New economic development district on the horizon

Western Connecticut Council of Governments approved several of the final pieces of the application process last week

RIDGEFIELD — Leaders across Western Connecticut are banding together to create anew economic development district that could help the area secure millions of dollars in new federal grants.

The Western Connecticut Council of Governments has been seeking the recognition from the state and federal government for the past three years and approved several of the final pieces of the arduous application process last week.

The group will review those documents with federal officials this month and next and they expect to receive the final stamp of approval for the district sometime next year.

“If we can get a couple of million dollars from those federal grants every year, which I think is very possible for us, that goes a long way for a lot of projects here,” council executive director Francis Pickering said. “That could be any- thing from a business incubator to certain infrastructure to even a sewer project.”

The district will be a subsidiary of sorts to the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, the working group that brings together elected officials from all of the towns from New Milford to Greenwich to plan regional transportation, environmental and economic development projects.

The council’s region includes about 610,000 resi- dents, making it a larger district than many across the country, Pickering said.

More than a quarter of the district also includes an unemployment rate more than 1 percent higher than the national average and per capita income that is only 80 percent of the national average, according to a Council of Governments analysis.

Those statistics mean the area easily qualifies for the additional federal grant opportunities made available to formally recognized economic development districts, Pickering added.

The new district will be overseen by a committee of the Council of Governments made up of a cross-section of leaders, from elected officials to municipal staff to business leaders to residents.

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi will serve as the committee’s chairman and Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe will serve as vice chairman.

The committee will operate publicly, just as other council subgroups do, Marconi and Pickering said. They and Marpe will meet in the coming weeks to establish a list of would-be committee members and try to gather that group for a meeting after the New Year.

Officials on the council have long agreed the district is a no-cost way to open a new potential funding source, which is ever more important as the state faces down more budget debates.

“We’re going to get it, it’s just a matter of jumping through all the hoops,” Pickering said. “Is this going to solve Connecticut’s budget problems? No. But it’s obviously that could be a big help to this region.”