Brenna McConnell recently completed an internship with the City of Columbia Heights. This is what they had to say about the experience.
My experience as a Community and Economic Development Intern at the City of Columbia Heights broadened my understanding of the relationship between municipal actions and the economic activity that takes place within a city. Working in this office exposed me to various ways the city may interact with businesses, including grant administration, permitting, inspections, Planned Unit Development review, and connecting businesses to resources. The internship also deepened my understanding of the processes by which city staff execute public policies. Two of my tasks – developing a Business Retention and Expansion program and preparing a zoning analysis – feel particularly emblematic of what I learned during this internship.
Business Retention and Expansion: Columbia Heights has a limited Business Retention and Expansion program and seeks to develop more comprehensive programming. To support this effort, I researched common Business Retention and Expansion practices, learned about other cities’ programs, and developed a set of recommendations for how a Business Retention and Expansion program might function within the context of Columbia Heights. During the research process, I realized I had seen some Business Retention and Expansion programming in action in a past role as the manager of a small business, but I was unfamiliar with the purpose and core elements of a Business Retention and Expansion program from an administrator’s perspective. That said, I appreciate that this internship offered me an understanding of what programming can look like at a city level. One element of the Business Retention and Expansion plan I proposed was a guide to different resources businesses could access from the city or other organizations across Minnesota. Collecting information to include in this guide helped me develop a much more comprehensive view of regulations and resources available at the city level and beyond.
Zoning Analysis: One of Columbia Heights’ three commercial zoning districts is the Limited Business District, which staff have struggled to administer because it currently consists of parcels located in different clusters throughout the city that are not uniform in use or character. To inform the conversation about the future of this zoning district and future development of these parcels, I reviewed existing conditions in this district and presented these findings to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The experience introduced me to municipal research processes, staff report writing, and commission proceedings. Since I am studying urban and regional planning, I found this work especially helpful for understanding the connections between planning activities and economic development.