Economic Development Committee Chairman Jeffrey Thomas, right, and Vice Chairwoman Karen Lartin at Monday's meeting. The committee released its draft report online Thursday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Economic Development Committee has released the first draft of its yearlong study of the town's economy.

 

The report is available below or on the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission website.

 

The committee will host a community forum to garner responses on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Williams Inn, and it will keep the public comment period open through Nov. 29.

 

In December, the committee will hone its final report, with recommendations, to present to the Board of Selectmen, which created the ad hoc committtee earlier this year.

 

On Monday, eight members of the 11-person panel grappled with some of the thornier issues among nearly 10 pages of proposed recommendations.

 

One of the thornier issues was a suggestion that the town market itself to Williams College alumni, who are perceived as strong potential residents and entrepreneurs.

 

Committee Chairman Jeffrey Thomas came out strongly against the idea.

 

"This is entirely inappropriate," Thomas said. "The relationship Williams has with its alums is its relationship. The town shouldn't address Williams College alumni, Buxton School alumni, Pine Cobble School alumni."

 

Several members of the committtee shared Thomas' concern that the town should not — and likely could not — directly appeal to college alumni.

 

But others, including Selectman Andrew Hogeland, argued that people who already have a connection to the town are an important audience for targeted marketing efforts.

 

"I think it's important to pursue it because I think if you take this out, you're deciding that you're not going to talk with the most centralized prime candidates," Hogeland said.

 

He and Realtor Paul Harsch defended the recommendation because it was one of the ideas that came out of the committee's community forums.

 

"We have to respect the fact that this was a strongly recommended action from people we listened to," Harsch said.

 

Hogeland suggested that any communication with alumni would be cooperative with and monitored by the college. But in the end, the majority of the committee members present sided with Thomas.

 

The recommendation was deleted from the draft by a vote of 5-3, with Karen Lartin siding with Hogeland and Harsch in the minority.

 

Most of the votes on Monday were unanimous, though not all of the recommendations that came out of the committee's reporting working group made it into the draft document being offered for public comment.

 

Some ideas remained but faced significant editorial changes.

 

The committee labored over a passage meant to address a complaint aired repeatedly at public forums: the challenges faced by businesses going through the town's permitting process.

 

Members went so far as to ask town staff about those gripes during one of its meetings this fall. And when it came time to turn the concern into an action plan, the committee struggled.

 

The panel settled on language that calls on the town to create a mechanism for permit applicants to provide anonymous feedback about the process. And the draft language recommends that the Board of Selectmen keep an eye on the length of time applications take for various approvals (Inspection Services, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Conservation Commission) among other metrics of assessing economic development.

 

The committee members made no judgment about whether in fact there is a difficult permitting process in town, but they thought it was important to recognize the feedback they had heard from the community.

 

"It is negative, but it reflects what we heard," Thomas said. "I don't know the answer, but I think it's fair to say this group should work to change the perceptions."