The City of Sequim plans to move forward with its own Economic Development Plan starting in 2017.

Sequim city councilors unanimously adopted the new plan on Dec. 12, which includes business retention/expansion, business attraction, land development, tourism and more elements.

A major component of the business retention/expansion component includes staff and volunteers visiting multiple businesses in one day for a kick-off sometime in June 2017.

Additionally, Sequim City Manager Charlie Bush said their goal is to visit four businesses a month or a total of 78 in 2017 and 98 in 2018 with each visit including a questionnaire about issues and suggestions for topics such as parking, parks, permitting, etc.

“We’re confident we’ll be able to deliver this,” Bush said. “It’ll have a tremendous benefit for helping local businesses.”

Bush said four city staffers, split between the city manager’s office and Department of Community Development, will work together to implement the plan along with volunteers and other city departments and agencies as needed.

In the plan, city staff state they foresee several possible partnerships through the program such as with workforce development partners, such as schools, to help bring in skilled workers, and other agencies like the Small Business Development Center, Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce and Clallam County Economic Development Corporation.

In 2016 and 2017, the City of Sequim opted not to join the Clallam EDC’s membership for $5,000 as previous years. City councilors have debated membership with the agency for several years prior.

Bush said they haven’t been able to see benefits of contracting services with the EDC but the city’s Economic Development Plan allows them to do so in the future.

“I still see us partnering with them,” he said.

Assistant City Manager Joe Irvin said the city doing its own plan creates something specific for Sequim “that meets the needs of our businesses.”

“We saw an opportunity to provide for those businesses,” Irvin said.

Part of the plan includes the possibility of developing a business development center where multiple agencies, such as the Chamber of Commerce and EDC, operate in a single space.

The possibility of forming an Economic Development Commission also is possible in the plan, too.

In 2017 and beyond, Bush said part of staff’s focus will be on bringing in wealth-generating businesses that bring revenue from outside the area.

Some of the other aspects of the plan include working with property owners to determine land uses for rezoned areas for economic opportunity areas and high technology industrial zones, and continue tourism promotion through the Chamber of Commerce.

Bush said after they figure out some of the plan’s logistics, they’ll likely work more in-depth with the Chamber of Commerce on business visitations and other aspects.

In the future, visitations may include businesses in the Greater Sequim area outside of the Sequim city limits, Bush said, but staffing is limited.

“We’re not superheroes. There are a lot of demands on our time and this is using up staff capacity,” he said.

City councilors generally agreed with the plan with Pam Leonard-Ray saying she was impressed with it. She suggested a short exit interview be in place for businesses that close or move.

However, deputy mayor Ted Miller said he wasn’t sure city residents benefited fully from the plan.

Bush said they intend to provide an annual report and the plan ideally will help businesses open sooner, get people working quicker and money circulating sooner in Sequim.

City councilor Bob Lake agreed saying he wants the city to keep moving forward and a “plan at 80 percent is better than waiting for a terrific plan 10 years from now.”

Fellow councilor Gen-aveve Starr said the city will be more prosperous with a plan in place.

“Our city will be able to provide services our city needs and hopefully be able to keep some of our kids here,” she said.

Bush said the push for an Economic Development Plan started with the city’s renewed Comprehensive Plan. It suggests an importance for bringing in family wage jobs in the designated economic opportunity areas by U.S. Highway 101, maintaining Sequim’s downtown area, creating more economic diversity and more.

Bush said it’s a big shift in direction for the city but the area will benefit more with the city being more proactive in economic development.

City staff also followed city councilors’ direction to create an Economic Development Plan after councilors adopted “Core Values” for economic development in 2014 and created a council goal earlier this year to implement an economic development plan within 1-2 years.

To read the Economic Development Plan, visit www.sequimwa.gov.

More funding for Fir Street

City staff anticipate more financial assistance when construction tentatively begins to reconstruct Fir Street between Sequim Avenue and Fifth Avenue in late 2017/early 2018.

Matt Klontz, Sequim city engineer, said the City of Sequim ranks No. 5 of 126 applicants for the Safe Routes to School Program to receive $231,000 through Washington State Department of Transportation pending the Legislature’s approval next year.

Klontz said the grant will reduce the city’s budgeted expenses from the $793,500 planned for 2017.

In November, city staff learned Sequim received a $3.1 million grant from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) for the project.

In total, the project is estimated at about $4.436 million including design and staff time used previously.

Back to drawing board

Sequim city councilors followed the city Arts Advisory Commission’s recommendation not to go through with a bid for new art in council chambers.

They agreed not to spend $14,707.11 including taxes for 9-foot steel branches including 20 1-foot plates on each side of the city’s logo from Seattle Glassblowing.

“They thought it was a great piece of artwork,” said city clerk Karen Kuznek-Reese. “It just doesn’t complement the logo enough so they’d recommend not pursuing the cost of installation.”

The city budgeted $45,000 for art inside the Civic Center.

Read Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.