Quality of place bill sets growth terms
Photo/Jan Holder
Dick Barringer, chair of Maine's Quality of Place Council, says he's "100% pleased" with the amended version of a bill that encourages quality of place considerations in economic development
Clarification: The Environmental Funders Network has not committed to investing $2.5 million in quality of place development efforts. The group awarded just over $500,000 last year and hopes to grant the same amount in the next two years.
A bill working its way through the Legislature aims to make quality of place — that catchphrase made popular by the 2006 Brookings Institution report that plugged the state’s mountains, beaches and historic downtowns as key to its economic growth — a priority in regional development.
Members of the Maine Quality of Place Council, a group Gov. John Baldacci created in the wake of the Brookings report, say it would mean a big step forward for economic development. Not everyone, though, is convinced the legislation will achieve its intended purpose.
LD 1389, “An Act To Create Regional Quality of Place Investment Strategies for High-value Jobs, Products and Services in Maine,” lays out a new way of thinking about economic development by focusing on a region’s assets rather than its needs, says Dick Barringer, chair of the Quality of Place Council and a professor at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Policy.
Traditional economic development “looks at an area’s weaknesses and tries to correct them, rather than looking at its strengths and trying to build on them,” he says. The asset-based model, as opposed to the need-based model, has been catching on in states like Tennessee, Minnesota and Washington, as well as communities in other countries, including St. John, New Brunswick. The idea behind it is that, by identifying and prioritizing projects that boost Maine’s quality of place, the state can attract and retain more people, which will in turn bring new investments and new jobs.
Proposed last year, but carried over into this legislative session, the bill directs the council to work with economic development districts to develop quality of place investment strategies, identifying assets like historic downtowns, working waterfronts, arts and culture centers and agricultural land. Projects that meet these guidelines would be encouraged to receive preference for funding for a number of state grant programs, including Land for Maine’s Future, Community Development Block Grants and the Department of Transportation’s Quality Community Program. The bill received an ought-to-pass recommendation from the joint Business, Research and Economic Development Committee and was endorsed by the Senate at press time.
Beyond providing incentives to developing quality of place, the bill would also standardize how regions in Maine define quality of place and go about enhancing it, says Robert Thompson, a Quality of Place Council member and executive director of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments. “It will build local consensus that will survive administrations, with performance measures and accountability.”
Putting the initiative through the Legislature, rather than the governor, means it will outlast a four-year term. “It will become a part of the process, rather than just another report,” says Thompson.
Having legislation in place could help the state attract funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration earmarked for states doing asset-based development. The bill has already convinced a Maine nonprofit, Environmental Funders Network, to invest $2.5 million over the next two years into quality of place development, and Barringer is hoping the private sector will follow suit. “The private sector hasn’t been as actively engaged as we’d hoped, and their response has been, unless it passes, they’re not sure it will be around very long.”
Getting to the nub
As originally proposed, the bill would have created a Quality of Place Investment Fund, made up of federal funds and money from private sources, awarded to regional development districts looking to create a quality of place investment strategy. Preference for state grants for quality of place projects would have been required, not encouraged.
But the BRED Committee amended the bill to take out the investment fund, since legislators “were fearful it was a front for another appropriations request,” says Barringer. And though the committee also lifted the requirement that state agencies give preference to quality of place projects, Barringer is confident the state will give these projects top bidding anyway. “The agencies want to do it, and they think they can do it with their existing legislation,” he says.
Despite the changes, Barringer says he’s “100% pleased” with the result. “They’re all friendly changes designed to strip it down to its essentials and see the central thrust of the bill remain intact.”
But others in development say the stripped-down version doesn’t do enough to define quality of place strategies and their tangible results. “If some town were to call me and ask me why they should do this, I’m not capable of answering that question. I don’t know why,” says Jeff Austin, a lobbyist with the Maine Municipal Association.
Without the promise of preferential treatment from state agencies, many regions will hesitate to spend the time and money developing a quality of place investment strategy, he says. “The end result of who will be influenced by it is gone,” he says. “The appealing element [of the original bill] was to pry out of the hands of the state some of the grant determination, and recognize local decisions as long as they were of a regional nature.”
Ray Cota Jr., president of the Maine Real Estate and Development Association, says the bill is a “good first step,” but he questions what exactly the bill sets out to accomplish. “I don’t know if anyone is sure what it’s supposed to do. I don’t know what the end result is.” Cota said it’s too early to tell where the initiative will go, likening it to the amorphous beginnings of the Pine Tree Zone program, which ultimately became successful, he says. “Anything that promotes responsible development in Maine, as a group we need to be supportive of that effort.”
But Barringer says the bill will go a long way toward changing the way Maine thinks about and carries out economic development. “We have a long-term strategy here that will continue through administrations, and what we’re hoping to be a continuing commitment to improving quality of life and becoming a more attractive place for people who create jobs.”
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