Patch Election Q&A: Matt Brolley on Question #2

The question:

What are your specific ideas to make the village more business-friendly? How can Montgomery attract more businesses, and keep the ones that are here? What types of businesses would you like to see come to the village?

The times have been tough for a number of years now, and most our local business owners are feeling that pain. The village leadership should take an active role is easing this pain by reviewing and revising the code of ordinances. As our population boomed, codes generally became more and more constricting to our new development. We will set our eyes on the future of our community, and remove anything that doesn’t fit that vision.

As a member of the Village Plan Commission we have recommended changes
to the Landscape Ordinance, the Sign Ordinance and the Site Plan Review process to directly reduce cost to the developer without compromising the long term vision of the Village.

Your village board should be considering an appropriate amount of development incentives to restart development in town. Additionally we need to leverage existing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts on the East side of town, and explore the use of TIF in our downtown and the West side.

Indirectly, the Village should continue to support the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Greater Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. The MEDC is a crucial public / private organization that will entice developers and business owners small and large to locate in our village. Thus, creating local jobs and sales tax revenue. Our new and existing stores must utilize the Montgomery Chamber to introduce and promote their business to area businesses and our residents. Therefore, we are blessed to have two great organizations in town who are working on our behalf, and they must always feel our support.

I believe that if we promote our village successfully, the market itself will determine our deficiencies and balance accordingly. The village must allow this to occur by utilizing the existing Comprehensive Plan and zoning property appropriately. I will say that our residents on the west side have no local options for a sit down family dinner.