South Berwick Economic Development Committee
Regular Meeting
Conference Room #1, Town Hall
January 4, 2006
11:00 am
ROLL CALL:
Cliff Cleary, Dennis Fontaine (Sewer District), James Howell, Douglas Letellier (Water District), Barbara Paterson, Katherine Wolfe, David Burke (Planning Board) Sue Pullar (School Board), Jeff Grossman, ex-officio, Terry Oliver, ex-officio, Jim Fisk, ex-officio, present. Paul Schumacher ex-officio and Hap Ridgeway were not in attendance.
Guest speaker: Carrie Eisner, Vice President of Operations for The Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce was also in attendance.
CALL TO ORDER:
Chairman Cleary called the meeting to order at 11:00 am. Jim Fisk was recording minutes.
MINUTES:
The December 7, 2005 minutes were approved by unanimous consent.
PUBLIC COMMENT: None
CORRESPONDENCE: None
MEMBER COMMENTS: None
OLD BUSINESS:
Discussion of the Pine Tree Development Zone (PTDZ) list update was reviewed for corrected area calculations and corrected addresses. It was shown that there is substantially more land in the Business and Industrial zones than has been allocated to the town by the state. The list was not complete for the Business-1 Zone, did not have all mailing addresses, and will be updated before the letter is drafted.
The letter to businesses was discussed for content. It will introduce the Town’s activities to help businesses, new EDC and Director, state assistance, and various programs.
ACTION: The EDC requested Mr. Fisk complete and correct the list. Passed with unanimous consent.
Carrie Eisner, reviewed the Chamber’s list of South Berwick members, services, and activities. A directory of “Who’s building our Gateway?” is being prepared. The Chamber has business survey forms and is working on expanding support for downtown South Berwick. The “Shop and Dine” brochure has just been printed.
ACTION: Mr. Fisk was asked to obtain surveys, work on the list of businesses and brochure. Passed with unanimous consent.
Contract zoning was reviewed in the context of providing another economic development tool for towns that don’t have provisions which are unique to certain developments, such as the off street parking project in Kennebunk and the uses in Old Orchard Beach development. There were concerns about contract zoning being spot zoning. A spirited discussion followed. A motion by Mr. Burke that the EDC read the examples provided and continue to investigate the usefulness of contract zoning, second by Mr. Fontaine passed, opposed Ms. Pullar and Mr. Howell.
ACTION: Mr. Fisk will provide the EDC with additional information on the Pro’s and Con’s of existing contract zones and persuasive materials on contract zoning. Passed with unanimous consent.
NEW BUSINESS:
ACTION: Mr. Fontaine will prepare a budget, Mr. Cleary and Mr. Fisk will meet to work on the proposed budget and will present it to the EDC for review.
OTHER:
Ms Eisner will coordinate with Mr. Fisk regarding the KEYS regional economic studies and activities.
The next meeting is scheduled for 11 am February 1, 2006.
ADJOURNMENT:
Without other business and objection the meeting was adjourned at 1:05 pm.
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