We'll call the uh operations and oversight committee to order. Tonight we're taking up order number uh 12-15262. Communication from the mayor submitting for city council endorsement. The MEEDC master plan titled building the new
Marro economy. The master plan provides a roadmap that identifies goals for future growth and economic development for the foreseeable future. Having a fully endorsed master plan will provide a vital tool that can guide the city's growth for years to come.
So, tonight uh we're actually going to get our first formal presentation of the economic development plan. We've uh we've seen bits and pieces of it. We're all aware of it and certainly many of us have uh read at least the the uh extensive executive summary if not the
whole document. So, I've Tim and I have had uh conversations and I've asked him to touch on certain areas again to give us a good feeling for for uh for what the plan is and then we'll have a further meeting um in a week or two
to to discuss some of the things that are really under our control. And I've asked Tim not to spend too much time on all the statistics and facts and figures that really don't pertain to what's before us. So, with that, I'm going to
have Tim start his presentation and counselors uh raise your hand and we'll we'll call on you to uh answer questions at any time. And then after the presentation, I'm going to ask the mayor to say a few words and then we can uh talk with Mr. Cummings and figure out our next stop.
>> Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and through you to your subcommittee. Um, just by way of background, the way this uh this presentation was formulated was essentially outlined into being two parts. Tonight's part one of hopefully a
an ongoing conversation uh where tonight we're going to essentially have an informal discussion uh providing a synopsis of the master plan highlighting major elements in the report using the executive summary as the guiding document.
part two, which uh as uh Chairman Delano alluded to a minute or so ago, will will occur uh a couple weeks from now, which will then begin discussions about strategies, actions, and and possible implementation of this uh master plan.
Um just just a couple house uh keeping items. Um for those of you who may not be aware, this report predates my time um at MEEDC. So, uh, with that, uh, uh, being said, please bear with me if I do
not have any answers at my fingertips. I promise you. Um, I will do the research necessary and at the followup meeting provide whatever information you may need. Um, and then, uh, lastly, it's hopeful that
this document will be, uh, submitted for approval, uh, upon completion of the of the presentation. Um and uh last housekeeping item, I just want to uh uh make sure that you all received our annual report which was uh in your
inboxes hopefully today um outlining the the work we did in 2012. So with that, uh Mr. Chairman, >> yeah, before we get started though, I do uh see that there's a number of board members out in the audience and maybe we just like to to recognize whomever we
can. Certainly chairman Mr. Berseron and uh Mr. Walton and attorney, >> Mr. Pzone, Dave Walton, and Mr. Tomac. >> It looks like we have Walter Bonan in the back, Chris Berglin, and I think
that covers all of >> Brian Murphy. >> Brian Murphy. Yes. We'd certainly like to thank you all. You do this as a labor of love, and I know you folks put in a lot of hours and I think it's really really helping the city. So, uh, I know I I speak for all the counselors when
when I say thank you for your efforts. Um, and then I I wouldn't want to leave out that we actually have uh April Martin and uh Linda Martins of the MEDC office here with us tonight as well. >> And of course, President Pope and um >> and and Mayor Vig as well >> who serve on our executive committee.
>> So, let's carry on. >> Thank you. So with that being said, just um hopefully everyone has had some time now to digest the master plan, some 300page document. It's executive summary, some 900page doc uh 90page
document and uh tonight uh hopefully you have in your hands a handout which uh is an outline of the major elements uh to be discussed this evening basically focusing on some of the major data points.
