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HEDRA Memorandum
To: HEDRA
From: Eric Maass, Economic Development Coordinator
Date: March 11, 2021
Item: Land For A Dollar Program Discussion
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends amending the City’s Land For A Dollar economic development incentive and
subsidy program as follows:
1) Jobs Credit Allocation. Increase the jobs credit calculation from $13.00 per hour to
$25.00 per hour and add language indicating that only payroll attributing to newly created
full time jobs in Hastings are eligible.
2) Efficient Property Usage. Establish a minimum building lot coverage of 25% for sale of
property.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
History:
HEDRA had preliminary discussions regarding the Land For A Dollar Program at its meeting on
February 11, 2021 and directed Staff to continue to review the program and bring back additional
research and detail to HEDRA for further consideration.
Jobs Credit:
Staff has connected with local industrial park businesses of varying sizes and received feedback
that wages for employees ranged from $20.00 to $30.27 per hour.
Staff requested regional wage data from GreaterMSP related to industrial park employment
including production, warehouse, assembly, fabrication, and food processing. The regional data
showed an average hourly wage of $27.01 and a median hourly wage of $25.65.
Based on data gathered both locally and regionally, Staff is proposing that the jobs credit formula
be amended from $13.00/hour to $25.00/hour and that only newly created full time jobs be
eligible to count towards the jobs credit calculation.
Efficient Property Usage
In recognizing the need for readily available industrial land, the City of Hastings established its
industrial park. The City has invested up front in land, roadways, and utilities including regional
stormwater. The City utilizes regional stormwater ponding for existing platted industrial lots so
that individual stormwater ponds are not necessary for each project as they would otherwise
occupy developable land. This is a best practice for the efficient development of land.
The City intends to recoup those upfront costs over time as a result of revenue from land sales
and increases in tax base. However, the amount to which the tax base actually increases depends
largely on the amount of new industrial building space constructed as land occupied by building
space is taxed at a higher rate than land occupied by parking lots or vacant open space.
It is important that the City efficiently match proposed projects with an appropriately sized piece
of property to support that project and reasonable and timely expansion but not inefficient land
use.
City Staff has analyzed the industrial park and found that the largest % coverage was 35% and
the lowest with a building was 5%. Of the 46 properties there was an average of 24% building
coverage.