Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutIDC COMM 9/20/2016MINUTES OF MEETING INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION RECEIVED TL?3", a CLERKS 0 F F I C E September 20, 2016 1816 CCI 19 P l: 20 The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Chair Bob Krentzman Members present: Boh Krentzman, Chair Krista Hill Cummings, Vice Chair Beth Ashman Collins, Clerk Matthew Cummings David Martin Nancy Wall Others Present: Maria Correa, Holiday Inn Mansfield Bill Ross, Town Manager i° PISSACIHUSETTS Chairman Krentzman called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM with six members present. MOTION (Hill Cummings, Wall) to approve minutes of August 26 PASSED. Board of Selectmen Downtown Strategy meeting to be held on October 5, 2016 at approximately 7:15 p.m. in Room 3A/B The BOS invited the Planning Board, IDC, Downtown Business Association, Keep Mansfield Beautiful, Cultural Council, Black Doll Museum, and Fales Oil Committee. The idea was to bring groups together to promote a common downtown strategy in coordination with the town. Krentzman would like Nancy Wall to give the 5 -minute briefing on our work focused on downtown, as chair of the Downtown Subcommittee. The group concurred noting Nancy's passion and the credibility as well as her history of getting tangible projects moving for downtown. The briefing would cover the group's Mission, Vision, Agenda, and collaborations. Krentzman mentioned that when he has spoken on the IDC's behalf, he has prepared presentation outlines in advance and circulated them for comment by IDC members. "I always believe that when I speak, I speak for the IDC:' Likewise, Wall will speak for the whole IDC. One goal in the Town's Strategic Plan is to have a downtown committee that provides some coordination between town departments and community groups. Ross says the idea is to create a small coordinating committee not a mini legislature. The Selectmen are looking for a way to pull all the ideas and efforts together so that they can have a greater impact. Members of the IDC wondered if the IDC Downtown Subcommittee might be positioned to play that role on the part of the town. It aligns with our mission as a commission. The IDC has made a point of really doing our research as a foundation of our short and long-term strategy. The IDC has invited speakers, held focus groups, conducted a survey. We envision ourselves as an open forum for ideas. The collaboration with various town departments happens by virtue of the direct involvement of the Town Manager, but we could envision taking that collaboration a step further. Downtown Subcommittee vision, mission, participants and agenda Why did the IDC create a Downtown Subcommittee? We are all inclusive in our view of economic opportunity, so the focus on Downtown takes us into a different realm, especially now that we are beginning to partner with other groups and town departments in new ways. This is a great time to focus on Downtown, says Nancy Wall because there is a lot happening and there is a lot of buzz. Town Manager, Bill Ross gave an update on big initiatives that touch downtown. The town is crazy busy with street improvements and the public safety building project. Itis all good, but at the moment the traffic is also a bit crazy and the staff workload is really high for certain town departments. The students from Northeastern had some great ideas around the Old Colony Way. The town has an opportunity to go after some transportation money, to move this forward, but it has to tie into the greater downtown strategy. The Town of Mansfield is partnering with Norton now to extend the Old Colony Trail. Downtown Mansfield will be one anchor - one end of the trail from Mansfield to Taunton. Turner Brothers have purchased the Cleveland Twist property located adjacent to the jeep dealership and the train station commuter parking. They are a developer from the SE Massachusetts region. They were involved in the Ames Shovel Works renovation in North Easton. In the case of the Cleveland Twist property, there is no building to preserve because it was demolished years ago. Interest in developing the Cleveland Twist property makes it timely to implement all of part of the plan that Beta prepared for the Town of Mansfield. It won't be without struggle around density, as this is one area with differences of opinion, but it is something the town has been working to enable for years. Maria Correa highlighted the connection of downtown with the train station as a key theme for the downtown strategy. It is almost like the station is there by itself. The flow of people / customers is key to enlivening downtown. How do we get the GATRA from the Station to better serve to connect the station to the town? Train, Downtown, Mansfield Crossing, and the Cabot Park to be connected by GATRA and safe bike lanes. If you miss the GATRA bus, how long do I have to wait? Wall consulted the GATRA schedule and found bus service about every hour during the day. There are 14 trips from Wheaton - Mansfield on a Saturday. There are buses up to midnight bus on Thursday and Friday. This led to the question of whether this service has been adequately marketed to Wheaton students. Chairman Krentzman pointed out that it isn't on us to market the GATRA bus; "I do not want to be the PR agency for all things Mansfield, we market Mansfield." We need to be the conduit. IDC can be that group that needs to say, Hey you guys could have a Wheaton College night? Get business talking so they can come together to do things together like joint promotions. GATRA does not go to the business park. The GATRA need to be on the agenda. It is a need that was mentioned by some employers in the park. The GATRA bus could also be more visible. 