So the background MBEDC was originally uh formed as Marorrow 2010 as a public private partnership. Uh in 2011, Mayor Stevens, the city council provided funds to MEDC to develop an economic development master
plan. The product of this funding is a strategic plan uh known as building the new Malbero economy. As I go through this PowerPoint presentation, I'm not going to highlight every single bullet um and read them to you, but what I will do is call out some of the major points
that I believe uh you you should uh call your attention to. Um, so with that being said, uh, the overall objective of this master plan is to improve the economic opportunities for Mabaro residents, stabilize Morrow's residential tax rate by increasing
commercial tax values, and you do this by promoting local business expansion, retention, and attraction. When uh, the MEEDC uh, master plan went out for an RFP, it was formulated and framed in a discussion of trying to answer five questions. What is the composition of
the city's economy? What are the characteristics of the city's key economic uh sectors? What do these sectors contribute to the local economy? What kind and amount of economic growth can this city expect? How can the city improve its economic development
prospects and the process? >> And Tim, before we go on though, I just I just think it's so important that we all keep sight of this objective. stabilize the residential tax rate by increasing commercial tax value uh tax values and doing what we need to bring
in that business. So, as we make decisions as city councilors, as the mayor makes decisions, we really have to keep our eye on this because it is both a short and long-term objective. And this is our chance to think strategically as a council. And when projects come before us and different
ideas come before us, in my opinion at least, we we need to think about them in in light of this objective um assuming that we're all going to agree to this objective. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um so with that being said the report was organized into
sectors and describes the conditions of these various sectors identifying opportunities challenges to influencing economic growth while recommending priority implementation actions. Um and it should be noted as just just a
qualifier data came from varied sources that are that there were some limitations due to their sourcing but every reasonable attempt was made to ensure that the most accurate and accessible data was used for this report. I'm not going to go into too much detail in terms of the demographic profile. I
think everyone here in this room is very familiar with the with the city of Malber and uh and its demographics. I would like to note that in the report when it's referred to as the greater Malbar profile, this includes the communities of Berlin, Hudson, North,
South Barrow, and West Barrow. It's just good to have that definition uh uh understood as you start to look at some of the numbers that are involved. Um it should be noted and and I found this uh data point to be interesting. The average household contains 2.46 46
residents and that's slightly smaller than the greater Marboro figure of 2.76. Uh it should also be noted that there's uh an approximate 1.5 million square ft of vacant space available and this number is projected to decline. Please
remember the historical context of this document. This document was prepared um a couple years back and and we've seen actually that that uh figure drop. It goes without saying that to achieve substantial economic growth, it must come from the creation of new office
buildings. However, this will not occur until you see a uh vacancy rates drops. Now, to get into more of the industrial profile of the city, there are 270 industrial parcels of land. The aggregate total of this is 428
million. This represents 9% of all assessed land in the city of Malber, translating into an average of a 1.6 million uh per parcel. This this actually represents 1% of all buildings in the city which is 120 112 buildings
in total. You can see a 6.457 million gross square foot figure and all this resides within 10 different zoning districts. Should be noted that 76% of these buildings are located in either limited
industrial zoning or straight industrial zoning district. 21% of the sites are actually located in residential zoning. Some additional uh data points to be aware of. The largest percentage of manufacturing jobs are considered highskilled manufacturing coming from
two segments. Measuring and analyzing and electrical and electronic equipment. 30% of all jobs in Malber are manufacturing based. The report goes on to suggest that due to manufactur manufacturing shifting
role in economic development, little should be done in pursu in pursuing this industry as a primary source of jobs, but rather more broadly used as a secondary support market. That's overall because I'll talk in a few moments about actually some unique
perspective that Malber may have due to our already existing uh manufacturers. Leaders will need to decide if economic development investment to support manufacturing makes sense. However, as as this report goes on, it
it does a what's called a NAKES code analysis. A NAK code analysis stands for a North American industrial classification system where it further breaks down manufacturing and other industries. And and with that being said, doing a NAKES analysis, you can
see seasoning seasoning companies, which is salad dressings, missile space and defense, medical instrument developments are all performing well nationally in Malbor. all all performing well nationally and in Malber which would suggest that supporting these industries
would be critical in terms of economic development investment. It was noted that special redevelopment district is a tool available to promote redevelopment in industrial lands. The example cited was whin town center overlay and the
westwood station overlay. um that designation does not exist in the city of Mara to to date and it was offered as as a as a an articulated observation that might be something to
to discuss later on and again not the point of this evening is just to give you a highlight of what was in the master plan. We can talk about different mechanisms into adopting strategies at our next session. >> Jim, what was that zoning overlay called? So there was it's called a
special redevelopment district also known as overlays. It is uh the examples cited was Wayland Town Center overlay and the Westwood Station overlay. The report found that parking in Marboro had a what's called a one a 1:3 ratio.
One spot for every three industrial employees. when compared to 12 other communities of like makeup, this ratio was slightly high but well within range. >> I point that out. >> Can I ask a question concerning that?
You know that we have a 1:3 what community what other communities uh can you site that have something that's greater like 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, you know, is there anything anybody close? Uh yes, I'll get to that a little
bit later on in this report, but to answer your question, I can tell you Newton has one one to four and that's articulated in this report. >> Okay. So it' be more advantageous if we we went to one to four. >> Yes. >> So that and I wouldn't also want I don't want to get too far off subject here,
but uh councelor if uh uh if I may through you Mr. Um councelor um there's also another way you could do it another metric that's pointed out later on in this report which is maybe looking at doing it by square foot >> and maybe basing it on one spot per x
amount of square feet which has been highly successful in other communities. >> And Tim, for our viewers at home, the reason we might have less parking or or lower parking ratio is so that we can build more value in buildings rather than parking lots which aren't very valuable.
