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Rethinking the Golden Triangle

By CHRIS BAILEY March 11, 2009 6:25 AM

The Sandwich Board of Selectmen announced March 5 that it has withdrawn from the memorandum of understanding to sell the 50-plus acres of town-owned land in the South Sandwich Business District, often referred to as the Golden Triangle, to the Meetinghouse Group (TMG). As a Sandwich taxpayer, I regard this as not only the right move, but the board's only option. In the intervening days I've heard, "I can't believe the town is giving up $6 million in cash, especially now, when we need it so badly," and, "They should be focused on the annual tax revenue, not the sale price." Answering these concerns requires a more in-depth discussion of how the value of larger parcels of land like this one can be determined, by us as taxpayers and citizens of the town, and by any prospective buyer. The reality is that neither TMG nor anybody else would pay $6 million cash for the property until they know what their return on investment is going to be. Simply put, they need to know what they will be able to build to know how much it will be worth. Until we, the town as seller, do all the work to rezone, establish infrastructure plans, and then negotiate development rights with the Cape Cod Commission, TMG would be buying pig in a poke. Time is money for them, as it is for all of us, and to carry a $6 million debt for an indeterminate predevelopment period would be bad business. The number of acres barely begins to describe the value of land. Land value is better described by what can be built, which is determined by a complex system of zoning and permitting, which in turn is determined by the capacity of existing or future infrastructure (primarily wastewater and traffic) to handle increased usage. This is, and always has been, our problem: no investor or developer will be willing to pay until we, as a town, have done our homework to create the value of the land. The town asked simply, "How much can we get per acre?" TMG rolled out a big plan on the table and replied, "We'll give you $6 million ... once you arrange for us to build this. ..." They gave the town a refundable deposit for $25,000 and sent us out to prepare the land for sale. Along the way, we discovered that if we're going to do all that work anyway, maybe we, the citizens, should determine what the development will look like. It quickly becomes more complicated than "how much per acre?" Our town priorities, as I understand them from participating in the public workshops and examining the resulting concept plans for this area, seem to be threefold:
Preserve the historic, rural and coastal character of our beautiful town. Enhance the quality of life for our citizens by enhancing the breadth of facilities and services offered. Increase our sustainable tax base by creating an attractive place to do business.

So the question that we should have asked several years ago, and that we still have to ask today, is this: Where do we stand on establishing the concept plans, the infrastructure and the zoning and permitting needed to correctly establish the value of the land as we want it to be developed not only for sale, but for future tax revenue to the town? The answer is, we're making progress. And you may be relieved to hear that progress made while pursuing the sale with TMG is not lost. In the past two years, our town has developed a state-of-the-art local comprehensive plan written by a professional planning consultant, overseen by a dedicated citizen committee and informed by input from all town boards, staff, several professional planners and many caring citizens who have attended forums and workshops. This plan has

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Rethinking the Golden Triangle | CapeCodOnline.com

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received very positive feedback from the Cape Cod Commission, and should be officially adopted at Sandwich's May town meeting. It becomes the vision and the platform for all other planning and permitting work required to develop the Golden Triangle and the other two designated growth areas of town. Sandwich's planning and development director and the local planning committee have coordinated the drafting of revised zoning for the area which allows for the comprehensive plan's development vision, which may be ready for fall town meeting approval. These are major accomplishments that have been a long time coming. The town is now applying for a grant from the Camp Edwards plume cleanup fund to develop a comprehensive plan for our long-term wastewater infrastructure one important step in addressing that key issue. At May town meeting we will have the opportunity to form the Sandwich Economic Initiative Corp. (SEIC) which will be able to cooperate with the town manager, his staff and our boards and committees, adding the flexibility of a nongovernmental corporation to the town's toolbox to help convert these complex plans into reality. Similar nonprofits, with a mission to serve the economic development needs of the town, have been proved to work in several neighboring towns, bringing additional expertise and possibly outside funding to the table. Ultimately, we must figure out how to pay for roads and wastewater and planning, which involves taking advantage of an array of government financing options. When all the homework is done, and the value of the land has been clarified, there will be plenty of bidders willing to pay. It's slow, no doubt. Real economic development takes a long time in any community. The best time to plant an oak tree has always been 20 years ago. The good news is that Sandwich planted this tree two years ago, and it's starting to branch out. Christopher E. Bailey of Sandwich, owner of Capital Expansion Real Estate, is a member of the SEIC Task Force.

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8/13/2010