Letter: We Need Design Integrity In Downtown Development

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Design Review Board On July 19, 2021

As you discuss the proposed changes in the plan for 11 East Pleasant Street, please consider what is best for current and future generations of our Amherst community.

People have moved here and enjoy living here because it’s been a town that is life-sized, designed to meet neighbors, make people relaxed around attractive architecture, provide the means to get their errands done; and to enjoy the character of a livable New England college town. 

When I looked for colleges with my children, there were college towns that made that college more appealing. It certainly was a positive attribute of downtown Amherst, that attracted me to raise my family here. And as the most appealing college towns have evolved to also attract retirees and transplant, the downtown is, more than ever, needed to be a resource to its community.

So I’m quite concerned that future downtown Amherst, if there are more of the five story monolithic dorms built in our center, will even hurt our beloved main industry, higher education.

If town committees like the Design Review Board hold to the standards that have made Amherst successful, our future is bright as a healthy place to live. But if you don’t- if you allow tiny setbacks, inferior designs, no parking, few places to do business, an inadequate nod to affordability and inclusion, variances galore for the midwestern hedge funds that own these new buildings, and a character-assassinating blandness, we will fail.

11 East Pleasant is the latest incarnation of what 900 people clearly stated they do not want in their town. The town government rejected that call for a pause/ moratorium, to make a plan before changing numerous zoning bylaws, in shockingly random fashion. This is while they admit that six months isn’t nearly long enough to fix our zoning, or that that they will “ever get it right.”

I am urging the Design Review Board to consider what it means to protect the design integrity of your town. Please be a strong board, thinking independently and collaboratively, to uphold the standards of the town you’re serving.

Please push back on the expedience with which so many unexplored changes are being made, so that Amherst gets to grow and improve, not be sold to the highest bidder.

Ira Bryck

Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosted the Western Mass. Business Show on WHMP for 7 years, now coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.