North end of town center looking towards ever present UMass. Kendrick Place back right
The long neglected north end of Amherst town center is making up for lost time.
Governor Patrick, Kendrick Park 10/21/14 (Kendrick Place developers behind him)
Back on October 21st new Senate President Stan Rosenberg and the outgoing Governor Patrick came calling to announce a $1.5 million MassWorks grant to bury unsightly utilities lines along East Pleasant/Triangle Street corridor. Now town officials are requesting Town Meeting approve $100,000 for additional "streetscape improvements."
Jonathan Tucker bottom right presents to the JCPC
Planning Director Jonathan Tucker told the Joint Capital Planning Committee this morning the MassWorks grant did nothing for street level improvements, so this $100K request would add lighting, trash receptacles, benches, bike racks, trees, etc.
The impacted area includes Kendrick Park which has been awaiting a multi-million dollar renovation for a few years now.
This request is sure to fire up NIMBYs who are still peeved about the Kendrick Place development (rear of top photo slightly to right) and the recently approved One East Pleasant Street mixed use project, both of which will bring significant numbers of residents to live in the downtown.
Hence the need for basic window dressing.
4 comments:
Why would NIMBY's object to street lights, benches and trash bins?
Because NIMBYs.
They will say since it makes the area more attractive and more likely for consumers to want to live in Kendrick Place or One East Pleasant, thus the developers should pay for it.
Just like they say the developers should pay an enormous cost for parking, even though their projects are in the Municipal Building District which does not mandate parking.
The place is a business, so why not let them join the BID team and ask BID to take care of this expense?
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