>> Right. It it should also just be noted that there's 252 industrial zone parcels with a potential development square footage of uh 2.8 uh 28.5 million square ft and the assessed value of potential
development is 1.338 billion. Um that's a a a methodology that is used sometimes for a full buildout analysis. I would caution this th this body not to get too caught up in full buildout analysis.
I've heard for many many years now that communities would be built out by x amount a decade and I've yet to ever see that come to fruition. But nonetheless nonetheless it is a good metric to use to guide you as you go through your your growth process. >> That's true because it was a study that
said we should have been built out by 2004. >> I remember >> clearly that wasn't true. Um, again, continuing on talking about brownfields, the report went into talking about uh brownfields
here in the in the city of Malber and it and it noted that there are there are a number of brownfields that have completed 21E assessments and some of them have been cleaned up, others are vacant or underutilized. The status of
Brownfield redevelopment uh in its full completion could not be ascertained with the current information available. I point this out to you more more than anything else because brownfield redevelopment is a key strategy a lot of municipalities are
using to date to help rehab land so it gets back on the tax roles. And if this uh body so wishes, it would be in my recommendation a highly advantageous tool to use later on down the road to make sure um the city has all its uh uh
land uh in the best condition possible to receive the highest value. Um and I would note that the city has made an effort with uh with the the Getty gas station cleanup over the last couple of years. So So clearly you're moving in that direction.
Um there was there was a highlight regarding traffic analysis and it and the traffic analysis basically suggests that uh if everything occurs as as theoretically predicted we'll be adding
around 1100 vehicle trips to the total total roadway during the 8 a.m. and uh AM and PM peak hours. Um and this this result concludes an original regional transportation network serving has sufficient capacity at uh the inter
interchanges to accommodate this potential increase in peak hours anticipated from the planned and proposed industrial development which is a wonderful uh asset and strength that this community has. It also went on to note about the wastewater treatment uh
water and wastewater treatment facilities here here in this city where again essentially outlines that that the infrastructure is in place to accommodate the growth uh that this city desires. >> Jim, I think we should remind the council that we lost about five over
5,000 jobs in the executive park just between HP and and Fidelity. So filling those back up is just going to get us not even to where we were before. So, I don't think people have to worry about thong throngs of new traffic uh coming
through and being a problem for a while. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And uh continuing on, the report continues to outline a strong energy telecommunication offering here in the city. Um work in collaborative with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. There
was no real limitations discovered except for MEEDC over the last year has identified some key issues which should be addressed and we can talk about that and ongoing at another presentation where where we're looking at some fiber optic uh limitations that we discovered
over the last year or so with our work outreaching to the businesses. But uh as a whole um the infrastructure for for communication and uh technology exchanges is is very sound and operable for attracting and retaining and growing
businesses here in in the city. Continuing on to talk about the commercial sector and just to highlight some of these data points and I'm going to do it a little bit more quickly. Um there are essentially 308 parcels do designated as commercial. That roughly
translates into 804 acres. This makes up 6.5% of the total land the city has. The aggregate assessed value is approximately 513 million which makes up approximately 11% of the assessed property value. And the average of these
parcels uh when assessed is 1.7 million. There are 216 buildings making up 2.16% of all buildings within the city and contain 7 million gross feet of square uh of uh square footage. It should be noted that there are nine different
zoning districts with 5 57% of the in inventory u excuse me 75% of the building inventory coming from either the business zoning district or a limited industrial zoning district. Commercial sectors represent more than
half of all the malbero employment but are not the importers of wealth but rather they are the secondary market supporting primary industries. What I what what this fact means is and and I would point you back to the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing
sector, even though it is not performing as strongly as some may may like, it actually is a great generator of wealth because they export products to economies outside the city of Malber and the and the region.
Whereas in the commercial sector, you have jobs that are essentially circulating the same dollars. So there's no new wealth created. Even though you may have jobs, those jobs are actually splitting the same dollars if you think
about it in a very simple way. Uh the last comment to make here is some is is the last bullet point which is the real estate market shows a net absorption of 200,000 square ft of office space 54,000 ft in Marbor and
will perform worse than the overall market over the next two years. Uh I would suggest that this data point may be slightly off wi with all that's happened through the progress that uh and the commitment that that you folk have made over the last couple years.
