AUBURN — The city is hoping to be among the first in the state to receive Gov. Paul LePage’s business friendly certification.

Auburn Economic Development Director Roland Miller said the city is prepared to file an application with the state Department of Economic and Community to be listed as “Open for Business.”

The deadline for the first round of designations is Friday.

“It’s quite a lengthy, involved application,” Miller said Monday. “It looks at customer service to businesses, and also asks for who is involved in economic development, what boards and committees touches pieces of it and what kinds of marketing programs you have for the area.”

It’s a program Gov. LePage discussed last year and announced in his Jan. 24 State of the State address.

The program creates incentives for towns to keep their regulations in line with the state. In exchange, those communities get a two-year certification, the right to use a Maine “Open for Business” logo and special promotions on the Maine Department of Economic Development website.

Councilors agreed, saying there is no harm in trying for the designation.

“Is this anything other than creating a space on the state’s website, that’s marketing for Auburn?” Councilor Joshua Shea asked. “This is just something we should rubber stamp and say yes.”

A state press release said that those communities may also get special consideration for economic development funding.

Miller said he thinks Auburn’s land use ordinances, review processes work in the city’s favor.

“We’ve taken a whole series of systematic ordinance reviews, always looking at how we can make it simpler, more timely and more predictable,” Miller said. “When I work with developers that have exposure outside of the area, they think our process is quite remarkable.”

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