The Economic Development Committee met for the first time in this new Council term. Committee Chair LeBlanc, members Morrongiello, Griffith & Malloy present for this session.
Town Administrator Jamie Hellen, Building Commissioner Gus Brown, and Planning and Community Development Director Morena Zelaya were also present
Franklin TV video is available for replay - https://www.youtube.com/live/EStN4ZeBYow?&t=112
The agenda here -
My full set of notes taken during the meeting -
Quick recap:
- 300 Fisher is scheduled to present at a July session, an EPA brownfield, does have economic value down the line
- NuStyle with grant is advancing and that can be a valuable property given it's location
- The no cap on restaurant alcohol licenses is an untapped advantage, we could do more on it.
- Morena talks of the 600 page doc for Somerville as too much, a recent conference talked of "form based lite" and might be more workable here
- The Town has done a lot downtown but what have the property owners done? How do we engage them to find out what their plans are? There is a gap there, they didn't do much in the Franklin For All project. We need them to tell us what they are looking for.
- Possible student class with a college graduate level project could help develop a vision or model of what the downtown could be, could incorporate the networking with the owners as part of it, UMass Boston could meet sooner to set the class for the fall.
- LeBlanc economic development is an area where you spend money to make money
