Council left cold as Rossland Sustainability Commission suggests six ways to help reinvigorate the local economy through the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation

By Andrew Bennett

The Economic Development Task Force (EDTF) of the Sustainability Commission (SC) presented council with a package of six recommendations for "Rossland economic development focus areas" that the city could take to the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation (LCIC or LCI) to help Rossland "increase its return on its investment in the LCIC"—but the reception from council was unexpectedly chilly.

The LCIC is an economic development organization formed by the LCCDT (Lower Columbia Community Development Team) and funded by local governments. Rossland contributes $30,000 each year to the LCIC.

 

About one year ago, Sandy Santori, the executive director of the LCIC, spoke at a public meeting in Rossland to encourage input about what specific development goals the LCIC could focus on to best serve Rossland.

 

After the meeting, Lea Thuot, the SC manager at that time, worked with the EDTF to consider possible initiatives for the LCIC to focus on that would serve Rossland's goals—such as the "end state 2030 goals" outlined in the Strategic Sustainability Plan—and regional goals.

 

The EDTF consolidated the ideas into six focus areas for the LCIC to consider "embedding in its work plans," and to subsequently "implement a realistic plan" in cooperation with the city and local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Rossland, and the EDTF.

 

The six focus areas are:

 

1) Develop and grow the Rossland light industrial park. Examples of possible uses range from a brewery to bike parts manufacturing and value-added forestry.

 

2) Review the plans for the midtown lands opportunity, commonly known as the Emcon Lot, and "launch a concerted development effort."

 

3) Market the Kootenays with a focus on both regional tourism and new residents.

 

4) Explore and develop innovative solutions for transportation and telecommunications infrastructure development—for example, advanced broadband Internet service, improved air access, a Red Mountain shuttle, and ground transport from Spokane.

 

5) Build regional cooperation and share regional resources. This includes not only issues such as waste management and recreation, but to "reduce regional tax leakage to Victoria … that happens though taxes on dams, pipelines, and power lines."

 

6) Build on existing business and business opportunities to help local, small enterprises grow. The approach of “business retention and expansion” begins with an assessment of the current situation to develop strategies that capitalize on opportunities and address challenges.

 

In the cover letter to council, SC Chair Terry Miller wrote, "At our last SC meeting, Mayor [Greg] Granstrom encouraged us to bring forward the proceedings [of this] past community meeting."

 

But council, as a whole, did not appear to appreciate the effort.

 

"What's the intention?" Coun. Kathy Wallace asked.

 

Coun. Kathy Moore replied, "These recommendations come from a long process. The previous council asked the SC to come up with an economic development plan for town."

 

Granstrom downplayed the SC's focus areas as an "individual wish list."

 

"The LCI chould be an organization that focuses on the broad brush," he said. "I think an individual wish list makes it more difficult for this organization to function."

 

Coun. Tim Thatcher thought the six areas were too sweeping. "There's a lot here that can't be accomplished," he said. "Maybe we should concentrate the wish list onto stuff they'll actually work on."

 

Moore returned to defend the SC's focus areas: "This isn't a wish list so much as an opportunity list." She suggested the focus areas be sent to the LCIC. "We're giving the encouragement," she said, "We're putting it out there, and hopefully they have ideas [and will find] a match."

 

In a separate interview, Kelvin Saldern, chair of the EDTF, clarified, “This is not a wish list, they’re not demands. They’re suggestions of some areas of activity the LCIC can work on that are directly related to Rossland, simple as that. It’s up to council what they choose to do with [our suggestions].”

 

Saldern added, “Sandy Santori came to Rossland looking for input. Nobody has gone back to him to say, ‘This is what we’d like you to look at’. We’re not saying the LCIC should do all of those. Until we put something on the table, Sandy doesn’t have a lot to work with.”

 

Coun. Cary Fisher dismissed the SC's effort, however. "I'm cold on this stuff," he said.

 

He explained that he did not hold out much hope for attempts at light industrial development, nor the midtown land development.

 

“I support the regional aspect,” he said, “and I really support the Trail airport. It’s been very beneficial to my business particularly. But build cooperation? I don't get that. I don't.”

 

“My real issue with this,” he continued, “Is that Community Futures, Tourism Rossland, all this stuff, is mixed in. There’s so much overlap.”

 

“I have a general issue around government picking projects, picking winners,” he said. “I don't think it's possible to pick winners. All you can do is create a welcoming environment here so [businesses] will take the risk to put money into your town.”

 

Moore said that what Fisher called "overlap," she took to be "collaboration and communication" between allied groups working on specific, but interrelated mandates. She said, "We can't put all our eggs in one basket."

 

Separately, Saldern noted, ““The Chamber of Commerce suggested the EDTF participate [in the public forum with the LCIC last spring], and it was certainly within the mandate of the EDTF.”

 

Coun. Jill Spearn saw "nothing wrong with growth in the light industrial park."

 

"I like to be optimistic,” she said. “What didn't fly yesterday may fly today. Maybe a brewery, or a bike part manufacturing biz could work for Rossland. Somehow we can grow the economy. If it's all feeding in to develop our region in a positive way economically, we should support that.”

 

Fisher countered, "optimism lies in entrepreneurs [who have] skin in the game" and he suggested we needed to "learn from our mistakes" as many of these ideas have been "tried and tested so many times before."

 

"Look at all the areas where light industrial things are going up," Fisher said. "Taxes are cheap, land cost is cheap. Businesses have to make a decision. For production line stuff, they're going to the cheapest place there is."

 

Saldern responded, “Cary may indeed be right, but I don’t think anyone has done a competitive assessment. We have an area of land zoned for light industry. If the zoning is completely inappropriate, if we’re dreaming, then we should do a reassessment and rezone it.”

 

He explained, “It’s not an expensive survey that’s needed, just a simple assessment of the land we have, the assets we have, and to consider what opportunities there could be.”

 

While it would not necessarily be LCI doing the assessment, Saldern said they should be part of the discussion to see if light industry makes sense for Rossland.

 

“The area zoned light industrial was put in place for a purpose, I assume. If it’s completely unreasonable to expect we’re going to have light industry, for whatever reason, maybe we should consider doing something else with that land.”

 

Responding to concerns about the LCIC’s role in the midtown lands, Saldern said, “The land is just sitting dormant. Nobody is doing anything with that asset, that opportunity, with the exception of the skatepark association and their plans for a skatepark.

“These kind of assets, we should capitalize on them, or at least be planning on ways to captilize on them,” he said. “A lot of work in past has gone into plans for the Emcon lot. There were design charrettes and the city planning department has extensive documentation on plans for those lands.”

 

Saldern said a request for expression of interest was sent three years ago to potential developers through BC bid to see if there was interest in reaching a development agreement for the midtown lands.

 

“It never got any traction,” he said. “That land is a huge asset, but nothing is happening on it. Maybe the LCIC could work with city and go back to planning docs that exist, the  work that was done before, and rethink that. The world’s changed: maybe there are developers out there willing to do that, and the LCIC can help us find them.”