Greenfield needs more livable wage jobs. What is the solution to bringing better jobs to Greenfield? Create a new industrial zone to attract and accommodate new and expanded advanced manufacturing facilities.
Working with me, the Planning Board and the City Council can create the opportunity for the growth we need in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing jobs. In August, I proposed a zone change for 48-acres on the French King Highway from General Commercial to either PI, Planned Industry, or a new type of zoning designation called AI, Advanced Industrial and Commercial. I would be happy with either designation. The Planning Board has chosen to put forth the zone change as Planned Industrial. On Thursday, Nov. 17, the City Council Economic Development Committee and the Planning Board will hold a joint public hearing on this proposed zone change, the next step in making the change a reality.
Why would we make this change when we have a Planned Industry zone at the I-91 Industrial Park? The answer is simple. The I-91 Industrial Park is the primary location for the city’s manufacturing employers. It is home to advanced manufacturing businesses that already employ hundreds of local people and who are hiring and need more space to grow, Valley Steel Stamp and Mativ, formerly SWM, among them. A 2020 report from ZipRecruiter, put the average advanced manufacturing job at $40 per hour or $83, 545 per year and the average in Greenfield at $82,348. The city should be able to assist with expansion of those existing manufacturers and attract new manufacturers, but we are running out of developable space in the city as a whole, and especially in the Industrial Park. Although the Industrial Park contains 36 parcels, most of them are developed. Wetlands and steep slopes make remaining existing parcels undesirable for new builds or expansion.
The French King Highway area outlined in the zone change from Route 2 south to King Road, opposite Stop & Shop, is ideal for expansion given its proximity to I-91 and Route 2 and approximately a mile from the Industrial Park. Although a significant portion of the proposed zone was once permitted for the development of a 135,000 square foot retail space, which I supported as the Planning Board chairwoman when in 2011 that special permit was given by the board, that option is no longer viable. The property was tied up in a lawsuit for nine years after the permit was granted. When an appellate court finally ruled in favor of the Planning Board’s decision in 2019, the owner developer of that property, Cerruzzi Properties, let its special permit lapse. In conversations with them in 2021, I was told that they no longer plan to develop any new retail brick and mortar stores because the retail industry has so drastically changed. An added wrinkle is that unknown to the Planning Board in 2011, Ceruzzi Properties entered into a $1 million-per-year, 35-year lease on the property with Ahold Delhaize, a Dutch Company, that is the parent to Stop & Shop, so that no competing grocery store could be built there. The effect: the city has been held hostage by these two corporations for 11 years and counting. At this point Ceruzzi Properties has told me they have no intention of changing that lease even though they have been approached by a local manufacturer to purchase the 16 acres. So a highly developable piece of the 48 acres remains undeveloped and thwarting efforts to increase the tax base there and provide livable wage jobs. The only way the city can fix the problem is to rezone the area from commercial to industrial.
We have existing businesses that want to stay in Greenfield while adding jobs, but out of necessity have to cast a wider net. Let’s rezone the French King area and allow them to grow in Greenfield!
Roxann Wedegartner is the mayor of Greenfield.