Meridian, ID business plan gets pointers

The city of Meridian needs to do substantial work before it can expect to develop an effective plan to attract new businesses and keep those it already has, according to a new report.

Earlier this summer, the city commissioned a student team from the University of Phoenix’s Meridian campus to help develop Meridian’s first economic development plan.

Kathleen Kreller

The Idaho Statesman

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040728/NEWS01/407280335/1002

Instead, the business graduate students found areas where the city needed to improve before any planning could take place. The students presented their findings to the Meridian City Council Tuesday night, including these recommendations:

• Meridian should create a thorough profile of the city to serve as a baseline for economic planning.

• The city should devise and promote Meridian’s identity.

• Meridian should provide more and better information and marketing materials to developers.

• The city should create a comprehensive database of Meridian resources and businesses.

• A complete list of businesses should be used to administer a comprehensive survey.

• The city should create a packet with information to make it easier to open a business.

• The city should develop a better understanding of its tax base in order to optimize the business-to-residential tax ratio. A breakdown of the various types of tax revenues was not available to the students.

"It was frustrating, but it didn’t take very long to see we needed to go in another direction," said Eric Wallentine, a Meridian product engineer who attends University of Phoenix classes at night.

Students found it can be difficult to get information from city departments, according to the report.

"The city has not formalized a lot of their processes," said Julie Johnson, vice president of the university. "It’s the planning and organizing part before you can begin to attract and retain businesses."

The students, who are pursuing master’s degrees in business administration from University of Phoenix, spent six weeks conducting surveys of local companies and analyzing city functions before issuing their report.

"As an administrator of the school, it’s deepened my understanding of the community’s need for help," Johnson said. "I think that it’s important."

She said the University of Phoenix will likely conduct other studies and create more partnerships with Meridian.