PRELIMINARY DRAFT

--- 1. INTRODUCTION --- 2. MAP OF GROWTH --- 3. WATER SUPPLIES ---
--- 4. WASTEWATER --- 5. TRANSPORTATION --- 6. GLOBAL WARMING --- 7. HOUSING ---
--- 8. ECONOMY --- 9. OPEN SPACE --- 10. MIX LAND USE --- 11. TOD --- 12. PEDESTRIAN ---

8-1. INTRODUCTION
The role of HVCEO in support of the area's many economic development efforts is to provide perspective, policy support and data of value.

Some specific roles for HVCEO in economic development will be to a) make available to outside market researchers the data they need to invest wisely here, b) provide in depth geographic overviews, and c) use its transportation planning and decision making authority to enhance the regional economy.

Fortunately, the ten communities of the Housatonic Valley Region form a unit that is dynamic and growing. The area can fairly be labeled one of the economic engines of Connecticut.

The 1.3 million square foot Corporate Center in
Danbury is the largest office building in Connecticut.

A 2007 economic analysis for the Housatonic Region, prepared by the CT Economic Resource Center, documents a strong economic base here. Between 2000 and 2006 the largest employment increase was in healthcare, the largest decrease was in manufacturing. During the same period the HVCEO region gained more than 900 jobs while the state lost 2,670.

Relative to the USA Connecticut has a concentration of the industrial category "management of companies" (corporate headquarters) of 119% compared to the USA at 100%. But in comparison this Region's concentration was a high 272%. In a similar pattern, with the USA at 100% for retail sales and CT at 102%, our Region is at a strong 142%.

Even manufacturing, where we had a job loss, still exceeded the state and nation with 100% for the USA, 111% Connecticut, and the region 133%. Looking ahead, The following strengths and weaknesses by economic sector are forecasted by CERC for the HVCEO area:

RETAIL TRADE: current strength
MANAGEMENT OF COMPANIES: current strength

UTILITIES: emerging strength
WHOLESALE TRADE: emerging strength
EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: emerging strength
ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION: emerging strength
ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD SERVICES: emerging strength
OTHER SERVICES, EXCEPT PUBLIC ADMIN.: emerging strength

CONSTRUCTION: limited prospect
MANUFACTURING: limited prospect
WAREHOUSING: limited prospect
INFORMATION: limited prospect
FINANCE AND INSURANCE: limited prospect
PROF. AND TECHNICAL SERVICES: limited prospect

HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE: high priority retention target

8-2. BUSINESS GROWTH AND THE TAX BASE
A traditional goal of economic development is to provide jobs for the local population. But in recent decades equal or more emphasis has been placed upon increasing the revenue generated by the municipal property tax.

The crucial assumption that economic development is a fiscal positive must be be objectively verified. A 2000 landmark regional study on this topic was completed by an adjacent regional planning organization, the Waterbury based Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley.

The results of that research so readily transferable to our municipalities are summarized below. Thirteen Connecticut municipalities were included in the regional study, including the nearby towns of Southbury and Woodbury.

Long held assumptions about the fiscal value of economic development were verified. The research found that “residential uses typically receive more in services than they provide in tax revenue. This is not surprising since municipal services are generally configured to benefit current residents (voters) while revenue can come from a variety of sources.”

The report also notes the fact that residential uses typically receive more value in local services than they pay out in local taxes is perceived as a positive by new residents, since they will also receive more in services than they pay in taxes. However, new residents are perceived as a negative by existing residents, since they dilute the benefits current residents enjoy.

And “it is little wonder that, in communities that understand this situation, taxpayers are eager for additional state aid and more economic development. Non-residential uses typically pay more in taxes than they receive in services... Vacant land requires very few municipal services and as a result produces a fiscal surplus to a community.”

But at the same time “condominiums generally pay more in taxes than they receive in services although high school enrollments from some projects do produce a fiscal deficit for a community. Age restricted condominiums like Heritage Village in Southbury produce a fiscal surplus because there are no school age children.”

