Internal projects: 

• Covered Structures grant program:  The status of the first round of this program is reviewed semi-monthly at the City of Sandy Ec Dev Advisory Board meeting – here is the status of the program as of the beginning of March 2022:
  • Tollgate Inn – Keystone Architecture continues to refine the design with input from the building owner.  We are expecting a design sometime before the end of April.
  • All other projects are now complete, structurally and financially.
    

• Covered Structures Round II:  Designs for the second round of the City of Sandy Covered Structures grant program were reviewed at the SURA and City Council meetings on January 3^rd.  Designs for the following businesses were approved outright:
  
  • La Bamba Mexican Restaurant – Out to bid; bid due date March 25^th.
  • Thai Home – Currently at the engineer’s office.
  • Mt Hood Athletic Club – Cost estimates for wooden decking vs. concrete pad for this project completed by contractor and forwarded to applicant.  He is currently crunching numbers to determine if he wants to proceed with this project.
  • Wippersnappers Kid’s Play Place – Currently at the engineer’s office.
  • The Smoky Hearth – Out to bid; bid due date March 25^th.
    
• More information has been requested by the Sandy Urban Renewal Board before a final decision can be made for the following projects:
  
  • Sandlandia II – Vinyl tent has been removed.  Owner would prefer not to pursue a second covered structure at this time (cost).  Project officially cancelled.
  • Bigfoot Growlers – Restaurant has now re-opened, but too early to determine business health at this time.
  • Sandy Inn Best Western – Design complete; ready for SURA Board evaluation.

The first two projects out of the gate (Smoky Hearth, La Bamba) are now officially out to bid – the bid due date is March 25^th.   The turning template completed for La Bamba showed that the covered structure will not impact traffic significantly in their parking lot, and the Type I design review requested for the Smoky Hearth showed that even with the parking reduction caused by the construction of the structure, the off-street parking for this development is still more than adequate.

Staff has forwarded the next two projects (Thai Home, Wippersnappers) to the engineer’s office for final drawing and analysis.  Each of these projects also has a small additional land use action needed before construction can begin.  The Thai Home project requires a surveyor to verify the north and west property lines to make sure the structure will not encroach on them – the surveying work is complete, but we have not received the final product yet.  The Wippersnappers project requires a parking analysis similar to that completed for the Smoky Hearth project, again to ensure that the loss of parking spaces from structure construction will not drop them below the minimum parking requirements for the zone.

Economic Development items:

Econ Devl – Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

• Façade project – Clackamas County’s Sandy Health Clinic:  Construction continues on this new County health care clinic next to the Sandy PD, which is tentatively scheduled to be completed in October 2022.
• Façade project – Mt. Hood Cigar:  Sandy’s cigar retailer is pursuing the addition of a smoking deck on the west side of the store with the property owner’s blessing.  Applicant is currently determining if he would like to add a rollup side door to the project.
• Façade project – Fun Time RV fencing:  Contractor is currently installing the stone wrapping on the concrete fence posts.  Pedestrian right-of-way and street work is complete – bulb-out improved, new sidewalk and curb added.  This project has run into some delays due to availability of the stone wrap product at this time – contractor standing by until product arrives. 
  

Econ Devl – Internal Projects:

• Economic Development Strategic Plan: An RFP for Sandy’s first official economic development strategic plan was completed in February. The RFP was sent to two firms that had expressed interest in sending a response prior to it’s completion: Community Attributes, Inc provided our Ec Dev Advisory Board with a very informative presentation as to the importance of this economic tool and has completed many of these plans for cities in the Pacific NW, and ECONorthwest is the firm currently working on our Economic Opportunities Analysis has good experience with these plans as well. The RFP was also posted on the Daily Journal of Commerce, and we have been contacted by another firm (Barney & Worth) that may be submitting a response as well.
  
  If you’re interested in reviewing it, the RFP for this report is posted on the City’s website at the following location: https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/economic-development/page/request-proposals-economic-development-strategic-plan-city-sandy
  
• AF Downtown Maintenance:  We had nothing for the DT Maintenance crew in February.  However, staff will be sitting down with AntFarm in the coming weeks to finalize new contracts for the flower basket watering & downtown maintenance and to discuss potential project work for the 2022 maintenance season.

Econ Devl – Economic Development Advisory Board:

The next meeting of the EDAB will be held on March 30^th. At that meeting, the advisory board will be discussing their evaluation of the responses to the RFP for the Economic Development Strategic Plan (due March 10th) and which plan they will be recommending to the Sandy City Council.

Econ Devl – Conferences/training:

There were no training opportunities for Economic Development in the month of February.