Brooklyn Park to businesses: Help us help you

During last spring's special election, Brooklyn Park Mayor Jeff Lunde received a clear message: Business owners love the city's staff but hate dealing with the bureaucracy required to do business in the city.

As an example, Lunde said, one owner voiced her frustrations over staging something as simple as a celebration for a new facility: The first inspector who visited told her she needed a permit for the "grand opening" sign. Another said she needed a permit to give away cookies.

"What that meant to me was we have too many ordinances and rules," Lunde said.

"On all levels of government, when the economy is tough, there are little things that become big things because the margin of error is so much less."

In response, the city is launching a program to tap business owners for ideas that can benefit the city, its businesses and their customers and be realistically implemented.

The Business Forward initiative will begin with a luncheon Thursday at Edinburgh USA, which will involve business owners, commercial brokers and other community partners, such as chambers of commerce, North Hennepin Community College, Hennepin Technical College, Hennepin County and the state. The featured guest will be former Minnesota Twin and current Brooklyn Park business owner Corey Koskie, who has a Planet Fitness in the city.

Lunde and city staff will outline the program's goals and let business owners and real estate brokers know how they can participate.

Then the city will hold three cafe-format meetings at Edinburgh -- 7:30- 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 25; 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Oct. 27; and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Nov. 2 -- where small groups will discuss issues and barriers to profit or expansion and share their findings with the larger group.

It's important to be goal-oriented, Lunde said.

"We don't want a bunch of people sitting around complaining. We want people to tell us what is good and bad with what the city does."

The city also will work to create a task force from a cross-section of business interests. Starting in January, that group will use the ideas and themes gathered in the cafe meetings to create a list of attainable goals for the City Council. Such goals could include changes in sign ordinances, fees and inspections, Lunde said. They could be issues solely for the city to address, but they also could include other partners, such as colleges or the county, with such issues as workforce training or transit.

"We're not trying to influence any of those outcomes," said Amy Baldwin, the city's business developer. "We want it to come from the groups that are participating."

The goal is to wrap up the process next spring with proposals that make the city more welcoming not only to existing businesses but also to entrepreneurs who might want to bring their ideas -- and jobs -- to Brooklyn Park.

"We don't want to pretend to know what's going to make it better," Baldwin said. "We need them to tell us what are the issues, what are the things holding them back?"

The time is right, Lunde said, as the city seeks to develop its northern reaches, and property prices remain low.

"If you've got a good business and cash, it's a perfect time to expand," he said.

The luncheon is free, although reservations close today. To register, e-mail rsvp@brooklypark.org. For more information, visit www.brooklynpark.org .

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409