Opinion: Epping Road TIF Good for Exeter

By Jonathan Ring

On March 10, Exeter voters will have a chance to approve a very important tax increment financing (TIF) district on Epping Road.

As you may know, Epping Road has been suffering from a lack of development and under-development for many years. These commercially-zoned areas continue to sit vacant. Thanks to the Town’s new Economic Development Director, Darren Winham, the “mystery” and opportunity of Epping Road has been clarified with the proposed TIF district. If developed, this TIF district could add up to $130 million dollars of new property value to Exeter’s tax base. That additional value equals approximately $2.00/$1,000 on the property tax rate of the Town. An Epping Road TIF would also bring significant jobs and economic activity to the community, and assist in elevating an already great quality of life.

In recent weeks there has been some conflict around a proposed wetlands buffer zoning amendment in the Epping Road corridor. This amendment is necessary to reduce onerous and rigid buffer regulations and to send the signal to prospective developers in the TIF corridor that Exeter is “open for business”. In 2009, the Town adopted a “blanket” wetlands buffer, which did not properly take into account this Town commercial area, or consider the difference between high quality and lesser value wetlands. As a result, the Epping Road corridor unnecessarily lost a significant part of its development potential. The newly-proposed wetlands buffer zoning amendment is a commonly used regulatory approach that considers the difference between higher and lower value wetlands, while providing appropriate science-based buffers to them. Voters will have the opportunity to fix this matter for the specific Epping Road TIF district, which represents just a small fraction of the total Exeter land onMarch 10th. This amendment will not change the wetlands buffer zoning in other areas of Town.

There have also been recent questions raised about the process that was followed for the zoning amendment. However, the Exeter Planning Board has expressed their support for this amendment, showing that they understand there needs to be a balance between development and regulations. It is easy to make the case that, in the past decade, the Town has not emphasized development enough as it has written its regulations – in fact, no zoning amendments adopted over the past several years actually assist in growing Exeter’s commercial tax base. While natural resources are always an important aspect to quality of life in Exeter, overdoing regulations in a commercial corridor results in the loss of key development projects, and causes developers to ignore Exeter when making their investment decisions.

If anyone needs an example of “what could have been”, they only need to look so far as the development of a recent 600,000 SF UPS facility on Pettengill Road in Londonderry. This particular project (a UPS logistics center) will bring over 200 jobs to Londonderry, and has been hailed by Governor Hassan as a key economic project indicative of New Hampshire’s “open for business” mentality. When this project showed interest in a parcel of land on Epping Road, the company walked away, due to the Town’s wetland regulations, even in a commercially-zoned corridor.

This TIF district and zoning amendment opportunity will be addressed on March 10th by Exeter voters. We believe that the approval of the related warrant articles, as recommended by the Exeter Board of Selectmen, will open up the Town of Exeter to numerous new economic development opportunities, including expansion of the commercial tax base, creating more jobs, and providing greater local economic activity. In addition, it will enhance the quality of life for residents and ease their ever-growing tax burden.

The Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors encourages Exeter residents to vote “yes” on Articles 8, 10, 28 and 29 on March 10.

Jonathan S. Ring is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce.