HOUSE DOCKET, NO.         FILED ON: 3/20/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

PRESENTED BY:

Steven M. Walsh

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
                Court assembled:

                The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the passage of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to the establishment of cultural districts.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

Steven M. Walsh

11th Essex

Stanley C. Rosenberg

Hampshire and Franklin

Kevin Aguiar

7th Bristol

Christine E. Canavan

10th Plymouth

Stephen L. DiNatale

3rd Worcester

Ann-Margaret Ferrante

5th Essex

Susan Williams Gifford

2nd Plymouth

Mary E. Grant

6th Essex

Denis E. Guyer

2nd Berkshire

Kate Hogan

3rd Middlesex

John D. Keenan

7th Essex

Kay Khan

11th Middlesex

Timothy Madden

Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket

Elizabeth A. Malia

11th Suffolk

James J. O'Day

14th Worcester District

Sarah K. Peake

4th Barnstable

William Smitty Pignatelli

4th Berkshire

Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr.

12th Hampden

Robert L. Rice, Jr.

2nd Worcester

Byron Rushing

9th Suffolk

Todd M. Smola

1st Hampden

Robert P. Spellane

13th Worcester

Ellen Story

3rd Hampshire

David B. Sullivan

6th Bristol

David M. Torrisi

14th Essex

Brian P. Wallace

4th Suffolk

Alice K. Wolf

25th Middlesex

Benjamin B. Downing

Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin

Jennifer L. Flanagan

Worcester and Middlesex

John A. Hart, Jr.

First Suffolk

Richard T. Moore

Worcester and Norfolk

Thomas M. McGee

Third Essex and Middlesex

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand and Nine

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An Act relative to the establishment of cultural districts.



                Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.  Chapter 10 of the General Laws  is hereby amended by inserting after section 52 the following section:-

            Section 52A. The council shall establish criteria and guidelines for state designated cultural districts.  A cultural district shall be a well recognized, labeled, mixed-use, compact area of a city or town in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as an anchor.  The goals of a cultural district shall include attracting artists and cultural enterprises to a community, encouraging business and job development, establishing tourist destinations, preserving and reusing historic buildings, enhancing property values and fostering local cultural development.  The Council shall develop a program to prepare a city or town to became home to a state designated cultural district, create an application process and develop qualifying criteria and guidelines.  Agencies of the executive branch, constitutional offices and quasi governmental agencies shall identify programs and services that support and enhance the development of cultural districts and assure that they are accessible to such districts.

SECTION 2.  The council shall in cooperation with the executive branch, constitutional offices, quasi governmental agencies and the joint committee on tourism, arts and cultural development identify additional and existing state incentives and resources that will enhance state designated cultural districts and shall reports their findings together with drafts of legislation as may be necessary to carry its recommendations into effect by filing same with the clerk of the house of representatives no later than January 1, 2010.         

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