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Lowell staff outline options to tie tax‑incentives to local hiring, green measures and public benefits
Summary
City planning and economic development staff told the economic development subcommittee that Lowell’s standard state‑authorized tax‑incentive schedules are conservative and proposed a points‑based rubric to reward local hiring, green building and neighborhood benefits; staff will return with a draft score sheet and public outreach plan.
City planning and economic development staff on April 7 gave the Lowell City Economic Development Subcommittee an overview of the state programs used to offer tax incentives and outlined options to attach community benefits to longer exemption terms.
Giovanni Baez Rose, assistant city manager and director of planning and development, opened the presentation and said staff prepared "a very brief kind of summary version of the motion response" requested by council members. Maria Dickinson, the city’s economic development specialist, reviewed the three main programs the city uses: the state Economic Development Incentive Program (EDIP), the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) adopted in 2012, and the Urban Center Housing TIF program.
Why it matters: Lowell offers exemptions tied to state programs rather than unilateral local abatements, and those state rules both enable and limit what the city can offer. Dickinson told the subcommittee that Lowell’s standard HDIP schedule is a seven‑year offering and is conservative compared with…
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