Last week the town’s consultants presented four concepts (light industry, housing, energy, and hospitality & tourism) around the 1,600 acres of open space (aka The Pine Hills) currently owned by Holtec at the Pilgrim 1600 master planning open house in the Plymouth South Middle School.
The good news embedded within all the concepts was an overwhelming desire to preserve the lion’s share of the property (80+ percent) as open space.
Kudos to the consultants for providing a ‘mix-and-match’ tax impact modeling tool so each participant’s vision/combination of the four options could be calculated in real-time (see example below):
Yes, taxes are a good start but we should push further for a full economic impact analysis that quantifies what such development would do in terms of direct, indirect, and induced spend (what does that mean?) into Plymouth’s economy.
For example, a recent study by the Trust for Public Lands reveals that, “the average expenditure for individual mountain biking tourists was $416 per visit”. Using that information, our back-of-the-envelope study suggests that outdoor recreation could result in ~$14M additional direct spend into Plymouth’s tourist economy.
Seem farfetched? For those who subscribe to the New York Times, read about “How an Arkansas City Became an Epicenter of the Biking World” or you can watch a YouTube video entitled, Trails Are Rural Economic Drivers that discusses the economic benefits of outdoor recreation in the context of increased tourism, business, and skilled worker attraction…. all of which would make for really good discussion at our upcoming “Meet the Candidates” session at our April 27th Sundays @the Barn.
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