Santa Rosa staff report steady progress on economic development strategic plan, preview 2.0 study

Scott Adair, the city—hief economic development officer, told the committee the 2024 economic development strategic plan was intended as a three-year program and that staff are "2 years into a 3 year plan." He said staff track implementation through a publicly available progress sheet and that some items report 100% completion even where the underlying program will continue.

Adair said staff mark initiatives like the Rise and Thrive small-business support effort as complete when the rollout is finished, but that ongoing operational work continues: "We indicate this as being 100% complete only because the rollout of that plan item is complete, but the initiative itself will continue year after year unless as otherwise directed by council." He noted the downtown infill housing study is an example of a workstream that has been finalized and closed out.

The presentation emphasized that seeing a bar at or near 100% does not always mean staff work ends; the committee asked for better longitudinal context. "I would love to see the comparison of where we've been in the past, whatever information is available 5, 10 years," Council member Alvarez said during questioning, requesting trend data to judge progress across multiple budget cycles.

Staff said they will bring a study-session item to the committee to scope a "2.0" planning phase for the period after the current plan concludes. That session will identify which items are truly complete, which should continue and what new priorities should guide the next multi-year effort.

The item was informational; the committee did not take formal action at this meeting.