HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 94493        FILED ON: 2/11/2010

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 4493

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Ten

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An Act relative to the establishment and certification of cultural and creative 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 53 the following section:-

Section 53A.  The Massachusetts Cultural Council (“the Council”), shall establish criteria and guidelines for state designated cultural and creative districts.  A cultural and creative district shall be a well recognized, labeled, mixed-use, compact area of a city or town in which a high concentration of cultural and creative facilities serves as an anchor.  The goals of a cultural and creative district shall include attracting artists and creative enterprises to a community, encouraging business and job development, establishing tourist destinations, preserving and reusing historic buildings, enhancing property values and fostering local cultural and economic development.  A city or town may create and designate a cultural and creative district subject to certification by the Council.  The Council shall develop a certification program to prepare a city or town to become home to a state designated cultural and creative district by creating an application process and developing qualifying criteria and guidelines.  A cultural and creative district certification shall remain in effect for 10 years following the date of certification.  Two or more cities or counties may apply jointly for certification of a district that extends across a common boundary.  Agencies of the executive branch, constitutional offices and quasi governmental agencies shall identify programs and services that support and enhance the development of cultural and creative districts and assures 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 and creative districts and shall report 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 , the clerk of the senate, and the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development no later than December  1, 2010