First Suburbs Coalition Meeting
Summary
September 15, 2006
The First Suburbs Coalition had its quarterly meeting on Friday, September 15,at the Sylvester Powell Community Center in Mission. Over 50 people were in attendance.
The Planning Working Group is working on several projects:
- The working group has cooperated with the MARC staff to update the Creating Quality Places web site with planning and zoning tools from their recent survey and updated case studies. Most of the new material on the web site is local. The web site is a tool for local officials wishing to see examples of tools or development projects.
- The working group plans to host a small meeting of developers and local government officials to discuss tools and practices needed to encourage new development.
- The working group will be surveying local governments, in and out of the first suburbs, to catalog the incentives and programs used to encourage remodeling of post-WW II homes. They will use this information to recommend a strategy to the full coalition.
- Following a report on the recent residential regulation survey and meeting, there was an extensive discussion about how different communities are approaching this issue. A copy of the report is now available on the First Suburbs Coalition web site.
MARC will be working with the city of Gladstone to engage residents, developers, and local government officials in a review of their development review process. The intent is to refine the process to make sure the interests of all parties are addressed and that the process is timely and productive. The review will take place this fall.
Sandy Goodwin of Fannie Mae reported that a savings and loan has committed to work with the First Suburbs Coalition to develop a remodeling loan program. Dean Katerndahl will be meeting with them in the next week or two and will then reconvene the cities that had originally committed to the financing program.
Marlene Nagel reported to the coalition that the KC Chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and MARC, supported by the First Suburbs Coalition, had applied for a grant from the national ULI organization to fund research on retail development and host a series of discussions between developers and local officials on how to encourage quality retail development that will be an asset long into the future.
Jody Craig on behalf of the Marketing Working Group shared the newly developed media kit. The kit is intended to assist First Suburbs Coalition members to have easy access to the logo, text on the coalition and on first suburbs, and other materials, such as a PowerPoint Presentation. Most of the information is available on the Toolkit page on the web site.
There were a series of announcements including:
- The next Housing Choices Coalition trip to view innovative development project is to Minneapolis in October. Contact Stan Parsons at the HBA if you are interested.
- A number of neighborhoods in Overland Park is holding a neighborhood summit which will feature presentations on the First Suburbs Coalition and trends in housing developments. The summit is September 28. If you are interested contact Steve Wien.
- Tom Jacobs, MARC environment services director, presented a potential project that would develop a Green Idea Book modeled after the First Suburbs Coalition Idea Book. The Green Idea Book would provide information on how to remodel homes in such a way as to be more energy efficient, use green building materials, and take into account other elements for a sustainable home. There was considerable support for this project from the coalition.
- Shelley Temple Kneuvean of Fannie Mae announced an ICMA program that is looking to have city staffs go to the Gulf Coast to assist cities there. If you are interested contact Shelley at shelley_t_kneuvean@fanniemae.com.
- MARC’s 9-1-1 Program is hosting an update on 2-1-1 and 3-1-1 programs in the metro area.
- The next First Suburbs Coalition meeting will be in January 2007 in the city of Gladstone. An exact date and place have yet to be determined.