Arlington is ready to house new manufacturing plants, biopharmaceutical companies and research laboratories, according to a trade group that recently reviewed the town’s infrastructure and zoning laws.
Earlier this month, Arlington was designated a “bronze community” by the nonprofit Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
The Council’s “BioReady” rating system was created in 2008 to help communities court new biotech businesses.
So far, 69 communities have earned at least a bronze designation, which indicates local policies are hospitable for companies in the biotechnology industry seeking to do business in town.
“The ratings really are something of a pathway for communities to follow in positioning themselves as viable biotech and pharmaceutical destinations,” said Peter Abair, the council’s director of economic development.
With many biotech companies relying on government funding or venture capital, time is short to begin showing investors results. This means that achieving a bronze rating requires communities to have an expedient approval process in place, including zoning laws that specifically permit laboratory and manufacturing uses.
“The big issue for a lot of our companies is speed,” Abair said. “They need to get into a laboratory quickly to start their research.”
In Arlington, Town Meeting members have adopted two zoning bylaws allowing laboratory and manufacturing uses in designated areas “as-of-right,” meaning developers aren’t required to receive a special permit or discretionary approval for such a use.
“What that means is it takes one step out of the process,” Abair explained, “so instead of two or four trips to the town hall for a planning board or zoning board of appeals meeting, a potential project can be developed by right, and so you don’t have to go through a special permit process.”
The town must also have a liaison for developers and offer the basic water and sewer infrastructure to support biotech facilities. Manufacturing facilities, for example, can use large amounts of water, and companies often need to treat wastewater through the municipal sewer system.
Achieving the next level of biotech readiness — a “silver community” designation — will require two additional components, according to Abair. One is for the town to have properties available that are actively being marketed for the biotech industry. The Biotechnology Council also recommends communities establish a model where developers are invited to a group meeting with town officials to review all aspects of the approval process at once.
Such a meeting gives developers an overview of the town’s requirements, and some certainty about prospects of the project moving forward, Abair said.
“If I’m a company and I do find a suitable building in Arlington, and I’m working with the owner of the building, and we go together to the town saying we’d like to go forward with this project, it’s an investment,” he said. “We’d like to know what the approvals are. If there’s that one meeting that brings it all together, that’s a great advantage to a project like that.”
Why does being ‘BioReady’ matter?
Compared with other states, Massachusetts has done well courting development from biotechnology companies, according to Abair. The number of biotech jobs available in Massachusetts has doubled in the last decade, he said, and the greater Boston area is home to many significant companies in the industry.
However, Abair said one of the challenges facing the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is a perception, inside and outside of the state, that projects can’t be completed quickly in Massachusetts because they become mired in a lengthy approval process.
The state’s 351 towns have differing zoning laws and development policies.
“There’s a perception among corporate site selectors, who tend to be from Texas and places like that, that the Northeast and the West Coast are [places where it’s] impossible to get projects done,” Abair said.
The Biotechnology Council, which represents 600 companies and organizations involved in the life sciences, serves as an industry advocate when developers are seeking to break ground or rent lab space in Massachusetts.
Abair said the rating system helps the council market the state to potential developers.
“We want to be able to say, in this case, ‘Here are 69 cities and towns in Mass. that are very engaged in this industry. They welcome these projects, and they’ve achieved these levels of readiness,’” he said.
Although Arlington isn’t currently home to any such companies, there is at least one pocket of town that could house new industrial development.
Arlington Redevelopment Board Chairman Bruce Fitzsimmons said land near Dudley Street, from Grove Street to Brattle Street, is zoned for industrial use.
“I think it’s a really good thing for the town just to be receptive to it,” Fitzsimmons said, “and I think it would be a great thing to see somebody who wants to come to the town do something like that.”
To be designated a “gold community” by the Biotechnology Council, a municipality must offer sites or buildings that are pre-permitted for biotech use, or that already house biotech companies.
The Council also offers a “platinum” ranking, which requires communities to adopt national guidelines on DNA research and offer buildings with at least 20,000 square feet of space for biotech use. Communities can also satisfy the second requirement by offering pre-permitted sites that have passed a state environmental review.