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January 28, 2010 Bangorbiz

Bennett seeks balance in Hampden economic development

Photo/Tom Weber Dean Bennett, Hampden's community and economic development director
By Tom Weber

It's not every small Maine town that can say it has a full-time community and economic development director on staff, nor even justify such a position.

But when officials in Hampden, population 6,400, decided to hire Dean Bennett a couple of years ago, they had a pretty well-defined job description for him to follow: Do everything possible to bring in suitable new businesses to bolster the town's tax base, of course, but don't forget the needs of the businesses already here and the importance of maintaining the comfortable, residential atmosphere that townspeople have always prided themselves on.

"I think it's really a reflection on Hampden that it has the foresight to know how important it is to blend the community part with the economic development part," says Bennett, "and to make the long-term commitment to make that happen here."

Bennett took over the job in January 2008 from Bion Foster, a Hampden native and highly successful businessman who had been the town's part-time economic development director on a contractual basis for 10 years before that.

After working 18 years for the Eastern Maine Development Corp. - he was planning director of the Penobscot Valley Council of Governments when he left in February 2007, and spent the next year as a private consultant - Bennett immediately put his knowledge of regional land-use planning, ordinances and regulations to work on a more intimate scale.

"One of the first things I did was to set up the Hampden Development Review Team," he says, "so when developers come to us we can work with them to expedite their business plans and meet with them as often as necessary to minimize their costs. We try to anticipate their problems and really look out for the developers."

One of Bennett's chief responsibilities is to find occupants for the Hampden Business & Commerce Park, a carefully planned tract on Route 202 with easy access to I-95. Designed more like a residential than a commercial development, the park offers open fields, curved street layouts, sidewalks, picnic areas, walking paths and sites with all the necessary local and state permits already in place. So far, eight of the 37 available lots have been sold and developed.

Hampden currently has about 250 businesses, Bennett says, but little in the way of retail. So one goal of the town's recently completed comprehensive plan is to eventually open up Coldbrook Road to service and commercial retail business in the most unobtrusive way possible.

"This town is 75% rural," Bennett says. "Housing accounts for 87% of the tax base, and the town wants to remain a primarily residential community. So we really have to be responsible when considering the kinds of businesses and services that would be suitable here."

As neighboring Bangor continues work on its much-heralded new waterfront, Hampden, a longtime supporter of regional development alliances, has begun taking steps to expand public facilities along its adjoining stretch of the Penobscot River. Bennett says he has been working with a boat business called Hamlin Marine, which would like to swap the land it now leases at the town's marina for an adjacent parcel it has an option on.

The exchange would allow the company to expand and redesign itself on its own property while providing the town an opportunity to develop a park and recreation area with increased public access to the river. "It could very well become a centerpiece of our new waterfront," he says.

Bennett also has set up a program aimed at addressing the growth needs of existing businesses which have felt underserved by traditional economic development practices that focused mostly on attracting new companies to town.

"What I've heard very clearly is the need to reinvest in businesses that are here now," he says, "and our Business Expansion and Retention program, BEAR, is there to help them with zoning, sign ordinance issues and anything else that might come up."

Ken White, manager of the F.A. Peabody insurance agency and president of the Hampden Business Association, says he welcomes the town's balanced approach to community and economic development.

"Dean wants to bring new business to town to expand the tax base but he also wants to help expand and improve the businesses already here, and that's an aspect that sometimes gets lost in traditional economic development," White says.

Michael Aube, EMDC's president and CEO, believes that having a full-time economic development director on board in Hampden is a plus not only for the town but for the entire region.

"Our perspective is that whenever a community wants to expand its capacity to grow economically it's a positive for everyone," says Aube. "We all benefit from the investments that take place in a community."

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