2 The Downtown Subcommittee has decided to talk about "Downtown Mansfield" as stretching from the Chocolate Factory to Town Hall and including all businesses within easy walking distance of this axis. For example, the Flannel Cow, which just opened, is on the edge of what we inclusively term downtown. The exact edges aren't as important as the sense of place. We are making a map of the downtown with a business inventory. We are talking about signs - updating the directional signs to Downtown and creating welcome to Downtown Mansfield signs. The map will have icons for types of businesses, like a mall directory, and could be posted at the Station and Town Hall and shared online. Report on progress on IDC social media and marketing campaign with MHS students We have two new students from Mansfield High School who are doing this as their senior projects and we have Michelle Garcia, a marketing student from Colombia. Dr. Hill Cummings is meeting with interns this week to listen to their interests to align them with projects. She has readings to share on what makes a good social media post. She will ask the high schools students what the best way is to share files, such as the photos they take for the inventory. Martin observed that our Facebook page is not as active as it could be and reminded members to contribute. Interns will help, but we need to start thinking about posts when we see opportunities. One of the things Krentzman would like the students to work on is building our "circle of influencers" business email list. Wall has 90% of the businesses downtown in her inventory Town Manager, Bill Ross and staff are building a contact list for Cabot Business Park based on various public databases: tax assessor, water, electric. If you haven't browsed through the GIS online to seethe information that is publically available, you should. Ross shared a beautiful printed map that is the first part of putting together an inventory of land owners, business owners, and contacts for the Cabot Business Park. Xia Jin (Sharr Jeen), the town's GIS Manager did this work and is also working to make this map live on a web database that you can click on and see detailed data. Krentzman took a moment to say he was disappointed that Governor Baker visited Mansfield and the IDC was not invited. I will say it to Kara (at the Tri Town Chamber of Commerce). I think that working together is part of the partnership. We helped put them over the top to have the Mansfield BOS approve funding for the promotional video. If we were going to do something, we would invite the Chamber. The same with Jay Ash's visit, IDC was not informed. Joe Salacito is the person at Mansfield Electric who ran the meet and greet for the Electric Company. Krentzman proposes to invite Salacito to our next meeting to talk about collaboration. When he worked in Taunton, Mr. Salacito held breakfast meetings for their major customers to talk about the things the Electric Department was doing. Mansfield Electric is now talking about hosting a similar event, inviting major customers for a breakfast meeting to update them on major developments. Mansfield Electric is doing some great things like installing our own generation capacity to cut peak costs now that pay back for this investment has dropped to seven years. We are also talking about time -of -use meters to create shared savings. Secondly, Taunton promoted heavy commercial electric users in their Myles Standish Electric with rate programs, but Mansfield's rates are lower. Matt Cummings reported that he reached out to Food Truck Festivals of America to learn about bringing food trucks to town. This organization can draw 6-10 thousand people to a food truck event. They have different structures with entry -fees. Food trucks do not make a lot of money, so the larger event cost - security, fences, publicity, etc. are generally covered by the host. Food Truck Festivals prefers to do events with alcohol as these go farther to pay for themselves. They are open to negotiation, but this kind of event costs $40-$50 K and is no small job to organize. Ross mentioned that there is a Mansfield bi-law that prohibits beer consumption in public places so open alcohol consumption would not work downtown. Wall suggested that we should think at a smaller scale. Ashman suggested that we partner to take an existing event to the next level with more regional promotion rather than create a wholly new event, just because of our limited capacity as volunteers. Think of partnering with Wheaton or others to bring people to downtown. Discussion on IDC Brochure and Mansfield presentation folder This work will move forward with the help of our interns who are just coming on board for the schoolyear. Future speakers- Representative Jay Barrows The group concurred that speaking with Jay Barrows again would be timely. Member questions and comments Resident questions and comments Any other items not anticipated 48 hours in advance of the meeting Future Meetings. Next Scheduled Meeting: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 7 PM. MOTION to Adjourn passes ( rtin/Cummings) 8:30 PM. )3d A Ut Signature of Clerk, Beth Ashman -Collins 11