Another excerpt of interest: Housing occupancy and school enrollment following a home sale typically peak within about 8 to 12 years after the sale and then children move on with their lives. In other words, after a family has been in a house for about a decade, the likelihood that the unit will produce a fiscal surplus increases.

Thus it can be desirable for a community to encourage longer term residency and discourage housing turnover. The best way to do this is by minimizing the costs of ownership for longer term residents. Options that are available to communities include elderly tax breaks.” A 2005 HVCEO inventory of this practice found it to be common in the Greater Danbury region.

The landmark COGCNV study concluded by discouraging the use of tax impact criteria as the sole "iron law” for community development. For example, churches, community organizations and other tax exempt facilities may not “pay their way” but are part of the vital mix supporting community life. So are the community's young adults, looking for hometown housing.

Also, some pedestrian scale village and mixed use oriented development may be desired as an upscale amenity, but then may not rate as highly on the tax scale as a corporate office. Experience shows that mixed use can be designed to be a net tax benefit, even with housing included. Limits on the number of bedrooms per unit in some developments can be the control.

8-3. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ZONING
In pursuit of economic development, perceived barriers raised by local zoning regulations are often cited by developers and investors as unnecessary nuisances and cost factors. But this is not usually the case. Consider this wise perspective offered by the 2002 Danbury Plan of Conservation and Development:

Though many developers may customarily view zoning regulations as impediments, zoning can also assist economic development by helping to protect private investment and ensuring that sufficient land is reserved to meet the long term needs of the municipality for different kinds of development.

Proper zoning will insure that lands zoned for different uses are truly capable of supporting their designated uses, and that they are free from constraints that may render future development prohibitively expensive or otherwise impossible.

Another issue facing the Housatonic Region and Connecticut concerns the merits of holding vacant land open for manufacturing uses. Manufacturing has been in decline in Connecticut in recent decades, and the pressure is on to convert vacant industrially zoned for manufacturing to more marketable commercial or other business uses.

The debate is sometimes categorized as between those eager for tax revenues by bringing in "big box" retail versus those wishing to wait for low traffic impact warehousing, office uses, or other alternatives.

Zoning for economic development in the ten municipalities of the Housatonic Valley Region varies widely. A general classification of types of zoning found in the area includes:

--- Village Commercial; Neighborhood Commercial; Highway Commercial

--- Small Shopping Center, Large Scale “Big Box” Retailer; Central Business District; Large Shopping Center

--- Office Buildings; Office Parks

--- Wholesale Area; Industrial Area; Industrial Park

4. MARKETING DANBURY AS
THE DYNAMIC REGIONAL CENTER
Even after decades of rapid economic growth by its major suburbs, the City of Danbury remains as the location for fifty percent of the region’s total employment. Danbury's economy is at the desirable central geographic crossroads and has consistently retained its historic role as regional economic leader.

Why is this so, when so many other cities have declined? A key factor relates to Danbury's large corporate boundaries. For example, Bridgeport was already largely developed by WWII, and post war economic development expansion could not easily fit within its borders. Major tax favorable ratables (that area's regional mall, major single story manufacturing buildings, etc.) could more easily locate in nearby suburbs.

The City of Danbury, in contrast, had large geographic boundaries, incorporating still vacant lands with low slope favorable to modern business development. And, its core inner city housing stock was originally well built, thanks to the long dominant hatting industry having been a relatively well paid profession.

Most industrial buildings before 1900 were multi-story, using elevators to move goods between floors. But post war development was single story and relied upon fork lifts. This type of low height building required acres of flat land and even more for parking.

It is also important to point out that significant percentages of nearby suburban populations commute to Danbury daily for their livelihood. For this reason alone, the continued economic health of the City is important to the residents of surrounding towns.

Marketing by the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce with
Danbury, New Milford and the eight other municipalities
portrayed as a coordinated unit.

5. MARKETING NEW MILFORD AS
THE MAIN REGIONAL SUBCENTER
For the purpose of enhancing their name recognition and marketing potential, many suburbs would like their name included in the regional title along with Danbury.

