Plan ahead to attract development
By Gregory Bialecki
Letter to the editor of the New Bedford Standard-Times
(Mr. Bialecki is undersecretary for business
development at the Massachusetts Executive Office of
Housing and Economic Development.)
For businesses looking to locate or expand in
Massachusetts, getting the state and local permits
needed to do business has been a major challenge for
many years. We need to address this issue front and
center in order to grow our economy and create jobs. We
can fix this problem, without sacrificing the character
of our communities or the quality of our environment, by
planning ahead for new growth and development.
We have developed a bad habit in Massachusetts, at both
the state and local levels of government, of not
planning ahead for new growth. Instead, we wait for and
react to private proposals for commercial and
residential development, using our permitting processes
to debate and decide the important questions of where
and how new development should occur. This is a losing
proposition for all concerned.
Reacting to individual development proposals is not a
constructive way for our communities and our
commonwealth to shape and guide a vision of what we want
to be. Waiting to discuss these important questions
until after the permitting process for a particular
project has begun makes it extremely unlikely that
permits will be issued in a timely and predictable
manner.
Under Gov. Deval Patrick's recently announced Growth
Districts Initiative, we are starting the process of
breaking these bad habits by highlighting some great
examples of where our local communities are thoughtfully
planning ahead and pledging to focus our state efforts
and resources on making those plans become a reality.
Within these districts, all of which have been
identified locally as promising locations for new
growth, we will work closely with communities and
property owners to make districts "development ready"
with respect to local and state permitting, site
preparation, infrastructure improvements and marketing.
New Bedford has been a leader in local efforts to
improve our business climate, and so it was fitting for
the Patrick-Murray administration to designate the
Hicks-Logan-Sawyer district as one of the commonwealth's
first growth districts. It is a great model of how to
plan ahead, with careful thought being given to every
aspect of getting sites within the district ready for
new development, from proper zoning to brownfield
remediation to infrastructure.
We are now in the process of announcing 15 other
districts around the state that will demonstrate that
planning ahead is the right approach for all kinds of
new development, whether urban or suburban, commercial,
residential or mixed-use.
There is a lot that the commonwealth can and will do to
support growth within these new districts. The state
grant for roadway and traffic signal improvements
announced by Gov. Patrick last week, in support of the
redevelopment of Fairhaven Mills, is just one example of
this kind of assistance. Importantly, it represents the
first step in a continuing commitment by the state to
collaborate with the city and with local businesses to
create jobs and revitalize the community in this area.
We believe that each of these growth districts will,
with our support, become regional hubs of economic
activity, creating new employment opportunities both for
the communities in which they are located and for
neighboring communities as well.
Of equal importance, we believe that these growth
districts will be a critical first step in shaking our
bad habits toward new growth and development.
By planning ahead, Massachusetts communities will take a
responsible, sustainable step toward propelling the
commonwealth's economy through the next century.
June 29, 2008
Source URL:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/OPINION/806290305/-1/NEWS0705
|
