In his campaign for Select Board, Economic Development Chair Paul Joy emphasizes plans for economic growth and support for a “people-centered” budget.
Joy is one of two candidates running for the open seat on the board, filling a vacancy to be left by member Roy Epstein, who decided against running for a third term. Also vying for the role is Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates.
“The main reason why I’m running for Select Board is … this simple question: What am I doing with my time to help the place that has given me an opportunity to be better, and, number two, what am I doing with my time to help my neighbors and the people who live in my community be better as well?”
Joy has also served on the MBTA Communities Advisory Committee, held roles at the Belmont Cooperative Nursery School, and served on the Belmont Soccer Board. Outside of community involvement, he is a consultant with the global market research firm Ducker Carlisle, leading corporate research projects primarily focused on construction.
For Joy, the number one focus of the Select Board should be growing the Belmont economy from a “holistic standpoint.”
“It’s not either/or we’re going to have more economic development or business … or if we’re going to have more housing,” he said. “I think it’s more of both. … I think the number one thing we can do within the town right now is to make it easier to fill empty storefronts and … to allow people to upgrade their homes in a responsible fashion.”
He said that in addition to easing parking requirements, the town needs to consider the recommendations of a market study by RKG Associates, emphasizing the importance of hotel development and hospitality.
“The Economic Development Committee, I think, voted about a year ago to recommend the establishment of hospitality within the zoning bylaw,” he said. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t gotten picked up. I’d certainly like to see a definition, a use table, for both boutique hotel as well as a larger, 100- to 200-room hotel type of development to be written into the zoning bylaw and allowed within the general business as well as along Pleasant Street as well as other areas that Town Meeting is interested in pursuing.”
Finally, he believes the town needs to focus on the Brighton and Blanchard street area, both for tax value and potential new types of development.
On the topic of the budget, Joy said he supported the 2024 override, adding he believes another override will be required-–by his estimation, in November 2026.
“I think our focus should be on people,” he said. “We ought to find ways in order to best serve people—our students, our seniors, and also our public safety officers—and strive to increase efficiency in areas that can be replaced with the utilization of technology.”
In practice, that means ensuring adequate teaching staff in schools and increasing the portion of the budget allocated to the Council on Aging.
And finally, Joy aims to improve efficiency at the twice-monthly Select Board meetings by proposing the inclusion of a consent agenda, grouping similar, likely non-controversial items together for a single vote (members can ask to have individual items removed and discussed separately). To offer more public input, he also proposed bookending public meetings with a public comment period, as was previously implemented at the Economic Development Committee.
