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The industrial park in Newburyport is experiencing "growing pains," with deteriorating streets, flooding issues and now that restrictive covenants set up years ago have expired.

Read more: Growing pains for Newburyport’s industrial park

In the mid-1960s the founders of the non-profit development group Newburyport Area Industrial Development Corp. (NAID) bought some raw pasture land on Scotland Road, Parker Street and Graf Road in order to establish an industrial base in a city that was failing.

Forty-five years later, it seems few people are even aware of the importance or just what is in the Lord Timothy Dexter Industrial Park.

But the Park is a critical contributor to Newburyport's revenues. When combined with the adjacent industrial zoned area, the Park is more than 200 acres and 1.5 million square feet of buildings. According to a 2007 economic report, commercial and industrial property taxpayers accounted for about 14 percent of the city’s revenues.

Read more: Industrial park founders marketed 'blue sky'