EASTHAMPTON – With the opening of a new pre-kindergarten through Grade 8 school expected in the fall of 2021, the city is turning to the public for ideas and input about the future uses of the remaining elementary school properties.
The city’s Planning Department announced Tuesday a $50,000 grant from the state office of environmental affairs to develop a strategic plan for downtown to consider the potential re-uses for Center, Pepin, and Maple Street Schools as well as the current successes and needs of Cottage and Union Streets.
City Planner Jeffrey Bagg said Easthampton will be contributing $15,000 to hire a consultant to hold public meetings, engage residents and business owners, and to prepare a plan based on gathered input and downtown needs assessments.
“The first step is to capture what’s happening right now, whether we’re talking about schools, housing or parking” in the downtown area, Bagg said. “We are looking to gather the existing conditions (of the area), gather people’s thoughts on the school properties, and have a professional consultant deduce them into a plan and approach.”
The consultant will be tasked with taking inventory of the number of parking spaces available downtown as well as breaking down the number of businesses on Union and Cottage streets into percentages of retail, restaurants and services, Bagg said.
“Without an inventory it would be like shooting in the dark,” Bagg said.
The city is expected to choose a consultant by Dec. 20, according to Bagg, who said the consultant’s public outreach strategy will need to be “innovative” and “engaging.”
The city sent out a request for proposals on Monday, and Bagg said he wants to see more than just public meetings from the consultants.
Part of the outreach strategy should include online surveys, a website with conveniently accessible information, and drawing maps and renderings available to the public with the different options, Bagg said.
Among the options might be razing the buildings for more parking, keeping the buildings under city ownership and making the parking lots public, or turning the schools into housing or commercial buildings with private parking, Bagg said.
The grant will formally allow the city to begin discussions with residents and business owners in the spring of 2019, with a report expected by the end of June 2019, according to Bagg.
“We hope to have some concepts to take to the next step – whether that’s funding for designs, cost estimates, or a more in-depth look at the properties,” once the report is done, Bagg said.
“We have public interest in Easthampton and we want to nurture that and make sure we have a plan for the next five to 10 years for what we want to see happen,” Bagg said.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com