Meeting Minutes
SUNNYVALE 4A DEVELOPMENT
CORPORATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
REGULAR MEETING
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
6:00 P.M. Special
Board Meeting
7:00 p.m. Special Board Meeting with
Focus Groups
Town Council Chambers
127 N. Collins Road
Sunnyvale, Texas
The Sunnyvale 4A Development Corporation
Board met on Thursday, February 10th, 2011
in the Council Chambers of the Sunnyvale Town Hall; 127 N. Collins Road,
Sunnyvale, Texas under V.T.C.A. Government Code Section 551.041.
Attending: President Lawrence Boyd, Vice President Rachel Doyle, Directors David Carlile and Terri Shatter
Absent: Director Hari Pillai
1.
Call to Order the
meeting. President Lawrence Boyd called
the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m.
2. Executive Session Agenda: President Lawrence Boyd announced the
Executive Session and the Board adjourned into the Executive Session at 6:05
p.m.
a. Pursuant
to Section 551.087 of the Texas Government Code to discuss and
deliberate
commercial or financial information from a potential business
prospect
that the Board is seeking to locate or expand in the Town; to
deliberate
the offer of financial or other incentive to a business
prospect
generally located within the Town of Sunnyvale in the vicinity of
T.C. Lupton, S. Collins Road and U.S. Highway 80.
The Executive Session concluded at 6:55 p.m.
3. Consider any action as a result of the Executive Session No Action was taken
4.
Adjournment: The
meeting was adjourned at 6:57 p.m.
The Sunnyvale 4A Development Corporation
Board met ON THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10th, 2011 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE
SUNNYVALE TOWN
Attending: President Lawrence Body, Vice President Rachel Doyle, Directors David Carlile and Terri Shatter
Absent: Director Hari Pillai
1. Call
to Order the meeting: President Lawrence Boyd called the meeting
to order at 7:03 p.m.
2. President Lawrence Boyd presented the first focus
group topic… Focus Group 1 Discussion between Directors of
the Sunnyvale 4A Corporation and selected guests discussing…. Funding of economic incentives to encourage
development is a responsibility of the 4A Corporation. What
does the Sunnyvale 4A/Town need to do to encourage new commercial investment in
Sunnyvale and how should the 4A Corporation decide what incentive opportunities
to fund? Guests attending included:
Michael Golla, Allyn Giacomazzi, Shaji Daniel and Anil Mathew. Points of
discussion included:
· Identify what type of business does the Sunnyvale
4A/Town want, find out what you have to offer, identify the market and target
those businesses-Mr. Daniel.
· It is important for the Town to identify what is wanted what are the needs and what needs do those
businesses have. These criteria will
help the Town know how to attract the business and how to keep them in
Town.-Mr. Giacomazzi.
· The fundamental services are required to attract
business, Sunnyvale needs sewer, roads, water, gas service, redundant
electrical. Gas service is a real
weakness particularly to attracting restaurants. Town needs to move toward fixing these
negatives and weaknesses-Mr. Golla.
· Sunnyvale has a reputation that it’s
hard to do business in the Town. We need
to make it easier to do business and to start a business in Sunnyvale-Mr.
Mathew.
· The guests were asked what type of business would they
believe Sunnyvale needs
· Mr.Golla recommended that the Town look at service
oriented business such as dry cleaners, plumbing, landscapers; more
restaurants, hotels and community center, small convention center, office space
and extended stay hotel.
· Mr. Giacomazzi recommended that one look at the central
core-town center and bring business to the town
center. Also
the rents are too high and the cost too high to start a business in
Sunnyvale. More tenants are needed for the offices and buildings along Belt Line
Road and at the Tino’s Restaurant office building.
· Mr. Daniels recommended that we look to attract a
convention center/conference center and a grocery store and bank and to work on
the Highway 80 infrastructure to attract more business.