For local promotional purposes in Danbury's suburbs, it is certainly permissible on occasion to include their town name in the regional title, such as “The Danbury-Ridgefield Area” or the “Danbury-Bethel Area.”

But there a clear cut “Number Two” community in the Greater Danbury Region that is most deserving of the slot in the regional title on a permanent basis. This is the Town of New Milford.

New Milford stands out from the other Danbury suburbs, the evidenced by significant statistical indicators.

For example, while New Milford is part of the state designated ten town Greater Danbury Area, it ranks second only to Danbury in the two dominant indicators of total population and employment. It is also the second in zoning development holding capacity to Danbury.

An index of regional centrality is a high percentage of daily commuter trips that remain internal to a community. That is, a high percentage of residential origin and work destination pairs are located within the same municipality.

Within the Housatonic Valley Planning Region Danbury has the highest percentage of its residents remaining within the City for work, at 47%. But not surprisingly, next comes New Milford at 36%.

And consider that while the commuter orientation of each municipal labor pool varies significantly, all have major percentages with destinations to the Housatonic Valley as their home planning region.

As expected, Danbury has a high figure for this regional variable, 68% of its employed residents oriented to the regional economy. Then Danbury's closely proximate economic allies, Brookfield and Bethel, share in this core function, with 64% and 62% respectively.

But then New Milford tops them and all other area towns at 73% of employed residents supporting the regional economy. Here is more evidence that New Milford can claim a distinctive regional economic status.

Indicator of employed residents, by municipality,
who work in the Housatonic Valley Region,
with Danbury and New Milford in the lead.
See map above in full detail.

On the map above, blue identifies regional cores Danbury and New Milford that have over 65% of their employed residents working within the Region.

Then green on the map above shows Bethel, Brookfield, Bridgewater, New Fairfield and Sherman at 51% to 65%. Light green categorizes Ridgefield, Redding and Newtown at a lesser 31% to 50%, as many residents of those southern tier towns are attracted to coastal jobs further south.

Orange on the map then represents six towns to the region's northeast with 11% to 30% and yellow 3% to 10%. Note that the attractive pull of our employment opportunities for residents of New York State, even with major economic magnet Danbury bordering the state line, is quite limited.

The geographic luck of having capacity for local wastewater receiving streams to assimilate discharged wastewater is also crucial for economic development. For the long term, New Milford has a substantial advantage over Danbury and all other regional towns in water quality constraint regulated sewer treatment plant discharge capacity, should it choose to develop it. The key to this is that the Housatonic River has 250 million gallons per day to discharge into, while Danbury on the Still River has a much less 16 million gallons of dilution capacity.

Examining the role of New Milford as a retail center, it is relevant to note that in the 1997 New Milford Town Plan the “Downtown New Milford Primary Retail Trade Area” is defined to include all of New Milford, then parts of adjacent Brookfield, Sherman, Kent, Washington, Roxbury and Bridgewater.

Kimberly Clark manufacturing plant in New Milford.

Retail and commuter patterns clearly document New Milford as a secondary regional economic center, having its own small suburbs, to a greater extent than towns of similar population size such as Newtown or Ridgefield.

For yet another perspective, consider that hospitals have historically located in regional centers. Danbury and New Milford Hospitals are good examples.

Also of interest is a recent state study of restoring rail passenger service on the Danbury Branch Line. The results found that if service were restored to New Milford, more rail passengers would board there than at any other town on the line, even at regional leader Danbury.

In sum, New Milford's demographic, economic and land use indicators differ significantly from the other eight Danbury suburbs. New Milford has earned the distinction of being one of the two poles in the alternative regional title of“The Greater Danbury - New Milford Area.”

The rapidly growing Housatonic Valley Region has more complexity and sophistication to its urban form than presented in traditional 1990's style marketing, which focused on one center with multiple suburbs. The growing dual pole Danbury - New Milford axis is a positive economic asset for the entire area.

