1 Memorandum
Office of the City Manager
To: City Council
From: Yulia Carter, Assistant City Manager
Alyssa Corsetti, Management Analyst II
Alex Greenwood, Principal, Alex Greenwood Group
Via: Kevin S. Woodhouse, City Manager
Date: November 5, 2025
Subject: Update on Economic Development Work Plan
Introduction
The City Council has given increased priority to economic and housing development, recognizing that they are critical economic drivers to help expand Pacifica’s economic base, achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, and address the City’s structural budget deficit.
During the past three months, staff from the City Manager’s Office, along with consultant support and staff from other departments, developed a focused Economic and Housing Development Work Plan to guide staff efforts and maintain progress on the City’s most urgent development projects.
This memo provides a brief Executive Summary of the Work Plan, for Council’s information as an attachment to the report for the Fiscal Sustainability Study Session scheduled for November 10.
The full, detailed Work Plan will be shared with Council in early 2026, and after the hiring of the new Economic and Housing Development Manager.
Basic Principles for the City’s Economic Development Work Plan Economic Development is a critical professional function of cities to help communities achieve financial stability and improve quality of life. Economic Development accomplishes these goals by:
• Attracting investment to revitalize the commercial areas of Pacifica, including housing and mixed-use development;
• Creating opportunities for quality jobs, business ownership, and wealth creation; • Supporting local businesses;
• Planning and “placemaking” to create healthy, beautiful, vibrant public places that promote a sense of community;
• Attracting shoppers and visitors to support local businesses; and 2 • Generating tax revenues from new businesses, investment, and housing and mixed-use construction.
Staff has developed an Economic and Housing Development Work Plan that is consistent with the Council-adopted Strategic Plan and that reflects ongoing Economic Development efforts. The Work Plan reflects a strategic approach to leveraging limited resources toward the City’s highest priorities, like revitalizing commercial areas, accelerating housing and mixed-use opportunities, and enhancing Pacifica’s visibility as both a destination and a place to live, work, and invest.
Given the City’s critical fiscal environment and the evolving opportunities and challenges that shape local economic conditions, this Work Plan is intended to remain fluid and adaptive, allowing staff to adjust priorities and timelines as new conditions, opportunities, or constraints emerge.
Proposed Economic Development Work Plan
The proposed ED Work Plan organizes staff’s efforts into four major work areas, or goals:
Goal #1: Catalyst Projects & Opportunity Sites
These are real estate opportunities that, if developed properly, would create a major “anchor” and generate significant new jobs, investment, construction, tax revenue, support for local businesses, and enhancement of Pacifica’s image and visibility.
A. 2212 Beach Blvd. – Site due diligence, market analysis, feasibility analysis, CEQA analysis & compliance, infrastructure planning, marketing the site to the development community, selecting a developer, refining the project concept, and negotiating development agreement(s).
B. Pacific Manor Shopping Center – Facilitating meetings with property owners to improve the center signage, building exteriors, tenant mix, and to explore restructuring the ownership interests to improve center management. In addition, the City could identify outside investors who may be willing to help redevelop the center.
C. Downtown / Sharp Park – Work includes: Palmetto streetscape improvements; attracting high quality eating & drinking businesses, retail, and cultural/entertainment uses; events; exploring popups, kiosks, and other interim uses of vacant lots; upgrades to Pacifica Pier to create a visitor destination; work with the City of San Francisco to explore opportunities to improve Sharp Park Golf Course; pursuing opportunities to develop vacant downtown lots; and exploring a potential Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID) to help fund marketing, events, and other enhanced services.
D. Other Opportunity Sites & Districts – Supporting the property owners and brokers representing Linda Mar Shopping Center, Pedro Point Shopping Center, the Rockaway District, and other important commercial areas, to pursue business retention, attraction, and development opportunities.
Goal #2: Business Attraction
Strategic marketing and other activities to help pave the way for new businesses, jobs, and investment.
3 A. Marketing & Tourism – Developing an integrated strategy of brochures, social media, press, website content, signage, and other initiatives to build the city’s image and identity as a business and tourist destination; coordinating with Pacifica Tourism and Marketing District (PTMD), Half Moon Bay and other partner organizations to explore better & more coordinated marketing of events & develop a comprehensive destination marketing strategy.
B. Events – Coordinating with event organizers to improve existing events and harness greater marketing, tourism, and economic development benefits from existing events; exploring the addition of events to drive increased tourism; working with PTMD to jointly fund coordinated marketing and planning of regional events; exploring a partnership to link the Mavericks event with Pacifica; and hosting rotating pop-up markets in Downtown, Rockaway, Pacific Manor, or other districts to drive foot traffic and attract visitors.
