I would like to thank the members of the Master Planning Board for holding the public forum on Land Use/Zoning, Housing and Economic Development last night, as well as, all of the citizens that attended.
Last night I presented, somewhat inadequately, two proposals for inclusion into the current revision of the Master Plan (and for building the Town of Chelmsford's brand identity). I am writing today to clarify my proposals.
The first proposal related to finding a corporate "anchor" tenant for the Rt 129 Tech Corridor. I believe that find the right, long-term anchor tenant (similar to IBM in Littleton and Cisco in Boxboro among others), along with potential zoning changes related to mixed use and building heights, would go a long way toward revitalizing the Rt 129 Corridor, while adding to the tax base of Chelmsford. While I stated this in last night's session, what I left out is that the Master Plan should incorporate the creation of some town committee to actively pursue implementation of this goal (similar to the econominc developement committee which existing in the early 90's). This committee should be tasked will finding not only a large, stable, long term company to anchor the Rt 129 Corridor, but with selecting a company that requires additional, local support companies to operate, in order to fill out additional offices along the corridor. An example is the Intel semiconductor fab in Hudson, MA. This is a long term, multi-million dollar facility that requires many additional, local business to supports its operations. Additionally, the committee should attempt to select a company the builds Chelmsford's brand as a "high tech" town, whether this be in traditional high tech, clean energy tech, bio-tech or some other relevant industry.
The second proposal I discussed last night related to the town fostering the installation of renewable energy installations. Specifically, I think the Master Plan should include some language directing the town, over some reasonable period of time, to develop an extension to the town's website including information to help residents decide if thier property is a viable location for a renewable energy (specifically solar PV) installation. This could take the form of a "solar map" similar to that developed by San Francisco (http://sf.solarmap.org/). This effort could be simplified if Chelmsford were to join the Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination (MAGIC) subregion of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC, http://www.mapc.org/about_mapc.html), as MAPC has many shared technical resources that could be applied to such a website extension. All of the towns (inside 495) are already a part of MAPC/MAGIC. While the development of this "solar map" would not cost all that much, it would place Chelmsford among the towns leading the charge toward Governor Patrick's goal of creating 250 megawatts of solar power by 2017, and would again increase Chelmsford's brand awareness locally and nationally.
Thank you for consideration of these proposed additions to the Master Plan, and I welcome any feedback/comments (posted on the blog for all to read).
I would like to thank the members of the Master Planning Board for holding the public forum on Land Use/Zoning, Housing and Economic Development last night, as well as, all of the citizens that attended.
ReplyDeleteLast night I presented, somewhat inadequately, two proposals for inclusion into the current revision of the Master Plan (and for building the Town of Chelmsford's brand identity). I am writing today to clarify my proposals.
The first proposal related to finding a corporate "anchor" tenant for the Rt 129 Tech Corridor. I believe that find the right, long-term anchor tenant (similar to IBM in Littleton and Cisco in Boxboro among others), along with potential zoning changes related to mixed use and building heights, would go a long way toward revitalizing the Rt 129 Corridor, while adding to the tax base of Chelmsford. While I stated this in last night's session, what I left out is that the Master Plan should incorporate the creation of some town committee to actively pursue implementation of this goal (similar to the econominc developement committee which existing in the early 90's). This committee should be tasked will finding not only a large, stable, long term company to anchor the Rt 129 Corridor, but with selecting a company that requires additional, local support companies to operate, in order to fill out additional offices along the corridor. An example is the Intel semiconductor fab in Hudson, MA. This is a long term, multi-million dollar facility that requires many additional, local business to supports its operations. Additionally, the committee should attempt to select a company the builds Chelmsford's brand as a "high tech" town, whether this be in traditional high tech, clean energy tech, bio-tech or some other relevant industry.
The second proposal I discussed last night related to the town fostering the installation of renewable energy installations. Specifically, I think the Master Plan should include some language directing the town, over some reasonable period of time, to develop an extension to the town's website including information to help residents decide if thier property is a viable location for a renewable energy (specifically solar PV) installation. This could take the form of a "solar map" similar to that developed by San Francisco (http://sf.solarmap.org/). This effort could be simplified if Chelmsford were to join the Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination (MAGIC) subregion of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC, http://www.mapc.org/about_mapc.html), as MAPC has many shared technical resources that could be applied to such a website extension. All of the towns (inside 495) are already a part of MAPC/MAGIC. While the development of this "solar map" would not cost all that much, it would place Chelmsford among the towns leading the charge toward Governor Patrick's goal of creating 250 megawatts of solar power by 2017, and would again increase Chelmsford's brand awareness locally and nationally.
Thank you for consideration of these proposed additions to the Master Plan, and I welcome any feedback/comments (posted on the blog for all to read).
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