Streamlined permits for Worcester and Uxbridge
Both among the state’s first communities adopt 43D
Worcester and Uxbridge are among the first to adopt a new state program to speed up commercial development permits.
Uxbridge officials hope the program will help a local developer transform an underused parcel along routes 16 and 146 there into a "power center" shopping mall by 2008. The City of Worcester is looking to it to bolster its marketing of a brownfield lot in the Southwest Industrial Park for redevelopment as well as promoting the city in general to would-be developers.
The two communities are among the first three statewide, along with Medford, to pass the newly enacted Chapter 43D, which provides grant funding, marketing and technical assistance to cities and towns that commit to a 180-day municipal permitting process for qualified commercial projects.
Both Uxbridge and Worcester are about to begin the Chapter 43D application process, which officially opened on Dec. 1, 2006 and is overseen by the state Interagency Permitting Board, made up of representatives of each state office that issues permits.
April Anderson, chief of staff at the Mass. Department of Business Technology, says communities must have a specific site with potential commercial development that would be at least 50,000 square feet of floor space, and they must have the landowner’s permission.
The legislation provides a one-time grant of up to $150,000 for technical or marketing help. Communities also get priority consideration for other state grants for infrastructure and economic development.
Uxbridge Town Manager Jill Myers says that her community – the first town to adopt the measure, at a Nov. 21 town meeting – will look to resolve a development quandary on 60 acres of partially town-owned, landlocked property. It will also use resulting grants to upgrade its zoning and permitting process.
The town seeks to partner with developer Rob Cherrier of Uxbridge-based Cherrier Realty, who owns 17.5 acres of frontage along Route 16 that abuts the landlocked site. Cherrier’s lawyer, Jim Roberti of Uxbridge, who helped the town research the process, says Cherrier wants to buy the land and build a 450,000-square-foot "power" shopping center containing a mixture of big-box retailers.
Roberti says the 43D guarantee of 180-day permitting gives Cherrier "a comfort level" that all the permits will be done concurrently, including those required by the state. In turn, he says, that assurance will help Cherrier attract retail tenants.
Meanwhile, the City of Worcester seeks to redevelop a 77,000-square-foot, former industrial site at 49 Canterbury St. for 43D to enhance marketing of the city-owned site and use some of the grant funding to pay for environmental clean up, says Julie Jacobson, assistant city manager for economic and neighborhood development. With $150,000, the city could also improve its permitting process. That might include an upgraded website that would allow permitting applications on-line.
Although 40 to 50 other communities have inquired about the 43D legislation, only the three have passed it, Anderson says. Of the 45 to 50 communities that have expressed interest in the program, Worcester County is "clearly ahead of the curve" in adoption, she says.
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