C. Outreach & Assistance to prospective & incoming new businesses – Exploring opportunities to upgrade an existing hotel to a national franchise; partnering with a marketing firm to manage PTMD and revamp the VisitPacifica website; outreach to hotel developers; coordinating with local property owners and brokers on retail attraction; attending a retail attraction conference (ICSC); pursuing opportunities to attract health care and medical office uses; regional partnerships; and looking at opportunities to locate a research or academic institution in Pacifica.
Goal #3: Business Retention
Working with existing local businesses to help them solve financial or other problems, and to expand their business.
A. Communication & Collaboration with Local Businesses – Monthly business goodwill visits; meeting with commercial brokers to discuss trends, issues, and opportunities; holding focus group meetings with various business groups to better understand their concerns and ways the City can support them; and developing a line of brochures and social media posts on a variety of helpful topics for local businesses.
B. Technical Assistance to local entrepreneurs & business owners – Partnerships with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Renaissance Center, SCORE, financial nonprofits and/or U.S. Small Business Administration to provide seminars, one-on-one business consulting, access to capital, or other assistance; partnerships with the Workforce Development Board, Skyline Community College, or other institutions to provide job training and placement; and developing a matching grant program to help local businesses fund façade improvements and/or tenant improvements.
Goal #4: Planning, Analysis, Grants & Policy Development Developing long-term plans, policies, grant applications, and initiatives that will make it easier and more efficient to do business in Pacifica, position the City to gradually improve its business community, and generate funding for improvements to commercial districts.
A. Improving the City’s Permit & Development Process – Coordinating with the Community Development Department on major new developments; facilitating communication during the permit process to identify and resolve permit issues; serving as City ambassadors with property and business owners during the permit process; facilitating discussions to resolve permit issues; partnering with San Mateo County Health 4 Services to educate local businesses on the County requirements for food businesses; and working with the Community Development Department to explore ways to improve the planning review/approval process.
B. Grants, Financing Districts & Revenue Generation Initiatives – Work includes:
researching Federal, State, and/or County funding opportunities for high-priority infrastructure projects; exploring a potential Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID) in Downtown/Sharp Park and/or other districts; exploring potential opportunities for a Community Facility District (CFD), Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) and/or other revenue-generating initiatives.
Coordination with the Economic Development Committee
The Economic Development Committee (EDC) has its own work plan, which is separate from the Work Plan described above, but includes tasks that can complement the Economic and Housing Development Work Plan. As directed by City Council, the EDC is a citizen volunteer organization that provides:
• Policy-level input and recommendations to City Council; • Help in sharing information between between the City and the business community; • Help connecting staff with businesses, property owners, and community organizations; • Advocacy for Pacifica’s business community.
By contrast, the Economic and Housing Development Work Plan, as described above, includes many technical tasks such as market analysis, real estate negotiations, marketing, creating financing districts, or helping to retain a local business.
Although the work of the EDC is different and separate from the work performed by City staff, it is important for staff and the EDC to communicate and coordinate with each other. Staff looks forward to periodically updating the EDC as the Work Plan is implemented, and to seek the EDC’s feedback on an on-going basis.
Conclusions & Next Steps
In launching and carrying out this Work Plan, several logistics must be considered:
• As mentioned above, the Work Plan is a living document that must be updated frequently.
While it is always useful to have a “look ahead” for how staff will plan to focus their time, it is critical to allow staff the flexibility to revise the Work Plan to respond to unforeseen circumstances.
• Early on during the launch of the Work Plan, it will be important to carry out a few tasks that will be easy wins. By “easy wins” we refer to small, high-priority tasks that can be completed quickly, with little or no cost, and will make a noticeable, public impact, and thereby build trust, credibility, and good will among the local business community. • Several of the items in this Work Plan will require the City Council to appropriate funds.
Depending on the City’s budgetary conditions, staff may pursue a mid-year budget appropriation to fund a package of Economic Development initiatives, such as:
o Site engineering & due diligence for the 2212 Beach Blvd. project ($75,000) o PBID formation consultant & related expenses ($75,000) o Phase 1 streetscape improvements for Downtown / Sharp Park ($50,000) 5 o Participation at ICSC and other trade shows to support business attraction ($5,000) o Miscellaneous marketing, social media, printing, and related costs ($5,000) o Seed funding for CFD/EIFD formation (amount TBD)