On Wednesday, Jan. 22, consultants working for the Town of Acton Economic Development Department alongside the Economic Development Committee, shared their Preliminary Findings and Draft Recommendations in a public workshop at the Recreation Department offices at Audubon Hill.
The final presentation and public workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall (snow date March 5). The end-product will be a focused Strategic Plan for economic development that will provide significant input into Acton’s 2025 Comprehensive Community Plan. The goal is to ensure that economic development gains equal status with other town priorities.
According to presentations at the Jan. 22 meeting, the planning process is designed to promote economic development that results in a more robust commercial and industrial tax base while supporting other town priorities. This is expected to encourage town governance to move away from a reactive stance that is regulation-heavy to a proactive, thoughtful approach to shaping the future environment. Employers and developers say they are excited to work with the town to achieve a vision of the community that protects the environment, values all people, and is financially and culturally vibrant.
Wednesday’s program included presentation of a wide range of forward-looking data by RKG Associates, Inc. and active discussion by the twenty or so attendees. Additional information can be found at Acton’s Economic Development website. Useful presentation posters are also available online. Townsfolk are invited to comment and contribute to the discussion by reviewing these materials and by attending the Feb. 26 meeting.
Throughout the presentation, RKG Associates showed analyses based on data from a wide range of sources, including the town’s own records, US census, economic profiles for the Town and Middlesex County, Massachusetts Workforce Development regional data, and CoStar real estate information. Data analysis is currently being supplemented with interviews of various stakeholders.
In closing, RKG Associates presented six preliminary recommendations for consideration:
- Residential – Work with developers to potentially increase the inventory of renter-housing and affordable housing options throughout the community.
- Commercial – Projected employment growth suggests the potential for additional commercial development across many sectors. Such uses may be compatible with ground floor components of mixed-use projects. The potential for an expansion of medical use(s) may suggest the Town consider a Town-led development of a small-scale medical use/office park.
- Industrial – Compile an inventory (mapped) of available acreage for industrial development. While it is possible that the 35.0-acres of potentially developable industrial land is contiguous, it is more likely that these acres are not. Consider opportunities for “acceptable” industrial development in other zoning districts, which may entail revisiting regulations for allowable and special permit utilization.
- Retail – While some demand for additional retail development has been identified through a re-capture of sales leakage, the Town’s capacity to attract new development, particularly small-scale start-ups and entrepreneurial, may be limited. At a minimum, RKG recommends sharing the findings of the Strategic Plan’s retail analysis with existing merchants who may find opportunities to better penetrate the market and increase sales.
- Cultural District – Although new cultural district designations are on a temporary hold, RKG recommends that Acton undertake efforts to geographically define such a district and review its existing cultural assets base, as well as potential for future development of such assets.
- Regulatory – Needs further discussion on how Acton is perceived as a place to do business, get projects approved, permitted and built.
Readers are encouraged to learn more about this work: it provides important input to the Town’s future economic development. There are two main avenues for you to become involved:
To learn more about this work and become involved:
- Review the working materials provided on the website.
- Attend the Final Presentation and Public Workshop scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall (snow date March 5).
Adrian Hancock is a long-time Acton resident interested in the evolution of our town as a great place to live. He is the chair of the Acton Nursing Services Advisory Committee (ANSAC) and past vice chair of the Acton Democratic Town Committee.