Almost every interchange as you go up there has an industrial park. As their employers nestled close to the highway to provide easy access, employees fanned out into the towns along the highway. But, Guimond said, that growth was not on both sides of the interstate. The growth has been coming down and toward our region. So employees of the high-tech firms spreading along Route 495 looked to the south, Guimond said.
Prices are lower and the land is more available.
So, many communities between Route 495 and the Rhode Island border saw growth rates several times the state average. Guimond noted one Bristol County community whose explosive growth cannot be entirely attributed to the high-tech boom. Berkley, a town on the east bank of the Taunton River, north of Fall River and Freetown, saw an increase of 35.7 percent. Guimond said this is because, until recently, Berkley had no zoning laws to regulate land use. This made land in Berkley more attractive to developers, who could build more houses per acre there than in other communities.