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Upper Arlington economic development office previews CivicServe rollout, façade grant and data-driven strategy
Summary
Economic analyst Jane Trussell told council the city will onboard CivicServe (CRM/business directory/grant tracking), pilot a $150,000 annual façade grant program in 2026, and use Placer AI and housing-study findings (including a $619,000 appraised-value threshold) to guide redevelopment and incentive decisions.
Jane Trussell, the City of Upper Arlington’s economic analyst, delivered a broad economic-development update on Oct. 6 that covered major projects, a business-directory effort, new analytic tools and a proposed façade grant program intended to support small and non–economic-base businesses.
Trussell said the department is monitoring major projects including the National Church Residence campus redevelopment, Envision Henderson public-investment planning and a pending resubmission for the Golden Bear Center site. She described a business-outreach program that produced a local directory (compiled by walking and driving tours) and noted the city will host the directory and grant applications on CivicServe, a new economic-development platform the city plans to onboard.
On data and research, Trussell highlighted use of Placer AI for foot-traffic and demographic analysis, including comparisons of pickleball and tennis usage at Northam Park and an analysis of visitor flows around regional events. She said Placer AI provides aggregated, privacy-protected metrics such as unique visitors, visits and average visit duration and that the tool will be used to inform strategies to capture event-related lodging and visitor spending.
Regarding housing and fiscal impacts, Trussell summarized a housing study in collaboration with police and fire that estimated incremental public-safety costs (police roughly $333 per unit; fire/EMS about $552 per unit) and noted multifamily housing produces far fewer students per 100 units than single-family housing. She said an appraised-value threshold of $619,000 emerged as a break-even illustration in the analysis, but emphasized the city will use the study as context, not a single permitting rule.
Trussell also previewed a façade and signage grant program she said the administration intends to request funding for in the 2026 budget. She described the program as contemplated at $150,000 annually with awards from $1,000 to $30,000 per business, awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, and reviewed by a committee of city staff and private-sector representatives.
Council members asked about Placer AI’s privacy protections, how CivicServe and Placer AI will be used operationally to support businesses, and what steps the city should take to attract Class A office space. Trussell said Placer AI’s data is aggregated to avoid identifying individuals and that CivicServe will support ongoing CRM and implementation work such as grant-hosting, lead tracking and open real-estate mapping.
Next steps: staff will circulate the first draft of a quarterly economic-development update to council in October, continue onboarding CivicServe, and recommend a funding request for the façade grant in the 2026 budget process.