· Mr. Mathew recommended that we look at unique
businesses, unique to Sunnyvale including an outlet mall, minor league
franchise and a movie theater.
3. President Lawrence Boyd
presented the second focus group topic. ..Focus Group 2 Discussion between Directors of the
Sunnyvale 4A Corporation and selected town citizens and businesses concerning
local option election concerning beer and wine ballot propositions and related
issues.….. The restaurant industry is
stating that today, a key location factor is the opportunity for restaurants to
sell beer and wine at their place of business without a club license. Grocery
stores are indicating through new store openings and local support of beer
& wine referendums that the sale of beer and wine is critical for new
stores to expand to new towns. These businesses have stated that their
business models demand they bypass cities and towns without the beer and wine
opportunity. What as town citizens and business owners would you suggest
that the Sunnyvale 4A Corporation do to assure the citizens that this type of
business activity will not deteriorate the neighborhoods or Town quality of
life or the opposite view that Sunnyvale ignore the restaurants and grocery
stores with this position? Guests
attending included Spenser Adam, Andrea Wright, David Goodhart
and Jim Wade. Points of
discussion included:
·
In Stephenville when the beer and wine election was held there was a concern about a rise in crime. Once passed they found that
there was a decrease in accidents and crime-Mr. Adam.
·
The ability to sell beer and wine is critical to
business success. There is some concern about the Town areas not being safe
around the sale of beer and wine.
Examples of Allen, McKinney, Southlake and
Rockwall show different. Last year the Town lost $34,000 in sales tax by not
having sales of beer and wine. Cedar
Hill saw a 205% increase in sales tax when beer and wine sales were allowed-Mrs.
Wright.
·
There are two different cases. Attracting a grocery store with the sale of
beer and wine may not be accurate, the attraction is
more due to roof tops, income levels and competition and most importantly Wal-Mart. Sunnyvale should be looking for an Aldi or Brookshire’s.
However, for the case of restaurants the sale of beer and wine is
critical and should be considered-Mr. Goodhart.
·
Restaurants are into selling food and people are here
to be served.
Sunnyvale has restaurants everywhere in Town and more is
being built. These restaurants do not seem to need beer and wine to
succeed. We have a large development
with more restaurant pad sites already committed. There is a concern over the inability to
control the sale of beer and wine in convenience stores-Jim Wade.
·
We need to attract businesses, we need to market the Town
and promote the Town, provide more infrastructure, provide incentives, revise
the tax code and the zoning code-Mr. Goodhart.
·
If we provide the club license
we could add conditions to control hours and other issues-Mr. Adams.
·
The concern for beer barns can be
controlled with location and square feet requirements and the Town can
adapt its regulations-Mrs. Wright.
·
Town Manager Scott Campbell noted that the Town does
have the conditional use controls adopting TCEB requirements plus additional
Town Zoning.
·
We should get that information out to the public
recommended Mrs. Wright.
4. President
Lawrence Boyd presented the third focus group topic. Focus Group 3 Discussion between Directors of the
Sunnyvale 4A Corporation and selected guests discussing ….someday soon Sunnyvale will have to choose or deal with the location of
190 through Sunnyvale. What should the
Sunnyvale 4A Corporation/Town be doing today to address that location in the
future? Guests attending
included Tom Barone, Chris Brown, David Jackson, and Terry Reid. Points of
discussion included:
· The Town needs an up to date comprehensive land use
plan to identify land opportunities and to move the route of 190 to the west at
grade. The Town needs to bring
information about 190 out and to create a vision for the route to attract
businesses such as Cabalas-Mr. Barone.
· The 190 opportunity is a great thing. The Town needs to get control and take
advantage of the opportunity- Mr. Brown.
