By Dakota Antelman – [email protected]
Bringing in more businesses could help ease Concord’s worsening budget crunch. Growth won’t come easy, though, and stakeholders say it may require changes ranging from an embrace of chain stores to expanding wastewater capacity.
Some panelists at the Economic Vitality Committee’s January 29 development forum said building the commercial tax base is the only way to pay for the services residents appreciate while keeping residential rates under control.
At the same time, they acknowledged concerns about eroding the unique town centers residents love.
Panelists outlined barriers to bringing new businesses into town. Though it wasn’t a major topic of discussion on January 29, the Concord Business Partnership has circled restrictions on so-called formula businesses as another roadblock.
“We’ve got a tension,” Select Board chair Mary Hartman said during the forum. “What is the right scope, scale, and type of commercial development [for] Concord?”
Formula businesses
Concord’s formula business bylaw covers many chain brands and limits the number of such establishments in Concord Center, West Concord Village, the West Concord Business District, and Thoreau Depot to preserve those areas’ identity and character. It does not extend to other parts of town.
The business partnership made its case in a November letter to The Concord Bridge, saying many successful businesses use a regional or national brand but have local owners.
“Rather than prohibiting more of these types of ‘formula’ businesses, we should welcome them to Concord,” the partnership said.
Town Meeting has debated formula business on multiple occasions, including in 2022 when voters passed an article expanding the bylaw to Thoreau Depot. Voters amended the article on the floor to allow no new chains in the Depot unless an existing formula business closes.
Reflecting on that vote, Concord resident Arthur Walker said he does not want to see chains come into town and hurt the “mom-and-pop” shops he frequents.
He recognizes the need to slow the town’s tax increases, though, and agrees the town should encourage some commercial development.
“I think you have to balance things,” he said.
The Planning Board sponsored the 2022 Thoreau Depot article, as it did with other formula business measures in 2011 and 2019. Before the 2022 floor amendment passed, the Planning Board suggested a more lenient cap that would have left room for some new formula businesses.
Chair Andrew Boardman said the Planning Board has not discussed changes this year. Given the recent discussion at Town Meeting, however, he said revisiting formula business restrictions “is something that will need to be explored outside of Planning Board discussions.”
Wastewater capacity
The business partnership flagged other issues, in addition to formula business rules, including spotty cell coverage and restrictions on parking, building heights, and densities.
“We all need to change the common reputation and misperception that starting and running a business in Concord can be difficult, slow, and expensive,” the partnership said.
On January 29, development forum panelist John Boynton said limited wastewater capacity could also hold the town back.
A treatment plant at the shuttered MCI-Concord prison could be part of the solution if the town acquires it.
But Public Works Commission chair Sven Weber, in an email to The Bridge, said Concord still needs the state and federal governments to significantly raise limits on the amount of treated water it releases into the Concord River.
Director of Public Works Alan Cathcart said the town will continue to work with regulators to implement “responsible water resource management” and raise the cap.
‘A good start’
Speaking generally about the commercial development forum at the Select Board’s meeting on February 3, Hartman said it was “a good start to a conversation that we have to continue.”
As for formula businesses, she told The Bridge she doesn’t expect the town to ease up in the near future since spaces such as MCI-Concord and the Superfund site at 2229 Main Street offer opportunities for commercial development outside the bylaw’s town center focus.
That said, Hartman left the door open.
“If we see more and more empty storefronts in our villages,” she said, “we might have to revisit [formula businesses].”
