Lacey Officials Approve Seed Money For Sought-After Town Center Designation From State

Township officials have taken the first step to obtain Town Center approval from the state by fronting $20,000 for engineering costs.

""We have to get in the door first with the state Planning Commission," Township Committeeman Gary Quinn said at a recent Township Committee meeting.

"We need more support from the state," Mayor David E. Most said. "As long as we are all talking the same talk."

"The main goal is to support the existing businesses and attract businesses to come in," Quinn said. "You can't do it unless you have 70 to 80 percent impervious coverage. You can be very limited in out the growth of your commercial corridor."

Achieving state Planning Commission approval is an 11-step process, Township Committeewoman Helen Delacruz said.

"The first is the petition process," said Delacruz, who attended a recent township Economic Development Commission meeting. "It's very important to have the Town Center designation."

Township officials are especially concerned with attracting another power company to settle in behind the Oyster Creek Generating Station. Oyster Creek is slated to close in 2019.

"We don't have that," she said. "That was something we were never successful in obtaining."

Lacey needs larger ratables, not just "little strip malls," Quinn said.

"We don't want them," he said. "We want larger sites, bigger ratables. We will need some money to start moving this thing forward. We have to try and move as soon as we can."

The process in obtaining a Town Center designation could take between three to four years, and cost up to $350,000, Delacruz said.

The township will develop an RFP (Request for Proposal) for the engineering services, Township Administrator Veronica Laureigh said.