8-6. MARKETING OUR PROXIMITY TO NYC
This Region’s proximity to New York City is of great economic value. The advantage of the business link first became apparent around 1850 with the building of a connecting railroad.

Today, some of the tangible benefits are the accessibility of the City’s unparalleled attractions including high paying jobs, museums and galleries, professional sports, historical sites, ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants.

The Manhattan skyline

Consider these relatively short mileages; the straight line distance from Ridgefield Town Hall to Manhattan’s Central Park is only 41 miles, to Danbury’s City Hall 48, to Newtown’s Town Hall 54 miles away from that park and New Milford 61.

Our region also has the attraction of being part of the Manhattan commuter shed. This is a "safety backup" for persons newly employed here; Manhattan jobs are distant but commutable in a pinch.

Westchester County businesses seeking to move further out from the high priced and congested outer core often want to document that Danbury is indeed within, if admittedly near the outer edge of, the Manhattan commuter shed. While Greater Danbury shares I-84 corridor economic interests with Greater Waterbury, that area is too far east to make a claim of feasible NYC commuter access.

By municipality, percentage of employed
residents who work in New York City.

As projected by noted economist Michael Gallis, the New York Metro area is expected to retain a strong position in the new global economy. He recommends that the Housatonic Valley benefit by positioning itself as a distinct submarket of that area, refreshing its marketing of the past.

An example of a traditional method for marketing Greater Danbury's New York connection is this promotional map from about 1980.

These days, well educated and high tech potential employees do not seek out a company to work for regardless of where it is located. While Greater Danbury might be a great spot for businesses due to the New York proximity as described above, that is not the worker's primary concern.

It is an old problem, how to be near "the big city" and the "rural countryside" at the same time. Again Greater Danbury emerges with winning marketing, for from this region you can both view distant Manhattan skyscrapers from a hilltop at the region's south end in Ridgefield, and walk the pristine Appalachian Trail at the north end in Sherman.

8-7. HIGHLIGHT ADVANTAGES OF
I-684/I-84 CORRIDOR IN METRO NEW YORK
In today’s vastly enlarged worldwide competition for knowledge based industries, by standing alone each municipality or even the larger Housatonic Valley Region is too small for effective visibility.

We should consider the advice of economic theorist Michael Gallis in 2003:

The Connecticut Sourcebook identified three main economic regions that dominated Connecticut. Each of the three economic regions crossed a state line.

Both the western portion of I-95 and I-84 were included as corridors within the New York economic region in competition with the other radial corridors that extended out from the City of New York.

The Sourcebook identified nine total corridors — three in New York, four in New Jersey, and two in Connecticut. Of the two in Connecticut, one was shared by both New York and Connecticut — the I-684 / I-84 corridor... Only by aggregating resources and positioning the I-684 / I-84 corridor as one of the nine choices within the New York region can the corridor develop the visibility necessary to compete.

Gallis graphic of recommended
"nine spokes" orientation for Greater Danbury
marketing. (Red fill added to denote Danbury).

As for New Milford as the emerging economic subcenter, while north of the I-84 / I-684 corridor itself, new and fast multi-lane Route 7 connections to Danbury are now under construction. This massive transportation investment will draw I-84 corridor access benefits north to New Milford.

8-8. HIGHLIGHT ADVANTAGES
OF I-84 ACCESS WESTWARD
Economist Gallis also found that our area has another emerging locational high card. While access to New York to the southwest has been historically valuable, in many ways the City, its extensive environs and the Hudson River are increasingly barriers to quick access to the remainder of the country.

His main thesis is that geographically much of New England has the characteristics of a “dead end” from the perspective of the emerging world economy. But, he says, Greater Danbury and Greater Waterbury can escape this problem.

Gallis sees the rise of inland corridors across the entire Northeast, such as between Harrisburg, Allentown - Bethlehem and Scranton - Wilkesboro forming new NAFTA trade hubs:

Each of these locations is rising as a surface transportation hub and distribution center. These hubs are having a powerful effect on the trade and distribution patterns of the Northeast.

