Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Mike Kennealy Visits Nashoba Valley Chamber

HED Secretary Mike Kennealy spoke to the Public Policy Roundtable of the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday Morning in Shirley. In his introductory remarks, Sec. Kennealy discussed the newly developed State Economic Development Plan entitled, "Partnerships for Growth."  The plan contains four (4) key areas of emphasis, including:

1. Building Vibrant Communities
2. Business Competitiveness
3. Workforce Development
4. Responding to the Housing Crisis

Related to vibrant communities, Kennealy noted programs such as MassWorks, intended to assist cities and towns in developing the infrastructure needed for growth. He emphasized the need to assist smaller towns on a variety of initiatives. Regarding business competitiveness, the State's focus is on growing existing businesses and aiding start-ups within Massachusetts rather than trying to entice businesses from out of state to move here. The challenge in the area of workforce development, according to the Secretary, was not matching jobs to workers, but matching workers to jobs since job growth is outpacing available labor, particularly in the technology and manufacturing sectors. Finally, and not surprising, as this has been an emphasis of economic development efforts at the state level for years, Kennealy noted that the fourth area of emphasis of the Plan was responding to the housing crisis. Governor Baker is working for a second consecutive year to pass a Housing Choice bill that would reduce the threshold to pass zoning initiatives on nine separate housing-related areas of focus to a simple majority from the current supermajority (2/3 or 67%). Many of these include increases to housing density, which is typically a dreaded word in Massachusetts towns (but doesn't have to be). Secretary Kennealy was cautiously optimistic that the bill would pass in this cycle. However, zoning reform has been a notorious challenge and we'll just have to see.

During the Q&A portion of the program, Ayer Community and Economic Development Director Alan Manoian noted Ayer's passage of two form-based code bylaws over the past two town meeting cycles. I followed up with an acknowledgement that Harvard has a strong interest in considering form-based codes for Ayer Road and other areas of town but needs the resources for the planning and market analysis background work as well as the code development work itself and that assistance from the state for smaller town to pursue this type of smart growth would be helpful. I also noted that grants such as MassWorks, while intended to assist smaller towns in some cases, was still too competitive and that thresholds for eligibility were far too urban-centric.The Secretary agreed to look into ways to assist smaller towns in a greater capacity.

The Chamber's Public Policy Roundtable will feature Keiko Matsudo Orrall, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism on February 4, 2020 at 7:45 am at the Chamber offices in Shirley.