But nonetheless, at the time of this historical document, that was a safe assumption made. Continuing on to talk about the commercial sector, Marro has two commercial zoning districts, while other communities often
have more than two to distinguish different areas of the community, essentially creating a a sense of uh destination or place. Such neighborhoods are are downtown centers, shopping centers, and highway commercial
areas. An example of this is in the in the town of Lexington. There are six commercial zoning districts, two for office, one retail center, and the other three for differing types of mixeduse community centers. What this does is something similar to the uh city of
Newton, which creates more of a village feel, allowing for synergies to take place between the different corridors or pockets of development. Again, uh this this uh report goes on to note that special redevelopment districts are
overlays. Uh as uh the con as the consultants noted, Marro has no zoning districts specifically geared towards promoting redevelopment in these commercial districts, which is often used to help uh with marketing uh the land that is presently available. Um, I
would suggest again that this just goes to show that this is a historical document because I I would applaud this this uh body for uh moving forward with the mixeduse concept at the HP site. The HP site um embraces a lot of the
concepts that were uh or all the concepts that were articulated in this uh master plan. The next data point I'm going to point out just more so ju just just for for my own amusement. It's called a floating
zone. And it's a and I would not suggest that this might be a a strategy or a technique that the city wants to wants to pursue, but it is a wonderfully creative and innovative tool out there which essentially allows the city to adopt a what's called a floating zone.
You set design criteria, standards, and you regulate the uses, but essentially you don't designate the geography of where that zone will drop in. And it is a wonderfully incred it's a wonderfully innovative tool to allow communities to
have the type of use that they may want, but they're not exactly sure where that land actually may be. And it by applying this type of abstract regulation, you work with the development community through a
negotiated process to ultimately allow for that use to come to be. Uh, an example may be if the community desires to have um a gym and the gym and the gym will have a swimming pool and a golf
course and a few other amenities, but you don't necessarily want to zone it in the business zoning district. You can create this floating zone and then if a developer wishes to come in and pursue that, you can then if the demographics
and the land um criteria meet, drop that floating zone in on top of the land that it potent that otherwise it wouldn't have been regulated for. >> Can you give us an example? Do you know of any place that's done that? I I I said I I was putting this out there for
for just just for your own edification because I I don't know and I would say that a lot of communities have not yet embraced it here in Massachusetts, but I think it's received wide success in other areas of the country. >> So that I guess that was my next question. And your opinion on this would
be >> for very unique h communitydriven desires that you want to send a signal to the private sector that you would like to see a certain use in your community. I would use this tool.
>> So it'd be a good way to kind of make people notice us and >> if there was something that we felt was lacking and >> That's right. Okay. Again, I would say a golf course. Um something uh you know, recreational comes to mind.
>> Um but it could be um it could be in me you could could take many different forms. Um it's just a creative >> council Landers. I >> I think Tim what you're saying that this is a we have to be unique. You know,
there's a lot of competition out there. even some of our other burrows. And if if you want to uh you know attract people, sometimes we have to do something that's unique at least uh get their attention. >> And that's all that this really this
does is it gets it gets uh again the private sector who um are are hesitant to on three things. Taking risks, they're they're hesitant in in not having an a good understanding of a timeline. and they're under and they're
not sure of whether it actually meets the the community's overall goals. It takes a lot of those issues which are major issues for the private developers off the table. So, it minimizes the risk and whenever you minimize risk, you can help assure that you get the community
type of uh growth that you're looking for. Again, it's a completely negotiated process um that would uh that would have to be worked through, but nonetheless, it sets up broad parameters to uh signal to the outside private communities that
that you would be willing to entertain these types of uses. Council Clancy, >> recently we had a um within the last few years, we had a a request for an auto dealership just to move down the street. And because of his non-conforming use and the present use that he had, he
wasn't allowed to move down the street. And I think that most of us in this room probably saw it as a as a a betterment for that that parcel of property that they wanted to put it on. The only problem they ran into was because it was called spot zoning. You know, it's this
is very similar. You know, would we call it spot zoning? You know, um it would be very dangerous, I think, that if we adopted something like this, but we'd have to look at it very very closely and how we used it. >> I I don't disagree with that. I think
you'd have to look at it very very closely. I think um the standard operating procedure of spot zoning has changed over time. I don't think what was once considered spot zoning now in today's day actually is