· Having owned property and worked in Sunnyvale for over
6 years there is a perception that the owner of the large 16,000
acre ranch is controlling the agenda. The Town needs to embrace 190,
select a route and show everyone the opportunities
with this new transportation. There is
great opportunity and lots of positive business to be
achieved. See Cedar Hill and all
they have done and taken advantage of including the new spec building they are
doing. The Town needs to set the
perimeters and then get out of the way and let business happen –Mr. Jackson.
· Being the President of the Chamber and having a family
who has been in Sunnyvale over 100 years I recommend one
needs to look at how Southlake has address their transportation needs in a
beautiful way. There is no-no option for
190. Why is there fear of where it is going? According to the District Engineer of TXDOT there are 3 routes selected and an environmental
impact study on going to be completed in 2012. This environmental impact study
will consider the affect on business and residences. There will be public input scheduled for
2013. Then TXDOT will make its decision. We have 2 years to work on the
concepts and do not want a lack of leadership or inability of decision making
to hamper our abilities to lead this decision. We need to study the access and
exits and make recommendations on frontage roads and exits/entrances. With 85%
of the route on the Smith ranch why not a Smith representative telling us what
they want. We need to learn what the
Smiths want-Ms. Reid.
· Tom Barone indicated that the 4ACorporation needs to assist
in developing the vision and decide if this route will be an
asset and select the maximum potential for the route.
· Chris Brown asked that we look at the aesthetics of
the route and its design.
· David Jackson said we should look at the route with
the greatest good for the most people.
5. President Lawrence Boyd introduced the fourth focus
group topic .Focus Group 4 Discussion between Directors of the Sunnyvale
4A Corporation and
Selected guests discussing
……. People who
live in Sunnyvale may have plans for a business or work for a company with expansion
or relocation plans. What specific
action steps do your recommend to the Sunnyvale 4A Corporation to take to
encourage these residents to bring their businesses to Sunnyvale? Guests included Debbie Geis, Mathew Koshy, Julie Martin, Ron Ziegenfuss and Penny Range. Points if discussion
included:
· Find out why they are not here, why their business is
not in Sunnyvale-Debbie Geis
· Be proactive-go to the business offer guidance to
permitting or provide a contact person.
Need a welcoming group to help introduce the Town to the new business.-Ron
Ziegenfuss
· Help the
business. Provide a 6 month tax abatement- Mathew Koshy
· I agreed that we should support the new business with
a welcoming committee and the Chamber and community support the new business-
Julie Martin
· From the point of the patient or their family at the hospital they need information about what is available in
Sunnyvale. The hospital brings a lot of
traffic we have over 400 employees. We
need a list of things to do in Sunnyvale for our visitors to the Hospital. Yes, and extended stay hotel would be
excellent. We even had to keep employees
overnight at the Hospital in this recent bad weather. –Penny Range
· We do radio advertisement and would partner
with business on this activity. Also not
that the GPS/Mapsco and Google do not locate the hospital correctly they send
people to N. Collins Road-Julie Martin
6. President Lawrence Boyd introduced the last focus
group with is open discussion. Group 5 Discussion;
Directors of the Sunnyvale 4A Corporation will select guests who will be allotted
3 minutes to address one of the four focus group subjects. Two guests requested to speak and points of
discussion included:
· David Goodhart spoke in regard to
everyone supporting the local businesses and to have the 4A market the Town and
the businesses more, to let everyone know what is available. Need to treat town
business like a partner-need to look at town ordinances that are difficult for
businesses, e.g. sign ordinance.
· Allyn Giacomazzi spoke in regard to
beer and wine noting the difference between general rule towns and home rule
towns. As to 190 – we need to get a GOOD
Town Planner to look at that.
· Terry Reid: What kinds of business? Emerging technology and nontechnology. The Chamber of
Commerce tried to advertise/promote the Town with the Pecan Harvest Festival,
but the Town did not support this like it we believed they should.
7.
Adjournment-
President Lawrence Boyd adjourned the meeting at 9:20 p.m.
Approved by the Board of Directors on March
_______, 2011
________________________
Secretary