Ward 5 representative Suzanne Joyce wants the city to take an aggressive approach to growth in her next term on the City Council.
Joyce, D-Hardy Road, said she thinks the city has been “very, very careful” in its recent approach to economic development, and she is afraid this approach will cause Westbrook to lose momentum.
Westbrook is not alone in its struggle to attract growth, Joyce said. She said many other cities are struggling to attract new businesses and jobs. The news for Westbrook has not been all bad, Joyce said. She is especially pleased with the city’s decision to purchase land to develop the Westbrook Heights Business Park on Saco Street.
“It’s a wonderful direction for the city to go in,” she said. “We’ll do very well there.”
While the council has been looking at ways to spur growth in the city, it has also been struggling to find ways to keep taxes down. Joyce said she wants to make sure taxes are kept in check, but at the same time the city still needs to be able to provide services and a high quality school system. She said she would not support cutting the school budget to the point where the kids are affected.
“Our priority should be our schools,” she said.
Another way to even out the tax burden in the city is through a city-wide property revaluation. Joyce said she would support a revaluation, even though it would probably hurt her personally, because it would help the city.
“It will bring the tax rate down,” she said.
Joyce also said while the city needs to keep an eye on residential growth to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, she doesn’t think the city needs to take action to slow residential growth. “I think we just have to monitor it very carefully,” she said.
Joyce said she wants voters to return her to another term on the council because she doesn’t think two years is long enough to make significant progress, and she would continue to work hard for the city and its residents.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
