12-15-2004 Building and Development Meeting Minutes

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12/15/04 Meeting Page 2 He suggested La Porte have a better sales attitude to bring customers and developers to do business in the City. He noted the City does not just provide service they also have to be sales people and offer more assistance to help. Another example was working with Grisham Tolaz on a project deemed to be a truck stop. It was not a truck stop and was only a lazge service station. He was told no on the project and advised that La Porte did not want it here instead of saying lets look closer at the project and see what we can do to bring your business to our City. Suggested we train and develop staff not to use the terminology "No" but to find more positive phrases and ways of getting the business to the City. Staff mentioned some items could be caused by the policies adopted by City Council. An additional example is he suggested we do away with 25ft. lots and get rid of alleys. He suggested we do away with chazges related to alleys. He believes you should give the developer the alley rather than providing it for a fee. He stated it can take up to 3-4 months to cleaz up an alley and developers will walk away from a project due to this type of time constraint. Developers want an easier process. The main point he wanted to make is that it is all about attitude - "how can we make it work". Staff needs to be sales and customer service friendly. He states staff should not be able to say no until upper management has had the final say. Mayor Porter interjected comments that he was advised by former City Engineer Fred Beck that when he experienced a problem at the City of Deer Pazk the matter went all the way to the City Manager where it was resolved. He stated the City Manager took the attitude of what do we need to do to get this resolved and keep your business in Deer Pazk. Mayor is concerned there is a perception out there that people do not want to build in La Porte. He noted we are spending funds on economic development with Alliance and Bay Area Houston and the efforts do any good if people don't want to do business in La Porte. Additional comments by Glen Tolar: Mr. Tolar complimented our "fast track" is much better than the City of Deer Pazk. Mr. Tolaz commented the property in Deer Park is running out and this is an excellent opportunity for La Porte. Mr. Tolar gave an example where he was working on a project with Deer Pazk for a Lumber Co. and he was told he would have to put it on Center Street from Building Department. Once he met with the City Manager, they determined a different interpretation of code and it saved the project. He suggested that one person be trained to work with developers.