The City's Trying to Make It Easier For Public and Private Dollars to Partner Up

Trying (but, so far, failing) to get down to Dallas City Hall this morning for the Economic Development Committee meeting this morning; so many interesting items on the agenda. We've covered some, but not all -- like, for instance, this review of the city's public-private partnership program that allows for all those tax abatements and credits and and TIF districts and block grants you're always reading about.

What's most intriguing about this morning's discussion are the city-staff proposed amendments that would make it easier for the city to partner up with a developer or company looking to relocate. There's talk of creating a "a new Film/Creative Media component," which Dallas Film Commission head Janis Burklund has been pushing for since forever in an effort to get studios to relocate to Dallas (or at least build some sound stages here more permanent than Code 58's set-up at Fair Park). There's talk of lowering the requirement for downtown and northern Dallas office space, lowering the requirement from 200 and 250 jobs created or retained, respectively, to 150.

In short, from the looks of the briefing, the city's trying to make it easier to lure businesses or keep 'em -- including the suggestion of a $1-million small business lending program in the southern sector. Then there's this tease: "The City recently received numerous recommendations for program amendments related to Southern Dallas projects from an interested organization." Which are? From whom? They're not saying till next month.