Town of Gray
Community Economic Development Committee
Pennell Municipal Complex
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
AGENDA
Present: Ed Libby, Lew Mancini, Rick Licht, Don Hutchings, Dick Barter, Anne Gass, Peter Gellerson
Guests: Al Palmer, Jim Monroe, Jean Bibber
Staff: George Thebarge
6:30 PM Call to Order.
Action Items:
Processing March 29 Special Town Meeting
Agreed that it was unfortunate that landowners hadn’t been notified.
Could we have decoupled the Master Plan vote from the TIF, taking more time to reach out to and process with landowners?
Pleased that the TIF passed.
Area 3 Next Steps
George outlined the next steps:
GNGDC will negotiate with Northbrook around LDA, bringing language to the CEDC and Council for review, edits, and approval
Credit Enhancement Agreement authorization
CEDC will review TIF language re: Credit Enhancement that was authorized as part of the March 29 vote.
CEDC unanimously agreed that the GNGDC and the Council should consider the following points in the LDA negotiations:
The 30-year sunset clause on relocating the access is unacceptable;
CEDC is very concerned about the Area 3 oversight committee. Should it exist at all? If so, the composition and size of the board should be changed in order to add/increase involvement of Gray Council and other Gray residents and to reduce the strength of Northbrook involvement.
Clarify responsibility for paying the Town of Gray’s legal bills relative to the TIF extension. See agreement for October 10, p. 7 of 9; this should be Northbrook.
The CEDC raised concern about the need for design guidelines for new development in Area 3. Who controls this? Would the new oversight committee (if adopted) have the ability to control design of new development in Area 3, or simply the type of development?
The Council should verify whether MDOT would approve a new traffic light at the Northbrook entrance. High levels of traffic might limit future development, affecting the value of the LDA to the town. Is there a threshold issue on Northbrook traffic now? Need to check with Steve Landry at Maine DOT.
Monument Square
Town wide survey
Dick and Don did not have a draft of the newsletter ready but will provide a draft for the next meeting.
To help generate survey questions CEDC members will draft and submit to Ed suggested survey questions prior to the next meeting. In addition to the Mon. Sq. master planning (including whether or not to retain Stimson at all or in its current location), survey questions could cover other issues the town might want to explore.
CEDC wants to make sure that the owner of 10 Shaker Road reviews and approves any graphics, articles or questions in the newsletter/survey that illustrate involvement of her property in the Mon. Sq. master plan. George has had two discussions with her and she participated in the charette. George has responsibility for clearing newsletter/survey materials with the owner.
Once the newsletter/survey is ready to mail Dick and Don will work with Deb on the mailing.
George has had 2 conversations with the owner of 10 Shaker Road, 1 prior to charette. She also attended the charette.
Would need to have more discussions with her before being included in a survey.
Ed will work with Brian to put the materials and survey on the town website.
Anne and Rick will work on the displays for the Town of Gray and the library.
One article in the newsletter needs to be clear about the costs of keeping Stimson.
At its April 20 meeting the CEDC will:
Discuss dates for when to mail the newsletter/survey, when displays should go up, and scheduling of the televised panel discussion.
Rick will set up a meeting with Paragon Realty. Dick and Anne are interested in attending this as well.
Updates:
Ed has been working with Tracy & Doug on sign design, and presented several attractive options. Current thinking is that the sign will be made of metal, with a base of stacked dry slate such as what is in place at the Monument.
The CEDC reviewed the designs and agreed on the following should be included in the further design and cost estimates:
Including an option for hanging signs below the main body.
Price basic posts versus use of columns.
Get prices for granite posts in addition to the metal ones.
Use “Welcome to Historic Gray” on the sign
Use Pennell as the image rather than the town seal.
TIF Policy Language Review
George distributed a handout to guide discussion of the TIF Policy. This was reviewed briefly but will be discussed in greater detail at the April 20 meeting.
CEDC will invite Water District reps to a future meeting to discuss the topic of replacing an aging water tank in the Rte. 100 TIF district.
8:30PM Adjourn
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