“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” This line from “The Shawshank Redemption” really focuses in on my most basic philosophy when it comes to infrastructure investment and economic development in Westfield. In today’s era of intense competition for business investment dollars, municipalities across the country are all looking for the same thing- high-quality job opportunities for their regions and new big projects to help ease the tax burden borne by residents and existing businesses. These two things, opportunity and affordability, are among the most important factors people take into account when they decide where they want to live.
In order to attract that private investment to our community, it usually requires that City Councilors and other public officials take difficult votes. Whether the vote is to fund some infrastructure expansion or on a zone change or special permit, we’re likely to face a crowd of concerned residents who are worried about what impact that development will have on their quality of life or on their wallet. These are always the toughest votes, because they are felt so personally by so many. During the time I have served on City Council, I have taken the tough votes on both. The primary question I ask myself when we face these votes is, “Does this make Westfield better?”
Certainly, in the next two years, we will face many of these kinds of votes, and I believe I’ve demonstrated my willingness to fight to make Westfield a better place. Like when Easthampton Savings Bank came to Westfield, a few years ago, I led the charge to make sure the building they planned would fit in well with the Broad Street neighborhood. Today, that property holds a thriving business and an historic property was saved.
Economic development and business expansion is the best way for us to ease the burden property taxes place on Westfield residents and businesses. Every new dollar of building value means a dollar we don’t ask for from our current taxpayers. That’s why I think our top priorities need to be to continue to take advantage of state grants to ready our long-held 66 acres of city-owned property on Turnpike Industrial Park for business development, to take advantage of improvements that have happened at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport over the past five years, and to finally kick the Elm Street/JJ Newberry’s redevelopment project into gear.
Before we can start to market the Turnpike Industrial property for development, there are a bunch of hoops we have to jump through to get the site permitted. Last year, the City received a $300,000 “site readiness” grant from Mass Development to get that started. This project has several different pay-offs. First, as the City owns the land, we get paid as pieces or the whole thing are sold off. Second, the new development will contribute to our community in the form of property tax; and third, expanded businesses will provide additional employment opportunities to local residents. We need to continue this project.
Over the last 5 years, more than $20 million has been invested in the runway and other infrastructure at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport utilizing FAA, State, DOD and local resources. These improvements make the Airport a more attractive place for business growth, and we need to take advantage of that Westfield strength.
I am also very excited about the prospects for downtown. With the Gas Light construction finally complete and the Westfield Redevelopment Authority finally controlling nearly four acres of land on Elm Street, I finally feel we are close to seeing some new building in downtown. The Columbia Greenway project now extends to Main Street and is slated to connect to the River by 2020; several new business owners have brought a new excitement to downtown (Circuit Coffee, Skyline Trading, Pierogi Café, Stella’s just to name a few); and a vibrant, motivated, and growing group of private citizens are breathing new life into downtown with family events, cultural expos, and farmers’ markets. These provide the foundation that we have struggled to lay for the past several years, and the tide has shifted. I look forward to supporting the programs, grant applications, and investments necessary to get this project over the finish line.
Since 2012, approximately $120 million of private investment has been made in the City of Westfield, including new development projects, additions to current facilities and expansion of product lines to existing companies. Gulfstream, Prolamina, Advance Manufacturing, Southern States, and Tell Tool are just a few of the entities that have contributed to the economic growth of our community. But we need more.
We can only do that if we have leadership that welcomes this new growth on the City Council. Everyone running for City Council is going to say that they are for economic growth, but I ask you to look a little deeper. When the inevitable votes for zone changes, special permits, or city investment come, it’s not enough to say that you are pro-growth. Our behavior needs to show it.
You can trust I will continue to be guided by that question- “does this make Westfield better?”
Brent Bean II
City Council President