spot zoning because um zoning in and of itself is a living document and and it changes over time as communities, cultures, and economies change. With that being said, innovative ideas and practices need to be adopted to stay
competitive in a global market. And I I would suggest that you I mean I I would suggest that if done appropriately, this type of uh zoning would meet and exceed any type of legal challenge. It's been
done time and time again in other areas and has withtood it. But it has to be done properly and has to follow a process. It's it's an idea for discussion. So, but let's move along. We have another meeting tonight. So, >> with that being said, um again, there
was just talk of uh the parking here in Malboro and the and it was articulated that there's three parking spaces uh per thousand square feet of commercial office space. There was uh um an analysis done that shows that it fits within range, but is is high. You could
do something along the lines of of two spaces per thousand square feet as Arlington does, 4,000 four spaces per thousand square feet as Burlington. Um, but there are other other processes and and regulations that that
can get you where you where you want to be on that front. >> Mr. Chair, can I just comment on the parking, >> please? Mr. Roby. Um, my guess is Burlington and Arlington are able to have their parking that they do because they have mass transportation. People
have to get to Mboro. So, cars come and cars need places to park their car. >> Good point. >> I'm I'm uniquely qualified to speak on at least Burlington. I can't really speak for Arlington, but I would suggest if you were to talk to people in Burlington, they would suggest that they
are completely underserved by public transportation. Um, and that they don't have the services that that they would be looking for. And actually, I would applaud the the city of Malber for moving towards a regional transit authority that maybe
accommodated the services or at least we're listening to the service demands a little bit more than what Burlington has to do, which is listen to the MBTA. And and as we all know, MBTA provides services for the inner core. Burlington, Arlington are definitely outside the
inner core. I think Arlington does get serviced by um the MBTA much more so that's due to a density trigger that a lot of the other communities don't have. Um, so continuing on
to to the next slide, I just again want to point out the building uh the buildout analysis which essentially outlines that with 313 parcels, there's a potential development square footage of uh 9 million square feet with an assessed
value potential of 512 million. Again, I I I won't repeat myself on on what I think of those uh buildout analysis um because I think that they are good guidelines to use, but wouldn't want to hold anything hold any weight to them
other than trying to help you guide your process. Um continuing on, I just wanted to again highlight the uh transportation impacts for commercial development. um where it again it outlines that that during the peak times you know your your
infrastructure is in place that no major transportation improvements would be required. Next continuing on to the retail sector. Again just some quick data points to give everyone a baseline of of what we're talking about for economic value
here in the city. You have 255 parcels of land uh which makes up about 306 acres. That represents 2.8% of the total land with an aggregated assessed value of around $250 million.
And this translates into an average assessment on parcel of about $1 million. Um again, out of the 255 retail parcels, uh and 169 buildings, 66% of them are
located in the business zoning district, 15% are in the commercial and auto zoning district. And please note that 5% uh for both industrial zoning and limited industrial zoning districts. I point this percent these low percentages
out to you because this is the type of amenity retail that some of these uh larger users in the district are actually looking for. And again, uh, over the last year, MEDC has went out and outreached to a lot of these businesses. And we've heard time and
time again, amenity retail is something that that would be desired in these types of zoning districts. And this data backs up the fact that uh, within these districts, you have about 5% um, of retail available.
And if you were to target any type of economic development, uh it's suggested that you look at the sectors which are growing, which is accommodations, eating and drinking and and uh recreation. >> Continuing, >> one of the things we hear from businesses
um existing and some that are coming to town, they need things to attract their employees. They're out recruiting and it's pretty fierce for some of these industries. So entertainment for the 20 somethings and 30somes. We're going to need some kind of
entertainment area. >> Absolutely. >> Where they can go out past 9:00. uh this report this report does not speak in any great detail in on that point but MEEDC's research over the last
year reinforces the fact that um businesses locate where human capital is and it's all about employees and employee retention. You spend too much money trying to train an employee to be as productive as you need them to be to have them turn around and move on to
another community uh another company too quickly. And by and by providing some uh amenities and providing a quality of life that is suitable um to to to that individual employee, you'll find greater productivity and the business in turn
will be very successful. And some of the examples we were given are some things that are beyond the the city's uh control and that's just having a flexible work schedule and understanding work life uh balance. Those are values privately uh decided within the company.
