Fred Heinonen
Scandia Area Reporter

On Monday, Sept. 24, the Scandia Comprehensive Plan Committee held its four of 20 scheduled meetings with CR Planning, in accordance with the established project plan.

The Commercial Retail Committee joined the meeting because they are working on the same economic development issues. Several people are on both committees so joint committee meetings make sense and the group size is reasonable.

One important point that both committees agreed to was that bringing in dollars to the financial base is not a good reason to bring in businesses. Quality of life issues seemed to draw the most interest. Potential new businesses mentioned during discussion, to this point, were a health clinic and a pharmacy.

Brian Ross, of CR Planning, presented a draft of his Economic Base Background Report. It included:

•Economic base and community development •Employment and wages •Employment in surrounding communities •Dynamics of the local economy •Goods and services •Land use and community development

Ross presented data from the quarterly census of employment and wages compiled from unemployment insurance filings by businesses. It showed a 54 percent increase in jobs located in Scandia, from 258 in 2001 to 421 in 2006, but does not include self employment and jobs not covered by unemployment insurance.

Scandia had 63 businesses with employees in 2000 and 84 in 2006, an increase of 33 percent. The full list of 84 employers was not available because the state of Minnesota suppresses data when release of data would reveal information about a specific business.

Employment in the surrounding communities is dominated by Forest Lake with 6000 jobs, followed by Chisago City, 2018; Hugo, 1999; Wyoming, 1902; and Lindstrom, 1261. Stillwater and Osceola, WI, were not included but will be added.

Employment was further broken down between Basic, goods-producing (dollars in) and Non-basic service-providing (dollar circulating) sectors. Chisago City, Forest Lake and Lindstrom are heavily weighted toward service-providing jobs while Hugo (with more goods-producing jobs) and Wyoming are more evenly balanced. Ross explained dynamics of the local economy by showing how dollars flow into, within, and out of the community.

Ross outlined items for the committees to address when considering land use and community development. He included managing commercial areas, enhancing quality of life, sustaining community services, and creating new value for priority areas and assets.

Next meeting

The next Scandia Comprehensive Plan Committee meeting is scheduled 7-9 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 11, to review Jean Coleman’s demographic report, prepare for visioning public meetings, and review water resources, parks and open spaces existing plans.

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