about, but it seems to be along those lines. This is referenced on page 42 of the Plan. It talks about “establishing an economic development organization, which should be a private organization comprised of members of the business community, who advise the City on economic development activities.” She is not clear what this organization is – maybe a Chamber of Commerce, but she is not sure. This is not exactly what she was envisioning; she was hoping to get some words in the Plan about someone on staff, like a Lehman, who Page 2