Uh but then there are other types of amenities that the city could uh support such as uh walking trails um and remembering that you know um reducing health care costs is a high priority for u businesses the these days and this day
and age they will make the investment to help their employees be healthier. They know they'll be more productive and they know they'll win by reducing their health care costs. That's something we can talk a little bit more about next uh next time we get together the things
that we can control here. Continuing on with retail, um I just want to point out that um there was an analysis done that that essentially says that there's an opportunity gap drops off substantially
beyond a 5minute drive from the downtown based on competition from existing retailers located outside the five minute drive time. Now, I don't want to necessarily say that these numbers are are uh completely accurate, and I wouldn't want us to use these use these
numbers for anything more than a guideline, but it estimates that the downtown could potentially support an additional 190,000 square feet of retailing um with as many as 19 new stores with an aggregate sales volume of about 57 million. It also goes on to
note that the west side could potentially see about 1.3 million square feet of retail um in approximately 241 stores which would increase uh sales volume for about 335 million. Lastly, uh
just to talk about the retail buildout analysis, potential development square foot would be about 5.7 million with an assessed value of potential of about 306 million. I've spoken to this uh a minute or so
ago. Uh but just to reiterate that the city uh is served by cable, DSL, fiber optic. There are very small portions of the city that are uh only served by DSL or cable and MEEDC is working to address that fiber optics issue. But
nonetheless, it's understood that uh the city of Malboro is uh has the communication capacity needed and the infrastructure support to be successful. >> Mr. Chair, >> council, >> quick question. Uh definition of downtown.
>> I can't speak to that. I >> I didn't know if you meant mains. I'm trying to figure out geographically if you meant Main Street only or did you mean past Main Street? >> If if you give me the opportunity to to look into that, I'll follow up with you at our next meeting. >> Residential. And I I don't want to spend
too much time on residential. I have one slide here, but it it is a component of economic development. Uh and and and I just point out the fact that the state even recognizes housing as a critical part part of economic development because it's the same secretary that
oversees economic development oversees the housing strategy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um and and if you want to uh have vibrant businesses, you need to have the housing stock available to support those businesses.
With that being said, just some quick data points. There's approximately 11,000 parcels of land in the city of Malber identified as residential uses. This makes up 5,620 acres and about 45% of the total land
within the city. Residential parcels represent 65% of all assessed property value within the city of Malbar. I point this out to you more than anything else because it should show you the need to increase your commercial value more than anything else. when you have this much land
designated for resident residential uh use and you see your commercial uh values drop or not increase, there's only one other place that it can go and that's going to go on the residential sector. Um so so again ju just maintaining the mission that MEDC has to
stabilize the residential tax rate is vitally critical. Um it goes without saying that repres that this figure represents 94% of all buildings in the city and um
I want to point out that a goal that MEEDC is is striving to achieve is a principal objective of residential sector assessment is to identify potential demand for market driven residential development consistent with an overarching goal of the Marboro economic development plan which is to
increase net fiscal income to the city. The target market segment of these households includes persons in the age ranges of 35 to 55 with significant qualifying income to afford to afford newly constructed rental or condo units. These households are less likely to have
uh impacts on the on the municipality services and therefore targeted residential development to these mark markets are more likely to produce net fiscal revenues to the city.
So when we start looking at residential as we have here um both in the recent uh ZBA sit um project that was approved and what we're talking about at Atlantic development as these things start coming in we need to think again are we feeding
this overall economic development are we doing a development because it's good for a developer and it's I think it's important for the next 20 30 40 years that we think more broadly so so that we can use any development to help the recruiting and retention whether it's at
Rathon or on the west side of the city. Um and again we we really have to keep this as an up upper focus for us because otherwise we're not going to achieve the goals which are what Tim was it 1.5 billion of new value >> 1.4
>> 1.4 four billion over new value in the next 10 20 years so that we can bring down the rates for our commercial industrial properties um and stay competitive and keep the the rates low enough on residents that they
can be affordable. Council Elder, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh do you by any chance I know this this u predated when you were here, but do you know or if you could get me the source of it? I I never understood that people under the age of 35 are less likely to have school-aged
children. To me, that seems like the time that you start to have schoolage children. So, I don't know when um how how that came about. I understand over 55 is much less likely, but it seems like, you know, that under 35 age is the
time that that happens. So, if you could give me a source or something because I I heard that, you know, I've met with a developer before. Oh, you know, this apartment complex is going to have people ages 28 to 32, you know, not not the age that people start to have kids and families. And I'm thinking, well, I'm in that demographic. I think that is
