TOWN COUNCIL FOR NOOBS: UPLIFTING DOWNTOWN

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING (1-27-20) 

The big issue was improvement projects for downtown.

Town officials Dave Ziomek, Gabrielle Gould, and Geoff Kravitz presented three linked projects designed to improve downtown at the regular Town Council meeting on January 27. Dubbed “Destination Amherst,” these projects include a performing arts band shell, improvements to the North Common, and a new parking garage. 

Gould, the energetic new Executive Director of the Business Improvement District, began by presenting her plan to build a performing arts band shell on the Town Common. To accomplish this project, the BID has formed the Downtown Amherst Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to raise $1 million to build, help program, and maintain a permanent outdoor performance space on the Town Common. The BID is currently working on a design with Naomi Darling and Ray Mann, winners of the BID’s 2018 band shell design competition. The proposed location for this project is on the main Common, across from the Inn on Boltwood and the Porter House, where the BID had a temporary stage last summer.

Assistant Town Manager Ziomek brought back a complementary plan for improving the North Common that had been presented to the Selectboard in 2018, at an estimated cost of $1million. The Town’s currently preferred plan is now estimated at $2 million and calls for renovating the North Common’s infrastructure to fight erosion, as well as adding new features such as a seating area and public art, and eliminating 11 parking spaces. 

Kravitz, who will soon leave his post as Amherst’s Economic Development Director to become Sunderland’s Town Administrator, addressed the potential loss of parking. To lighten the potentially contentious discussion, he plopped a kid’s toy garage on the speaker’s table, eliciting laughs from all present. He said that the recent parking study shows that at peak times downtown is at 86 percent parking capacity, which, he said, “feels more like 100 percent.” To remedy this perception problem, he proposed that a multi-story parking lot be built by private developers, with the process overseen by a tightly controlled procurement process. He noted that such a garage would require a zoning change—and that it needn’t be designed by Fisher-Price.

Public comments focused on parking. Opinion was divided among people whose businesses abut the Common. David Mazor, owner of Fresh Side’s building, and Carol Johnson, Executive Director of the Amherst Cinema, were against the idea of eliminating any parking, including on the Common. Sharon Provinelli, co-owner of A.J. Hastings, and Bob Lowery, owner of Bueno y Sano, called for eliminating all of the parking on the Common as a means of beautifying downtown. Leslie Eric, whose parents run a business in the area, said that no parking should be eliminated until a garage or other replacements are built.

Councilors focused on the cost of these projects. A number of councilors said that these projects will have to be considered alongside the other capital needs of the town, particularly other big, up-coming construction projects. Councilor At-Large Alisa Brewer raised the issue of maintenance for a band shell as a potential future expense, even if the BID raises the initial construction money.

Councilor At-Large Mandi Jo Hanneke also questioned the role that the BID will play in the programming for the band shell. She pointed out that it will be built on public land overseen by the Council in the public interest. While the BID might raise money to build it, she questioned who the controlling entity would be, the BID or the Town. As Chair of the Public Art Commission, I agree that a public entity should have input into the band shell’s programming to ensure that it serves both the public and the local and regional art community.

The presenters emphasized that this is the beginning of a conversation on these projects, and they will work together and with the town to move them forward. Gould said she would return to the council with a more developed plan by late February or early March.