Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DeSoto development staff unveils project dashboard and RFP plan; zoning flagged as the chief barrier
Summary
Economic development staff demonstrated a new project-tracking dashboard and said a limited RFP for Hampton Road/BeltLine parcels will go out later this year. Board members repeatedly identified lack of zoning and entitlement delays as the principal obstacle to converting interest into built projects.
Matt Carlson, director of economic development for the corporation and city, presented a new project-tracking dashboard the department says will centralize opportunity lists, project status and follow-up tasks.
“...this dashboard that you’re looking at now is something I’ve been working on so that we can display our activity externally and show you all,” Carlson said during the presentation. The dashboard lists developable corridors and nodes, stamps projects by status (concept, planning, entitlement, construction) and is intended to surface stuck projects earlier.
Carlson and staff described a goal to release a targeted RFP/RFQ for the Hampton Road/BeltLine corner parcels later this year, with responses expected by the first quarter of next year. The plan calls for limited distribution to developers with relevant track records and for the city to define “what’s in and what’s out” (preferred uses, densities and incentives) before release.
Board members and staff repeatedly discussed zoning as a gating issue. One staff member recounted an industry comment: “Does it have zoning? And if the answer is no, it doesn’t ever become a project.” The board and staff said zoning and entitlement delays cause developers to shift to other, more-ready jurisdictions; they identified that as the single largest barrier to converting inquiries into capital projects.
Staff also described business-retention and expansion workflows, a cadence for regular targeted site visits to major employers, and draft processes for using Chapter 380 agreements and other instruments for projects that require public support. Carlson said the department is coordinating with the city manager and council on a communications plan and will return with RFP language and council briefings before distribution.
Board members asked staff to include explicit barrier flags in the dashboard (for example, “zoning required,” “infrastructure needed,” or “flood plain/drainage issue”) and to add stage-duration measures (how long projects remain in each phase) so the board can see where delays accumulate.