the exact time people start to have, you know, start to have families. And so, if you could try to get me some source, I know, like I said, I can't imagine you have that off the top of your head, but at some point, if you could get me, you know, the source for that, I' I'd really like to see it. >> Yeah. Yes, counselor. No problem. I'll be more than happy to cite a specific
source, but anecdotally I am also in that demographic and I am nowhere near ready to have two million kids and I can say that say and I can speak to that only because I can't afford it because I'm still paying off student loans. >> Just so you know, none of us are ready
when it happens. We think we are, but we're not. So, >> but but your point is is well taken, council, your point is well taken. I will find that citation and and bring that source to you. Um and then the last comp that I want to make on residential and I think this would be no surprise to anyone which is
Mabaro is being affected uh is being uh exposed to what's referred to as the boomer effect more you know more so than other communities which is you have an aging population um that uh you know will will need some sort of housing at
some point with age ages of 55 to 74 um uh maturing and uh needing to to look into other types of housing stocks. Now, the next last couple slides, and I know I'm running uh quickly out of time, I just want to do brief overviews on on
differing uh economic development uh targets and and points that that are important for for the city to be aware of. But, uh we got through the bulk of the information that was needed that would would uh I think be the most uh impressed upon this body. But with that
being said, just just a couple points uh to make regarding labor markets and trends. Morrow is a net importer of workers. Um another point that should be noted is Morrow has one of the highest influxes influxes of of workers in the
corer. And um you can see that Mboro has a strong base of uh of businesses already in existence that will be expanding and and some of those examples are highlighted. Utilities, d uh internet and data
processing services, financial services, insurance, uh professional scientific and technical services, educational services, healthc care services, uh accommodations and eating and drinking. just just to name a few. Th this basically outlines that that the city of
Malbero has a a good strong base to build off of. Continuing on, just just to highlight some some more generic demographic information, MAB would require higher portion of high and middle school employees than the national average.
That's just due to our base of uh current businesses uh that are here. U Maro has a low level of employment for industries that favor low-skilled workers. Future job growth can be expected to
continue in existing patterns or even in higher favor higher even favor even further favor higher and middle skilled jobs. That's particularly in the manufacturing sector. And and I just want to point out that this these
are observations that are made regarding our lo local labor market trends, but by no means should the city of Malboro think that this is exclusive to the city and rather is a regional and even more so a state issue. The the region and on
down to the to to the city should be looking at at how it can address creating uh workforce training programs for middle-skilled jobs. But it needs to be in cooperation and it needs to be in under the in in line with
what the state and the region is doing. It should just be noted about high demand occupations. Um here in Malber you have employers looking for jobs that are uh difficult
to fill because of the high skill set that's needed. And conversely, it's hard for them to find uh uh labor for low skill sets. Um it should be noted also that 25 that 39 thou 39,000 is the
medium salary and 25% of your uh current wages fall I said this wrong. I apologize. average wages at at least 25% or more, which is $39,700 of the median salary reported
Massachusetts in 2008, which means that 49,000 or above. So 25% fall within the median to 49,000 range, which means you have a very high um uh wage force here in the city of Malber.
So Tim, if we can uh just kind of touch on the highlights of these next few so we can time for the mayor to to say a couple of words and counselors to >> Absolutely. Just just two or three more slides. U basically it's talks about the overview of the economic development
sport uh support system which shows that we have a strong wastewater uh infrastructure. We have a strong water infrastructure, energy system, transportation system. It goes on to note the quality of life here in Malber which is extremely high and is it needs
to be uh a byproduct of any strong economic development plan. It notes that uh property crime in Malboro was well below the state average and was well below Framingham, Worcester and Burlington. So, just a reminder, we're spending huge
amounts of money on our wastewater treatment facilities and a lot of that residents feel because they're their water and sewer rates are going up, but we're also keeping a ton of business and bringing in businesses, which really does keep our property tax uh taxes on
the residential side reasonable. They're still expensive, but they're reasonable compared to our neighbors. So >> and thank you Mr. Chairman. And then just la lastly um in terms of Marboro structure capacity and resources it goes without saying that it's because of this form of government the support we have
from uh the chamber committees councils task force uh the Marboro downtown village we are we are able to to position ourselves for economic development success. We are able to coordinate and also access the services
a lot of a lot of state agencies that make their services available such as mass development, mass life sciences, mass office of business development, Metro West 495 partnership, Mass Econ and the Metro West Regional Transit Authority. um to name to highlight just
a few by having uh an organization like MEEDC we're able to coordinate and then execute on all these differing economic development techniques and service plans which will only be for the betterment of this city. So with that being said that
