By Bonnie Adams , Government Editor
Westborough – The Economic Development Committee (EDC) hopes to use the town's existing interactive assessors maps in an effort to further market the town to potential businesses. The committee discussed this issue, as well as several other marketing strategies at its Sept. 6 meeting.
According to Mark Stockman, the town's Management Information Services (MIS)/ Geographic Information System (GIS) manager, a new website for the town will be launched soon. The new site will also have three major links – residents, businesses and visitors. The EDC's site is also in the process of being redesigned and will be linked to the town's main page.
The current GIS maps are already a valuable resource for potential businesses and developers to use, officials said. By going to the town's website and clicking on GIS services, viewers can then pick from an array of choices to get a number of views of a property. A particular site can be chosen and then viewed with different thematic overlays including zoning, topography, hazard mitigations and more. Different maps of the site and surrounding parcels including aerial photos and an open street map are also available.
There is also a link that gives information regarding property ownership, valuation, size of the land and the type of real estate zoning. By clicking on the property card link you will go to another site, www.westborough.patriotproperties.com, where there is even more detailed information about the property including past assessment values.
On the current EDC page, http://edc.town.westborough.ma.us/default.html, there are two links that connect to www.showcase.com, where there are views of commercial properties for sale and for lease in the town.
The EDC members discussed how to further increase the value of the current maps in an effort to attract more businesses to town.
Lester Hensley is the group's chair.
“Our overarching goal is to expand the commercial taxable base in town,” he said. “We want to fill up the existing available space and then work on creating new space.”
Other information that is important for potential new businesses, the members said, would include parking capacity, utilities, access to major highways, frontage, whether the building was a stand-alone or not, (and if it wasn's a stand-alone, who the other tenants are) and the specifics of the location itself.
Although some businesses have left Westborough recently, most noticeably BJ's Warehouse, others have moved into town or expanded over the past year, including BJ's headquarters.
Town Manager Jim Malloy told the EDC members that AstraZeneca and eClinicalWorks are two companies that have been very happy with their relationship with the town.
Both companies, Malloy said, have noted that working with the different town officials and boards has been “second to none.”
“They said the level of service in every area was excellent,” he added.