PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland Chamber of Commerce’s latest economic scorecard generally reflected signs of growth for the region, but the leader of the business group said it sees municipal ballot questions to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and impose new zoning restrictions as threats.
Quincy Hentzel, who recently took over as volunteer president of the Portland Community Chamber’s board of directors, said Tuesday that both proposals would be “totally devastating” to the city and the region.
The community chamber is one of the local groups that make up the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Hentzel said the group will work through November to oppose raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour and seeks to defeat an ordinance that would create a new “scenic viewpoint protection zone” that would come with new restrictions on building heights and allow residents to contest projects that block certain views.
She said the wage vote would put further pressure on area employers after the City Council voted to raise the city’s minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, except for tipped workers, starting next year. She said the zoning ordinance, proposed by opponents of the waterfront redevelopment of the Portland Co. Complex, stands to block other projects as well.
The group Portlanders for a Living Wage argues the $10.10 hike is not enough to bring wages in line with the true costs of getting by in Maine’s largest city.
Proponents of the new zoning ordinance said in a statement Tuesday that they have broader concerns about the city’s zoning process and the amount of information provided to date about developer CPB2 LLC’s plans for the site.
The developers unveiled conceptual drawings for the site in late August, but the spokeswoman for the group Save the Soul of Portland, Anne Rand, said the plans aren’t specific enough and her group is concerned the course of the development could change.
The political clash over the two referendum questions comes as the business group saw signs of economic progress for the city in its latest economic scorecard report. That report sets out benchmarks for the city, with metrics ranging from population growth to crime rates to food production.
Of 28 metrics, the latest report found the city “lagging” and “keeping up” in 10 areas each, while “exceeding” benchmarks in eight areas.
Jack Lufkin, vice president of the Portland Community Chamber, said the group’s fifth annual scorecard showed that 2014 represented “in many ways a reversal of what had been an increasingly negative trend, and we saw that nationally as well.”
Many categories reflect Maine’s generally slower recovery from the recession than the national average. Employment measures are one example, with jobs in the city growing faster than the region, state and national average from 2013 to 2014, but lagging far behind the nation from 2010 to 2014.
The mixed bag put goals for employment figures at “keeping up.”
The group also found the Portland area’s total economic output lagging comparable to cities around the country and the national average, while staying ahead of the state average over a 10-year and five-year period. The statewide growth rate outpaced the Portland metro area’s from 2012 to 2013.
Other areas remained strong.
Export values were boosted by the addition of Eimskip to the city’s waterfront, total consumer retail sales for the city outpaced the state and broader region, educational attainment remained far above national and state averages, and property valuation rose at about double the pace of similar cities and the state from 2014 to 2015.
While viewed as a positive for one metric, rising property values also contributed to homes and rentals becoming less affordable in the last year. The estimate of median gross rent as a percentage of household income rose from 31.1 percent to 32.5 percent between 2012 and 2013.
Tourism indicators showed a mixed picture, with the percentage of overnight visitors heading to the Portland area as a primary or secondary destination dropping to 31 percent from 34 percent, airplane passenger arrivals growing more slowly than similar cities and the national average, and restaurant and lodging sales continuing to outpace the region and the state.