Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Honorable Joseph F. Wagner, House Chair
The Honorable Eileen M. Donoghue, Senate Chair
Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies
State House, Boston
Dear Representative Wagner, Senator Donoghue, and Distinguished Committee Members,
On behalf of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association appreciates the opportunity to offer testimony in strong support of three bills before the committee today to promote economic development in cities and towns across the state. S.220, An Act Relative to Marketing Prioritized Development Sites, would create a new economic development tool for municipalities to market local sites that are prime for development. H. 302/S. 219, An Act to Promote Local Economic Development, would create a technical assistance and grant funding program open to all municipalities pursuing economic development. H. 2737, An Act Relative to Innovative Communities, would create a new pathway for municipalities to access technology solutions with state assistance. Each of these measures would create significant new economic opportunities for cities and towns, and we urge the committee to give them favorable reports.
S. 220, An Act Relative to Marketing Prioritized Development Sites
This legislation, filed by Senator Jason Lewis, directs the Massachusetts Office of Business Development (MOBD), under the auspices of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, to oversee the creation and development of an online database of sites indicated by local officials as priorities for development or redevelopment. The database would be publicly searchable, and could include key information about each site, including parcel size, location, zoning, and local contact information, among other factors. The website could either be created and maintained by MOBD, or through a partnership between MOBD and an external entity. There would be no cost to local officials to submit sites to the database.
The creation of this database would represent an excellent opportunity for the state to showcase the diverse array of development options that exist in communities across the Commonwealth, from large cities to small towns. The initiative directly aligns with MOBD’s core mission, which is to attract and facilitate the relocation of businesses to Massachusetts and to assist existing Massachusetts companies with expansion. The database would create an easily accessible starting point for companies that may be considering relocation to Massachusetts and are in the early stages of site selection, and for those companies within the state that may need to change locations based upon expansion needs.
Right now, MOBD partners with MassEcon on a website called the ReadyMass 100. MassEcon is a private-sector nonprofit with a mission to promote the state as a premier choice for business growth, and the ReadyMass 100 website initiative showcases 100 sites that are deemed by MassEcon as most suited for development. Sites are submitted by property owners for consideration at a cost of $250 per submission. Because the initiative is limited to 100 sites, a majority of municipalities do not have any sites featured, and because property owners submit the sites, those that are featured may not represent municipally determined priority development opportunities.
The database proposed by this legislation would offer municipal officials an equitable opportunity to showcase the sites within their community that are local priorities for development or redevelopment – whether they are vacant parcels of land or historic buildings prime for rehabilitation and adaptive reuse. Many municipalities do not have economic development staff to market important sites within their city or town, and this initiative would offer them a valuable and important opportunity to market to developers. In addition, by submitting a site to the database proposed by this legislation, a municipality would send a strong signal to prospective companies that it has an interest in development and is open for business.We urge you to give this legislation a favorable report.
H. 302/S. 219, An Act to Promote Local Economic Development
This legislation, filed by Representative Chris Walsh and Senator Jason Lewis, would create a program through which cities and towns could access technical assistance and competitive grant funding to advance local economic development initiatives. The program would be created and administered by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, and would be open to any municipality in the Commonwealth. The program is modeled structurally after the highly successful Green Communities program that has engaged 136 municipalities in efforts to pursue sustainability and energy efficiency with state assistance.
To enter the program, an interested municipality would complete a simple application to indicate the type of economic development technical assistance that would be most helpful. For a municipality that has not actively pursued economic development, technical assistance to complete a general assessment of economic strengths and opportunities might be most useful. For a municipality with an advanced economic development strategy, technical assistance around a particular site that has been difficult to develop or re-develop might offer the most benefit to the community. The Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development could provide technical assistance to municipalities itself, or in partnership with external entities.
After completing the technical assistance process to identify local economic development opportunities or strategies specific to the needs of the community, the municipality would then be able to apply for grant funding related to the results of the technical assistance process. For example, depending upon the municipality, the application could be for grant funding to implement the first stages of a new economic development strategy identified through the technical assistance process, or for funding to supplement infrastructure costs for the redevelopment of a specific site for which the municipality first applied for technical assistance.
Municipalities have leveraged economic development assistance from the state with high degrees of success, most widely and notably through the MassWorks infrastructure development program. Other programs, like the new Transformative Development Initiative, offer the chance for significant redevelopment in some Gateway Cities. This program complements existing state programs well, and is unique in that it could provide assistance to any interested municipality regardless of size, location, or other characteristics, based upon its unique needs. It is locally focused, meeting a municipality wherever it is in terms of the development and execution of a local economic development strategy, and it has the potential to strengthen the economy in all parts of the state. The creation of this program could provide many municipalities with the assistance or funding needed to embark upon or advance a successful growth and development pathway, driving the economy of the Commonwealth. For these reasons, we urge you to give this legislation a favorable report.
H.2737, An Act Relative to Innovative Communities
The Innovative Communities Program, as proposed by this legislation filed by Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante, would create an incentive for municipalities to adopt new technology by connecting them with relevant Massachusetts startups seeking to introduce new products into the technology marketplace, and we urge you to give the legislation a favorable report.
In order to be designated an Innovative Community and participate in the program, a municipality would be required, at local option, to: 1) pass a resolution by a vote of the local governing body committing to the program; 2) make public any municipal datasets maintained by the municipality (excluding those exempted by privacy laws); 3) commit to attend meetings and events organized by the state; and 4) commit to testing at least one technology annually that has been vetted and approved by the state, and share the results of the trial with other municipalities participating in the program. Once designated an Innovative Community by the Secretary of Administration and Finance, the municipality would have access to the program, including grants for technology and technical assistance.
This unique program would foster public/private collaboration, promote economic development, and make new technologies accessible to interested municipal governments that might otherwise lack the resources to acquire them. Importantly, it would also foster the sharing of information and best practices between participating municipalities, accelerating the speed of innovation within these communities.
We appreciate that you and your colleagues in the Legislature are committed and dedicated to building a strong, healthy and thriving Massachusetts economy, and we respectfully urge you to give these three proposals a favorable report. The economy of our state is only as strong as the economies of our cities and towns, and these proposals would create an excellent opportunity for the state to partner with municipalities to promote local economic development and foster real growth and opportunity in our cities and towns, supporting the residents and businesses of the Commonwealth.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to submit testimony in support of these bills. If you have any questions, please feel free to have your staff contact Catherine Rollins of the MMA staff at 617-426-7272 at any time.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
Executive Director & CEO