05/29/2008 ECONOMIC DEV AND INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE Minutes

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TOWN OF MASHPEE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION On May 29th Terri Cook, Robyn Simmons, Bob Cobuzzi and Joe Noonan met with Paul Niedzwicki Executive Director, of the Cape Cod Commission. The main purpose of this meeting was to inquire into the procedure whereby the Town of Mashpee and/or EDIC could enter into a Development Agreement with the Cape Cod Commission which would allow certain land uses and building types to be essentially pre-permitted prior to development. The properties that the EDIC was interested in for this Development Agreement were the two Town-owned parcels in the Mashpee Industrial Park, The meeting also gave the EDIC a chance to introduce itself to the Cape Cod Commission and update the Commission on the activity taking place at the Mashpee Industrial-Park (MIP). Paul Niedzwicki stated that a development agreement could be entered into but it would be a three way agreement, that is, between the Town of Mashpee/EDIC, the Cape Cod Commission and the Developer. One of the interesting points that came out of this discussion was that the Cape Cod Commission is in the process of revising the Developments of Regional Impact(DRIs) review process. One of the significant changes will be revising the threshold of commercial development or change of use for buildings greater than 10,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet. This and other revisions will be formulated over the next six to twelve months and will be forwarded to the Assembly of Delegates for final approval. He indicated when these changes/revisions take place there will be a lot of interest from the big box companies such as Lowe's, Home Depot etc. Paul stated that Mashpee, due to their mapping system progress, would be one of the first Towns to be able to take advantage of the new requirements. He thought that this was a great time for planning the next development upturn and strongly urged the Town to streamline their regulatory permitting process for developers by instituting a one-stop-shopping approach for development and urged the Town/EDIC to take advantage of the Commission's resources of personnel and demographic and research data bases. We also discussed hotels but he thought a hotel in Mashpee Commons might work better even though the MIP was walking distance to the Commons. He indicated that hotel chains are very wary of the Cape's winter months of January thru March. The larger hotels in Hyannis, to attract tourists during the winter months, have added attractions as demonstrated by the Cape Codder Resort and Spa installing a Wave Pool. On the other hand, Courtyard Marriot in Hyannis doesn't have a winter attraction but is in the process of expanding due to the increased business. He thought medical and technology development were good fits for the MIP, and Mashpee could benefit from the businesses in the Technology Park and Woods Hole in Falmouth. Paul suggested John Harding, a Commercial Real Estate Agent, would be a good source for development interest.