Economic Development Committee
Monday
Nov 07, 2022
6pm
Brentwood Town Hall
AGENDA:
Administrative Update
Charette Process and Funding
Quarterly Brentwood Business Breakfast Planning
--Budget
Bi-Annual Developer Open House Concept
--Budget
Signage Update
Regulation Changes Suggestions
DRAFT MINUTES FROM 10/24
Mac Bonafede, Pat Farrell, Bob Rossman, Robert Span, Kristin Aldred-Cheek, Jon Morgan. Public attendance: Doug Finan.
Administrative Updates-
——Jon mentioned there are discussions underway to use extra staff capacity through town offices to assist Econ. Dev. Committee with agendas, minutes, and some limited grant and business research
————Additional updates to follow
——Rossman mentioned Econ. Dev. Committee needs a mission statement to clearly communicate goals to community. Been getting questions about if this committee will be seeking to raise town property taxes, which obviously means some people are misinformed — but we need to have a message to share on this.
————Jon mentioned he would look at building out the budget and getting a determination on the tax impact of the committee’s extremely small budget.
——Kristin mentioned we should look at getting official town emails for Econ Dev. Committee
Charette Updates
—-Jon explained charette discussions to date including discussions with Rec Department
———Andy from Rec decided to remove funding for charette because his budget needed it for repairs at Rec.
——Pat said Rec might feel better about it if it was ~3k as originally discussed.
——Kristin noted Planning Board was in support of contributing up to $5,000 for the charette if possible. She will verify if money is available to be encumbered.
——The group as a whole discussed how if the cost can be split three ways this may make everyone feel better and motivate more people to participate in the process
———Jon mentioned we would require a contract prior to the end of the year to encumber 2022 funds for 2023 charette.
———Rossman asked if we could submit the application to get the contract process going.
Motion by Farrell Second by Rossman to submit Plan NH application. Unanimous in support.
Quarterly breakfast idea
—Pat - do we want to add structure to it
—Span - we should probably start by taking small steps and have just a listening session at first, then look to build a structure around the quarterly meeting/breakfast idea
—Pat- get the biz people in a room and have facilitated conversations//discussions
—Mac - one of our first goals was to keep our biz’s here, this seems like a good step toward understanding needs and building toward that objective.
—Kristin - we should aim to get grants and support from bizs here in support of this concept.
—Span - one of the dangers we will face is telling people what the community needs — we really should focus on listening
— this could lead to an association or something more formal
— we’d be doing our job
—As a group, we discussed how this is a good idea and Jon will pursue budget to set this up for 2023.
Bi-Annual developer meeting
—Rossman - shouldn’t this be a commercial/mixed use open house to avoid confusion related to interested residential developers?
—Would the Planning Board be interested in participating?
——Kristin - probably wouldn’t want formal involvement due to the potential for the appearance of conflicts of interest.
—Mac - if it ties back to our mission, no problem at all for formal participation of Economic Development Committee
—Rossman - Library would be a good venue
UNH Student Ideas
—Jon - Signage. Should be discussed and next steps taken — likely need to engage the state.
—Span - no sign that says Bwood going west, only Rockingham seat sign going east
—Doug - a trust fund committee has money to help get water to the town. Drinking water trust fund. This was discussed at the last Rockingham County Planning Commission meeting.
—Span - grants are in spring - workshops and how to apply - which happens in the spring - he will look further into how this process works and where we can draw from. Investigate large sources of water for Brentwood
—Reg changes - zoning - Kristin mentioned that Glenn is working on language associated with zoning changes on 125 as previously discussed.
Additional Reg Changes
-nothing raised to discuss here
Span
-Would like to have someone come in to discuss tax assessment situation - how is commercial property taxed vs. residential?
——Jon raised idea of Jim Michaud, town assessor to present. Jon will look into that
7:17
Span motion to adjourn. Farrell second. Unanimous consent.