REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL March 21, 2019 FROM: LEE BRAND, Mayor Office of the Mayor & City Manager MIGUEL A. ARIAS, Councilmember Council District 3 BY: TIM ORMAN, Chief of Staff to the Mayor Office of the Mayor & City Manager SUBJECT ..Title ***RESOLUTION - Amending the "Economic Expansion Act" and Adopting the Southwest Revitalization Incentive Program" (Subject to the Mayor's veto) ..Body RECOMMENDATION Mayor Brand and Councilmember Arias recommend the City Council approve the amendment to the Economic Expansion Act to create the Southwest Revitalization Incentive Program EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since its initial adoption in March of 2016, the Economic Expansion Act (EEA) has proven to be an extremely useful tool to attract job-creating businesses and encourage significant public and private investment in the City of Fresno. This amendment is a logical extension of previous amendment(s) to the EEA to help stimulate additional investment in the area encompassed by the Southwest Specific Plan adopted by Council on October 26, 2017. BACKGROUND From its inception in 2016 to now, the measurable and scalable incentives created by the EEA have brought over 5,000 good-paying new jobs (with benefits) to Fresno and resulted in the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in our community. This amendment is a logical extension of the EEA in order to stimulate significant investment in Southwest Fresno by building on the momentum of the $66.5 million grant the City is receiving from the State of California Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program. The TCC program investment will bring at least another $111 million of additional investment to Southwest Fresno, Downtown and Chinatown. This amendment to the EEA will build upon that success and has the potential to create tens of millions or more of additional investment in Southwest Fresno, an area of outstanding potential that has been overlooked all too often. This amendment is another step in changing that narrative. The Southwest Revitalization Incentive Program (SRIP) created by this EEA amendment will apply to projects that meet three or more of the goals identified by the Southwest Specific Plan, as outlined in the Resolution, which was developed by a community led Steering Committee, over fourteen Steering Committee meetings, approximately ten topic group meetings and four community workshops, with all meetings open to the public and noticed in both English and Spanish. The SRIP, following the structure of the EEA, gives the City Manager the authority to reduce and/or eliminate citywide impact fees for projects that meet the identified criteria. Fees that may be reduced or eliminated include water and sewer connection charges, various park fees, as well as police, new growth and traffic signal impact fees. ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS This approval is not a "project" for the purposes of CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378. LOCAL PREFERENCE Local preference is not applicable to this item because this item does not include the award of a construction or consultant contract. FISCAL IMPACT The fiscal impact of these amendments will not be known until The City Manager receives and approves applications from qualifying development projects within the footprint of the Southwest Specific Plan. The City Manager will prepare and present an annual report to Council which will detail the amount and type of development fees reduced for each project, along with a total of reduced or eliminated fees that may need to be offset by other legally permissive City funding sources. Attachments: Resolution - Economic Expansion Act Amendment Exhibit A - Amended Economic Expansion Act