Permit Program Gets Lukewarm Local Reception
Marlborough developer Stan Gordon says getting all the necessary permits for one of his construction projects in just six months "would be like a gift from God."
"It's so complicated today that we see very little permitted in less than a year," said Gordon, the vice president of real estate development at First Colony Development Co. Inc.
And that's why developers like Gordon are holding their breath when it comes to the state's "expedited permitting" law, known as 43D.
Since its passage last year, nine communities in Central Massachusetts and 26 statewide have signed on to the program, which allows municipalities to attach 180-day permitting deadlines to certain "priority development sites" in town.
Advocates say the law could encourage businesses to move to areas that need the investment. But it remains to be seen whether the program, which has already cost the state millions of dollars, will work well enough to expand the priority sites beyond a few scattered test cases.
The current version of Chapter 43D is actually a revision of a 2004 law that required participating communities to jump in with both feet, applying a permitting time limit to all development in town. No one signed up for that, and with the new version communities are tiptoeing in.
Canterbury Tales
Worcester was the first place the state approved as a 43D community, with an industrial park property at 49 Canterbury St. as its sole priority development site. Since getting that approval in January and receiving a $147,000 grant, the city has worked with consultants to develop new regulations and a timetable for various city boards to make their decisions on expedited permits. It has also used some of the money to create a permitting guidebook that will help guide developers through the steps to getting all projects - not only those on priority sites - approved.
"It's not just about looking at individual sites but at how we do business as a whole," said Timothy McGourthy, the city's director of economic development.
Marlborough, meanwhile, has designated four priority sites, but they are all locations that already had permits approved. John Riordan, executive director of the economic redevelopment program Marlborough 2010, said the sites' new status may not affect any permitting decisions but it will still put them on a list that the state uses to match companies with appropriate locations.
"The state had the interest in developing this catalog," he said. "They wanted to have options on the table, ready to go."
McGourthy said, "From our perspective this is a marketing tool as much as it is a permitting streamlining process."
"It certainly sends a great signal if communities adopt this zoning practice," he said.
Herding Cats?
But developers and municipal leaders seem to differ on how easy it will be to get conservation commissions, planning boards, city council subcommittees and other boards to complete public hearings, traffic studies and the rest of their due diligence work within six months. Though Riordan and McGourthy both say their permitting processes usually wrap up within that timeframe under the current system, O'Brien and Gordon said they rarely see any community grant all necessary permits that fast.
"Six months, for something simple maybe you can get it done," Gordon said, "But for the more sophisticated developments I think 180 days is pushing the envelope of reality."
Gordon said officials in Marlborough, where his company is working on two of the approved priority sites, are very helpful and willing to work with developers, but they can sometimes be overwhelmed. He said municipalities are often too understaffed and backed up with work to complete everything that must be done within six months.
The city of Gardner has not yet adopted Chapter 43D, but leaders there are already considering an ambitious application of the law.
Rob Hubbard, the city's director of community development and planning, said the city has chosen just one priority site so far, a former mill complex now owned by the city. If that goes smoothly, though, he said Gardner may designate a much larger expedited permitting area covering the city's downtown.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments