TSO Discusses Renovation of the North Common
Architect's rendition of a renovated North Common. Photo: amherstma.gov
Report on the Meeting Of The Town Services And Outreach Committee (TSO) (12/17/20)
This joint meeting of the TSO and Town Council was held as a Zoom webinar and was recorded.
Participating
TSO members: Councilors Darcy DuMont, Chair (District 5), Alisa Brewer (at large), Dorothy Pam (District 3), George Ryan (District 3), Evan Ross (District 4)
Other Council members: Lynn Griesemer, President (District 2), Cathy Schoen (District 1), Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large), Steve Schreiber (District 4)
Town Staff: Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Town Planner Christine Brestrup, Superintendent of Public Works Guilford Mooring
Public Comment
Claudia Pazmany , Executive Director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, stated that the North Common redesign aligns with the goals of the Master Plan to encourage vitality in the downtown and village centers
.She said there is already money set aside for the project. A short-term benefit of the plan would be to create jobs and bring people back to Amherst. She said that the project, which calls for a loss of parking spaces, could lead to the construction of a parking garage, which she believes would attract more people to shop here.
Business Improvement District Director Gabrielle Gould stated that the North Common is “unusable” much of the time due to mud and disrepair. Amherst has not done any serious maintenance there since the 1960s, when the Town built the parking lot, she said. She reminded members that Amherst will lose businesses due to COVID and said that they have been working with downtown landlords to bring in new businesses and artisans. A beautiful North Common, she said, would encourage this new vitality.
Preliminary Plans for Renovation
David Ziomek and Christine Brestrup presented several plans for repairing the North Common.
Plans have been in the works since 2013, including an appropriation of $500,000 by Town Meeting as well as $400,000 for repaving the parking lot (from the Transportation Fund). This year, the Community Preservation Act Committee approved $550,000 for it.
In 2018, the Town engaged the landscape architecture firm Weston and Sampson to produce a design. Their design involved removing many existing trees, regrading the area, and creating new paths and places for seating. The parking lot size would be decreased by 11 spaces, and new pavers would promote the use of the area in front of the Town Hall steps as a gathering place. The estimated cost for this plan is $1.9 million. See Plan 1 in the packet.
The Department of Public Works along with a working group composed of staff and representatives of LSSE and the Historic Commission produced a design that is similar but preserves more trees. Estimated cost is $1.5 million. (Plan 2 in the packet).
When the two plans were presented to the Town Council on November 14, several Councilors expressed a desire to eliminate all of the parking spots on the North Common. With this in mind, the staff produced a third design (Plan 3), which eliminates the parking lot, but adds some angle parking on Boltwood and Main Streets. This plan would result in the loss of 18 parking spaces. The cost is not fully worked out, but is thought to be less than $1.5 million.
All three plans eliminate two-way traffic on Boltwood. Traffic would be one-way, north to south.
Plan 3 was preferred by some of the Town Councilors, although several expressed concern about the $400,000 from the Transportation Fund for repaving the parking lot being used even if the parking lot is eliminated. Brewer said she wants to make sure that maintenance funds are allocated as part of the costs. At that, Superintendent of Public Works Guilford Mooring said his department is always being told that no additional maintenance funds are available in the budget, and said that maintenance is the first thing that is cut.
Councilor Cathy Schoen said she worries about the loss of parking; her constituents in North Amherst often cite a lack of parking downtown as the major reason they do not use the downtown. Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke pointed out that the difference between Plan 2 and Plan 3 is only 7 spaces. She said we need a design that serves the Town for many years to come.
Concern about the placement of Valley Bikes and parking for the Farmers’ Market were also raised. Councilors were urged to submit their questions to Councilor Darcy DuMont. She and Councilor Lynn Griesemer will organize and present the questions to the staff. The Councilors also requested a cost estimate for Plan 3.
The topic will be discussed again at the TSO meeting on January 7 or January 28, and then brought before the entire Council.
Nick will be thrilled at the prospect of less parking.
Several spaces remaining in front of Town Hall should be short-term (15-minute limited ) for people with
quick errands in the building.
To quote from the article, summarizing the comments of Claudia Pazmany: “[T]he project, which calls for a loss of parking spaces, could lead to the construction of a parking garage, which she believes would attract more people to shop here.”
In an ideal world, the phrase “a parking garage … would attract more people” is almost surely an oxymoron. But we live in a far-from-ideal world, and the COVID pandemic has made it harder for us die-hard public transportation advocates to argue with a straight face that driving and parking should be banned altogether in Amherst center: even I occasionally drive, and might like to park near Town Hall for a short time — especially for the reason Hilda articulates….
So I ask: Why not take advantage of the slope between Boltwood & South Pleasant, create a beautiful public plaza at the northwest corner of the common, and put the parking there underground? (Maybe, someday, that will serve as the subway platform for the Amherst stop on a rail shuttle from the UMass campus to the Palmer hub for future high-speed passenger-train service between Boston, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven and New York! 😉