Most importantly, they are increasing the importance of the I-84 corridor as the principal access corridor from the new NAFTA hubs and the continental economy to New England.

From the perspective of emerging globally influenced trade patterns, this geography presents both the I-84 oriented Danbury Area and I-84 oriented Waterbury Area with great opportunity.

Gallis says that congested I-95 and Hudson River crossings present a barrier to global competitiveness for southern Fairfield County, but not here in Northern Fairfield and southern Litchfield Counties. Incidentally, the long time motive of Greater Bridgeport interests in supporting a Route 25 Expressway north to I-84 was recognition of this problem.

I-84 thru Danbury, Bethel and Newtown holds the high card of a relatively free flowing connection across the New York City and Hudson River barriers.

The position of I-84 through western Connecticut serves the New England market, then also the New York Metro market, then triple duty as a bypass for congested I-95 and NYC. His key prediction:"as the I-95 corridor becomes more impacted and congested, the I-84 corridor will increase in importance.”

As the decades move on, easy flow to the west will be crucial for securing Greater Danbury’s economic niche in the global market.

This overview map by Newtown's Economic Development
Commission nicely portrays the region's superior access.

An additional issue for Greater Danbury concerns the upgrading of Stewart Airport, accessed from I-84 about 40 miles to the west in New York State. The international airport options for Greater Danbury can be viewed by size. Kennedy Airport with 42 million passengers annually, La Guardia 23 million, Bradley 6.7 million and Stewart at present 300,000.

Early in 2007 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns Kennedy and La Guardia, purchased Stewart Airport. The Port Authority's goal is to shift some air traffic north.

As Stewart in Newburgh, NY is about 40 miles west of Danbury, this strategy serves our interests. A direct exit to Stewart Airport from I-84 is planned. This access will be an asset for businesses in our region.

8-9. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

GOAL: Diversified economic growth producing quality jobs and tax revenue, well coordinated with other Regional Plan elements.

1. The Housatonic Region's most important economic resource is its highly skilled workforce. The greatest risks to the regional economy are loss of current skilled employees or an inability to attract more.

2. To assist with effective marketing of the region, HVCEO will maintain a demographic and economic overview and its supporting tables, documenting the high quality of life here. As industries driven by intellectual capital such as research, technology and services still need face to face idea collaboration they can be attracted here by the documented high quality of life.

3. Keep current a web listing of local economic development groups including chambers of commerce, economic development commissions, etc. to facilitate access to local economic development officials. Keep current a list of major employers by municipality to showcase the regional economy.

4. Encourage plans for affordable housing to match the housing needs of planned economic growth.

5. HVCEO will use its federal transportation funding programming powers to assist with economic development, and will continually update traffic improvement planning reports for each community.

6. Encourage further investment in established commercial centers at a degree of intensity appropriate to the character of each individual community. Maximize local control of aesthetic design, consider mixed use projects, and facilitate pedestrian links within these centers.

7. Market the Region's locational advantages using the geographic perspectives offered by noted economic development consultant Michael Gallis.

China meets the Housatonic Valley
Region, an economic jewel in Connecticut

8. Improved rail connections to Stamford and New York City should be vigorously pursued, coupled with restoration of passenger rail service north to New Milford and the placement of transit oriented development at some rail stations.

9. The impacts of the large hydropower industry in the Region remains a significant special issue requiring attention from elected leaders.

10. Work with state and federal agencies having authority over the siting of telecommunications, energy facilities and air service routes to achieve a balance between the need for expanded services and preservation of the natural environment and community character.

--- 1. INTRODUCTION --- 2. MAP OF GROWTH --- 3. WATER SUPPLIES ---
--- 4. WASTEWATER --- 5. TRANSPORTATION --- 6. GLOBAL WARMING --- 7. HOUSING ---
--- 8. ECONOMY --- 9. OPEN SPACE --- 10. MIX LAND USE --- 11. TOD --- 12. PEDESTRIAN ---