LYNN — The four mayoral candidates on Wednesday said tax incentives are proven methods for attracting developers to build in the city — as long as they don’t add to the tax-raising burden already shouldered by residents.
In what figures to be the first of many mayoral forums stretching into the fall, candidates Darren Cyr, Keith Lee, Jared Nicholson and Michael Satterwhite met with the Lynn Business Partnership on Wednesday.
The forum was held under a tent in the newly-created Central Square park so close to the overhead commuter rail tracks that train noise occasionally drowned out candidates’ replies.
The candidates said that tax incentives, including incremental reductions in property tax payments in the first several years after a project is completed, helped convince Procopio Companies to build its Caldwell highrise between Munroe and Oxford streets.
“Since then, we’ve attracted four more developers,” said City Council President Cyr.
Nicholson, a School Committee member, said an incentive’s ability to attract a developer must be balanced against the need for tax revenue to support city services. Satterwhite, who is also on the committee, agreed.
“We must be strong relative to community benefit,” Satterwhite said.
Youth-oriented nonprofit founder Lee said incentives can be used to strengthen local businesses, adding that any incentive negotiations between developers and city officials must be open to public review.
The four praised the city’s Planning Department as a valuable municipal asset, with Nicholson suggesting planners can push forward efforts to improve local housing opportunities.
“We want to make sure it develops to the point where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” he said.
The candidates also emphasized the role building Lynn Vocational Technical Institute trade education plays in Lynn’s long-term job creation opportunities.
“It’s a relationship we need to grow,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson said city officials should strengthen ties with General Electric executives responsible for employment and product decisions at the West Lynn aircraft engine plant.
Satterwhite said city leaders need to discuss ways to attract and retain high-paying jobs in Lynn. Citing U.S. Census information, he said 8,000 of the 25,000 people who work in the city are Lynn residents and two-thirds of that 8,000 earn $1,250 a month or less.
Lee said preparing Lynn youth for next-generation jobs requires expanding building trade education designed to teach kids to “think out of the box.” Nicholson said opportunities to link the expanding life sciences industry to manufacturing exists in Lynn.
“There is an opportunity to find jobs in that sector,” Nicholson said.
Satterwhite said the city needs to promote collaborative opportunities between nonprofit organizations and the city.
LBP Chairman Gordon R. Hall (also a director of Essex Media Group, which owns the Item) noted the candidates’ focus on public school improvements, with Nicholson stressing the short-term need for more classroom space.
“All four candidates put strong emphasis on education,” said Hall, who is president of the Hall Company.
Nicholson also said the city and state must work together to craft a more equitable funding formula tailored to meet Lynn’s education needs. Cyr stressed new school construction as a priority.
Although the new Frederick Douglass Park is not yet open to the public — and is still awaiting the arrival of a statue commemorating the legendary former Lynn resident — the park is at once an oasis, with a lawn, a small performance stage and meeting place in Central Square.
The panoramic view from the park encompasses Central Avenue and Mount Vernon streets. The 60-foot-high mural looming over the park, created by artists Yetti Frenkel, David Fichter and Josua Winer, includes this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow verse:
“Borne on the evening wind
across the crimson twilight,
O’er land and sea they rise and fall
O Bells of Lynn.”