Town, EDC Discuss Local Business Expansion

Economic stimulus was on the tips of the tongues of Town Council and town Economic Development Committee (EDC) members on Tuesday night at a work session designed to make South Kingstown’s tax exemption and stabilization treaty more desirable for small to medium sized businesses within the town.

The treaty is designed to serve as a relocation or expansion incentive to businesses, offering a tax exemption on improvement projects that will ultimately increase the taxable values of commercial properties in town and result in creating more jobs locally.

While an ordinance does currently sit on the books in South Kingstown, according to Stephen Alfred, town manager, the guidelines are too flexible, leaving too many pieces for town staff to negotiate.

Conversely, the town EDC vied to keep a flexible treaty on Tuesday night that not only invited large industrial and commercial enterprises to South Kingstown, but also encouraged the town’s existing small and moderate sized businesses to grow.

“South Kingstown is indeed very unique, it is unlike other towns with industrial land, we don’t we any and we don’t have large tracks of land that are going to bring in large industry,” said Bill White, a member of the EDC. “The goal here was really to try to bring in new businesses; the goal was to try to keep those businesses, to stay here, to try to build here, and I think there is that potential here.”

The existing ordinance specifically cites manufacturing firms as candidates for tax exemption or stabilization for job-generating expansion projects that will increase the taxable value of a property by $5,000,000. The town EDC is seeking to drastically reduce that value to an additional $25,000.

“We need to be specific to small and medium sized businesses with the expectation that they can grow,” said White. “That is our frustration when we see these guidelines because these guidelines are written for a business that will not come here. There is frustration on our part because we feel like we’ve actually taken two steps back. The goal [of the EDC] was to develop and expand our smaller businesses.”

EDC members stressed that something was lost in translation when town staff applied the EDC’s objectives to the resulting ordinance. According to White and other members, the big business targeted by the ordinance’s language is not likely to find South Kingstown a desirable location.

“At that time (when the ordinance was passed) we were all concerned, and I was looking at the bigger plan,” said James O’Neill, councilman. “I didn’t take a step back and say ‘gee maybe we should apply this on a broader scale.’ I’m realizing that this community is really a small business community and since then I have redirected myself and I am thankful for what the EDC has done here. We need to capture what we can here on a reasonable scale and then figure out dollars and cents and how to tie employment into this investment.”

While council members were receptive of making the ordinance more available to the town’s many small business owners, all said they would be reticent to provide tax exempt status to projects that would disproportionately stress town services – for example projects that would create residential living space above shops and offices. Council members said the added value to the tax rolls of just $25,000 would not counteract stresses on emergency services and schools.

EDC Chairman Larry Fish told the council other growth impediments plagued small business owners in the town besides the hardships surrounding the tax stabilization treaty. Outdated and exclusive zoning ordinances often made it impossible for business owners through Wakefield and Peace Dale the ability to expand to meet the needs of their clientele. These inconsistencies would need to be addressed, Fish said, in order to send a clear and supportive message to the SK business community.

“If we can simplify this process, then we can simplify the welcome mat,” agreed Rob Kermes, EDC member.