SUBJECT:  WALPOLE   ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT and INDUSTRIAL  CORPORATION

There will be a public meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 7pm at the Council On Aging room at Town Hall. The purpose of the meeting is for the town’s Economic Development Commission to present its arguments for establishing an Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC) in Walpole and engage the public in a discussion of its merits. All are encouraged to attend.

WHY  DOES  WALPOLE  NEED  AN  ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  AND  INDUSTRIAL  CORPORATION ?

The primary purpose of an EDIC in Walpole would be to take ownership of problem sites and accelerate, or begin, efforts to clean up the sites, find desirable new uses for the sites and substantially increase the associated property taxes payable to the town. Rather than being limited to reacting to the interests of current property owners, the EDIC could initiate re-uses that have the interests of the town as the primary driving factor.

The EDIC is a very attractive “tool” for the town because it allows the town to actively work on sites that are identified as being “problems” and yet insulates the town from any financial and legal entanglements that could potentially burden the town. An EDIC is technically not a part of town government. It is an independent corporation whose only links to the town are (1) that the selectmen appoint all seven of its governing Board of Director members and (2) that the Town Meeting votes to approve each project the EDIC can work on. The EDIC cannot select its projects. The Town Meeting completely controls what projects it works on. The EDIC’s Board monitors the performance of the EDIC and ensures that it operates professionally and competently.

There are two sites being proposed for EDIC work. The first is the Superfund site on South Street (approximately 20 acres) and the second is the auto, junk and recycling operations centered around Goldie's on Route 1A (approximately 74 acres). Both sites have been the center of long-standing community concern and re-use studies have been done for each site (Goldie's in 2002 and the Superfund in 2004).  While each study offered desired alternatives for re-use, the town has not had the appropriate “tool” to implement study recommendations. Common to both sites are: contaminated soil sitting on the town’s aquifer, low property taxes (actually, the Superfund site owner has not paid property taxes for over 15 years), unattractive appearances and few jobs on large industrial parcels.

While the Superfund site has been actively worked on by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there still is no final plan for the level of remediation of the site. The EPA and the corporation (Tyco) that is responsible for funding the remediation have expressed real interest in working with a town sensitive owner to remediate and re-use the site.

The owners of the Route 1A properties have been communicating with the town about re-use options. They are not in the financial position to remediate the site themselves (and there is no current requirement that they do) and are open to strategies to both protect their property rights and have the site remediated and re-used.

The town’s Master Plan explicitly states in its Goals for Economic Development: “Increase property tax revenues from business properties; reclaim brownfield sites for new uses and protect environmentally sensitive land; and Attract new high paying jobs.”
The EDIC is the right tool to accomplish this on the two sites.

Please join us on April 29th to openly discuss this proposal. The May 5th Town Meeting will be voting on Warrant Articles to initiate the EDIC.

Larry Pitman, Chair

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