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Thursday, May 26, 2011

New industrial zone eyed in Scarborough


The allowable size of buildings may not be the only significant change residents will soon see in Scarborough zoning. During last week’s council meeting, Harvey Rosenfeld of the Scarborough Economic Development Corporation let drop, in an almost offhand manner, that he may return “within the year” to ask for the creation of a new, fifth industrial zone.

On Thursday, May 19, he named its possible location. “We are tentatively looking at an area around Exit 42,” he said. “CPIC [the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee] will probably take a look at that in the next few months.”

The west side of the Exit 42 area is now a business zone, with rules generally more suitable to retail stores. The change would allow light manufacturing.

“It could lend itself to electronics manufacturing, or biotech,” said Rosenfeld. “It would be for more than office use or retail. Right now, we’re really limited in our industrial zones. So, that’s an opportunity.

“This is a long-term process,” said Rosenfeld, adding that no particular company has come asking for space by the interstate. “One of the things I think Scarborough has done well is planning ahead. We’re a suburban community, so you really want to control where you do want commercial growth.”

“It’s got to be well-planned, or it gets out of hand,” said Rosenfeld. “Scarborough for the last 25 years has been really proactive in its planning, which has really allowed the community to grow both residentially and commercially without one impacting on the other. Other communities haven’t done that.”

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