Scarborough clarifying its vision

Town Council slated to adopt economic development plan

SCARBOROUGH — People say a lot of things about economic recessions, usually the kind of things that are not readily reprinted in a family newspaper. However, one thing they don’t often say is that it’s a chance for a municipality to “catch its breath.”

But that’s the case in Scarborough, were growth ran so fast in recent decades, it could often be difficult to get a development project before the Planning Board, for want of space on the agenda.

“For most of the past decade in this town, money was not an issue,” said Town Manager Tom Hall. “We were adding so much value, year-to-year, that we were able to maintain a very level tax base even though we had increases in services every year, because we grew the tax base every year.”

But, with the recession came diminished interest in businesses locating in Scarborough, just as they’ve shied away from new initiatives everywhere. But where other communities bemoan that recalcitrance, Scarborough has spent the last three years readying the welcome mat and re-evaluating how the town handles development. That work was scheduled to culminate Wednesday in a vote of the Town Council, after The Current’s deadline, as councilors were set to vote on an economic plan called, “The Vision: An Economic Development Guide for the Town of Scarborough.”

A joint project of the Scarborough Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO) and the Scarborough Community Chamber (SCC), the plan was launched in December 2008, the same month economists would later fix the official start of the recession. The goal, said Harvey Rosenfeld, SEDCO executive director, was to “look ahead at what people want Scarborough to become, from the residential standpoint and the bus standpoint.”

“Part of the reason we got into this while we have this lull now,” said Hall, “is that this is the time to be retooling things for what we all hope and expect will be better days ahead.”

A joint committee of members of both groups, along with town officials, held a series of 10 visioning sessions over a period of two days in March 2009. More than 50 local businesspeople contributed ideas for ways to make Scarborough more attractive to business, while also fitting commercial development in close consort with the towns many residential communities.

A guidebook of goals in 10 broad categories – such as planning process, financial assistance and types of development desired – was taken to two public hearings in late 2009 and presented to the council in December of that year.  Since then, a 15-person committee, chaired by Bob Nadeau, vice president of business banking at Key Bank, has hammered out “implementation steps” required to achieve the stated goals of the vision book. Those completed steps – 91 in all – were unveiled at a council workshop on June 13.

“This is a living document,” said committee member Jim Damicis, senior vice president at Camoin Associates, a Scarborough-based economic and community development consulting firm, and a member of the SEDCO board of directors. “We are not saying, ‘Here it is, now go out and do what it says and all of Scarborough’s problems will be solved. But none of these vision statements are controversial. Scarborough has a lot of the same values now that it’s had for 20, 30 years, or more."

Still, Council Chairman Judith Roy was quick to point out that the council cannot be obligated to the “action steps” in any plan it accepts from the committee.

"These have to be strategies, not actions," she said. "Actions mean money."

Hall said that if the council accepts the plan Wednesday, it is only accepting the work done by the committee. Many of the steps it calls for can be initiated by staff, based on the council vote, he said. Other things would require changes to ordinances, or zoning, which may or may not happen down the road.

Rosenfeld, who said he purposely held to the rear of the committee work in order to avoid any appearance that he was coercing a pre-ordained result, nonetheless admits that much of what is in the vision plan is “stuff SEDCO does anyway, as does the chamber.”

Among the decrees, for example, is this one under the “Marketing” heading: “SEDCO and the SCC will continue to market Scarborough as a great place to do business.” However, there is much meat amidst the potatoes, such as a call on the town to develop, in cooperation with SEDCO, a “customer service exit survey” to allow permit applicants a chance to give feedback on their experience before town planners, in hopes of smoothing the development process in town.

“The ‘Vision’ is a roadmap,” said Rosenfeld. “It’s all about, how do we do what were doing now, but do it better? It’s about how to offset costs to provide the services people want through good, well-planned commercial development.”

“These are lofty objects,” said Hall, “because Scarborough has developed a reputation of being a pretty tough place to work in, with scrutiny at the Planning Board level and impact fees and the like. But, even before this plan goes forward, we’ve already started to move down the road in a number of aspects, as far as streamlining internal processes.”

Damicis said he expects the committee to remain intact, in hopes it can “partner” with the town to secure adoption of all 91 implementation steps in the vision book.

Even so, that’s no guarantee to immediate success. Rosenfeld said he hopes the steps called for in the plan will help him to target companies with good-paying jobs – a necessity, given that 70 percent of Scarborough residents commute out of town for work – rather than industry types.

Still, while he claims to have “a lot of things pending” – projects in the offing that are just waiting on some economic signal before corporate decision-makers pull the trigger – Rosenfeld said development is likely to come to Scarborough last.

That’s because, unlike surrounding communities, Scarborough does not have a bog stock of old mill buildings.

“We are surrounded by communities with lot of vacant space,” said Rosenfeld. “We have land, but nobody can build and lease for what they can rent existing space for. It’s tight in this climate to spend more than you absolutely have to, even to be in the community you want to be in.

“But still, we’re well-poised,” said Rosenfeld, “especially with this vision plan that’s been so thoughtfully prepared. I’m not worried.”