essentially gives you a highlight of all of the uh economic development master plan. >> Okay. Thank you so very much. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to ask Mayor Vigon to come up and say a couple of words if you'd like. Mr. Mayor, you can sit down. Yeah, wherever you're comfortable and Tim, you
can >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm much more comfortable here than in the well. So, >> okay. >> Uh just uh thank you very much for the opportunity to come up. I just uh really wanted to express my thanks to the council for all their support. I know
that what Tim went through tonight is not new information for most of you or any of you. Um it's just reinforcement of what we've talked about for a number of years here uh in the city and with the city council. Um this plan is a
guideline on how to uh generate the highest and best use we can in the city. Uh keeping the residents in mind as we're moving through that. The three big pieces that uh we're going to be looking at are doing something with Route 20
West and the developments down there and how we can help out Rathon and and better develop the value down in that area. Um also the uh the inner city, the inner core city. Um and I believe to council's point, it's a fivem minute
walk from Main Street, but we'll double check on that to make sure. uh but the inner core and having some mixed use down here to generate more walking traffic for our businesses for our for our uh restaurants and and uh keeping a
vibrant downtown or our or cultural district as we've been named now. I think that's so important to continue that and move it forward. Um the third piece and I think one of the things that we've done uh down in the office park is with your assistance in approving that
overlay district to bring that value um from that property down there. Maybe it's not the highest property uh the highest taxes we could generate from the property. Maybe the best use we could get out of that property for just simply
generating money would have been trying to push for a casino for that property. But I think many think that what we have developed down there um and companies like TJX and and Quest Diagnostics brings us a much better value for the
city of Marorrow. So it's not necessarily just the highest use, but the highest and best use. I think there's an opportunity where we're bringing the value and the use up in the city of Marorrow for what's best for our residents as opposed to something that you're looking at later on tonight
that's talking about diminishing the value down to the neighbors down there bringing commercial automotive down to the area and abuing one of our largest taxpayers in the city. So, it's keeping an eye on this plan and moving things forward. Thank you very much. anything I
can do to help along the way. We're going to be submitting changes for zoning for different things. Um, obviously we can implement this entire uh program, but we're going to do it piece by piece where everyone's comfortable. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. So, our goal uh for our next meeting um will be for us to put our stamp on this report in in a way that we're all comfortable with. Um, we're going to have to deal with a number of issues over time and we
as a council need to understand what we're putting our stamp on. We're going to have to make some changes to zoning. We're going to have to make some density changes. We're going to need more entertainment and entertainment district somewhere. We're going to have to have
more mixeduse properties. Um, we have to make sure that we safeguard our valuable commercial industrial properties for use long term because we do have to build that value. And we're of course going to have to do all of this in a way that allows for uh
continuation or even improvement of the quality of life in our city. So, I'm not exactly sure yet how we're going to do that. We may change some of the wording in the document. we may have a preamble from the city council that we can agree on. So, we'll we'll discuss that at our
next meeting. Uh are there any other questions before we break or Mr. Cummings, did you have anything you wanted to add? >> No, thank you. >> Uh councelor Orum. >> Um the only question I would have and I didn't see it within the report is related to higher education facilities.
Uh it was discussed that uh training and education to improve the work staff is recommended. I didn't see anything in the report noting land for campuses and so forth. I know Asabet Valley presently offers some secondary education as well
as past that. I didn't know has that been addressed at all. Maybe looking at land for maybe a mixeduse type development with a school located within it, a college. >> It wasn't addressed or not. >> If I could, Miss Chairman, thank you.
and through you to to to council arm. Um, you know, I'll look into that and I will bring that back to you along with your other question at our follow-up meeting which will hopefully be within the next two weeks. >> Of course, we get into the uh the the tension between we don't want to take
land that's going to be taxable and use it for education, but we probably do have some offices that can be used and some other properties that can be used for that purpose. I know the chamber's been looking at it and there's been some discussion. And so that's one of the things we can talk about.
>> And just by way of comment, Mr. Chair, if I could take a half a minute just um we can learn from others. I think when we saw those large uh focused mixeduse development developers here, not large but the major players, they brought in some new insight to all of us and I for
myself included. So mixeduse is a great idea where it works and I suggest we continue to take in that input from these major developers who develop mixeduse as well as uh any other groups out there downtown groups. They bring in
a major aspect to the heart of our community. So I would hope we hear more about that. Thank you. >> Good. Well, we're I think we'll uh we'll now uh if there's a motion to uh >> Yeah, we can table. >> Motion table. >> Made and seconded. All those in favor?
We are tabled. Um so we're going to adjourn the meeting. Oh, motion to adjurnn. Made and seconded. All those in favor? It carries. So we are adjourned. Thank you. Uh Mr. Cummings, Mr. Mayor, and uh counselors. >> Thank you. Thank you.