Emily Anderson recently completed her internship with the City of Golden Valley. This is what she had to say about the experience:
This internship was my first experience working with economic development concepts in the real world rather than just in the classroom. Having this experience added a new layer of understanding and knowledge to my economic development education and career path while giving me the opportunity to gain on-hands involvement in actual economic development work and issues. Throughout my internship, I worked on a variety of projects to support the economic wellbeing of the City of Golden Valley. I developed a general information report for sites that the City is targeting for redevelopment. This report included all information that developers typically request when evaluating a site for development. This report gave Golden Valley a basic outline of information to better communicate the conditions of sites to those interested in investing in the City, streamlining the process for initial contact with developers. Additionally, I communicated and sat in on meetings with developers interested in or already building in Golden Valley to learn more about the relationship between the public and private sector in economic development. This real world economic development experience has deepened my understanding of the field and its inner workings and has strengthened my interest in becoming an economic development professional.
A statement from Planning Manager Jason Zimmerman on the internship
During her summer internship with Golden Valley, Emily utilized the ULI Redevelopment Ready Guide and GreaterMSP’s RFI guidelines to review sites that had been identified for redevelopment in the City over the past few years. She began assembling key information about various sites across the city in order to create a booklet that could be distributed to potentially interested parties. For each site, the booklet will include an aerial photograph, the site size, the zoning, the guided land use, access to transportation, and additional storm water information. Other high level descriptions of the City’s business development programs, relevant City processes, and full zoning and land uses maps will also be included.
In addition, Emily assisted Planning staff with re-envisioning the section of the zoning code that outlines the site plan review process for development projects that are submitted to the City, in order to better coordinate feedback from various City departments and to provide timely information to the applicant. The goal of this project was to ensure a complete and accurate review process of proposed development and additions for businesses, builders and developers.
Finally, Emily spearheaded the effort to develop a 4d Affordable Housing Program for the City’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, in an effort to encourage the preservation of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) within older multi-family buildings. This effort will help maintain a full range of workforce housing within Golden Valley and support the businesses located here
This internship was my first experience working with economic development concepts in the real world rather than just in the classroom. Having this experience added a new layer of understanding and knowledge to my economic development education and career path while giving me the opportunity to gain on-hands involvement in actual economic development work and issues. Throughout my internship, I worked on a variety of projects to support the economic wellbeing of the City of Golden Valley. I developed a general information report for sites that the City is targeting for redevelopment. This report included all information that developers typically request when evaluating a site for development. This report gave Golden Valley a basic outline of information to better communicate the conditions of sites to those interested in investing in the City, streamlining the process for initial contact with developers. Additionally, I communicated and sat in on meetings with developers interested in or already building in Golden Valley to learn more about the relationship between the public and private sector in economic development. This real world economic development experience has deepened my understanding of the field and its inner workings and has strengthened my interest in becoming an economic development professional.
A statement from Planning Manager Jason Zimmerman on the internship
During her summer internship with Golden Valley, Emily utilized the ULI Redevelopment Ready Guide and GreaterMSP’s RFI guidelines to review sites that had been identified for redevelopment in the City over the past few years. She began assembling key information about various sites across the city in order to create a booklet that could be distributed to potentially interested parties. For each site, the booklet will include an aerial photograph, the site size, the zoning, the guided land use, access to transportation, and additional storm water information. Other high level descriptions of the City’s business development programs, relevant City processes, and full zoning and land uses maps will also be included.
In addition, Emily assisted Planning staff with re-envisioning the section of the zoning code that outlines the site plan review process for development projects that are submitted to the City, in order to better coordinate feedback from various City departments and to provide timely information to the applicant. The goal of this project was to ensure a complete and accurate review process of proposed development and additions for businesses, builders and developers.
Finally, Emily spearheaded the effort to develop a 4d Affordable Housing Program for the City’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, in an effort to encourage the preservation of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) within older multi-family buildings. This effort will help maintain a full range of workforce housing within Golden Valley and support the businesses located here.