EASTHAMPTON — The city is looking to expand downtown parking options, planning to redesign the former Maple Elementary School lot into 40 to 50 temporary parking spaces.
Interim Mayor Derby said he was walking downtown recently when he had a thought that many residents may have had, “I realized that parking downtown was packed.”
He mentioned the parking lot next to DeGrandpre Jewelers at 54 Cottage St., which for years has been a spot where some people park while visiting downtown. But the lot is privately owned by Whiteley Electric, which recently blocked the spaces off with yellow tape. The owner of the business declined to comment.
Having heard previous comments from community members about limited parking downtown, Derby felt the Maple Street School lot could be a prime site for additional parking.
He met with the Planning Department and building inspector and they agreed it could be transformed into a temporary parking lot with minimal effort at a low cost. Maple School is planned for future redevelopment by Arch Communities LLC of Fairhaven, turning it into affordable apartments beginning in December 2028. Derby felt like this was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the empty lot for the next three years.
“I couldn’t just sit around while this space wasn’t being used …,” he said. “One of the best things about this is being able to identify a need and address that need with a creative, low-cost solution.”
Derby said most of the work will involve painting lines on the blacktop. Plans call for the lot to have a one-way entrance on Chapel Street with traffic exiting onto Maple Street. Besides the lines, the city will rearrange the portable “Jersey” barriers that are currently stored at Maple School, to direct traffic and protect pedestrians near the lot. Additionally, a street light will need to be added to follow code, although Derby added that the vegetation around the Maple lot will reduce light shining to many abutters.
The two larger playground structures at the site have been previously removed, with one remaining smaller playground to be removed once the redesign starts. Derby wanted to keep the remaining structure but said it’s in bad shape and he recently saw trash dispersed around it.
“We would love to keep it for people to use but we don’t know what is going on there and we don’t want kids playing next to an active parking lot,” he said about the playground.
Derby hopes to work with the Parks & Recreation Department to find another location for the playground.
There is no projected timeline for the redesign, but before it begins, the city will inform abutters of the property. Derby said he wants to make sure this will not come as a surprise, but feels it will not have a large impact because the lot will likely not be people’s first choice for downtown parking.
The lot along with the other former elementary school sites are owned by the city. The Maple lot had been previously used for parking after the school closed, but Derby said the design made it difficult for people to find and hopes the new lot — having people drive in from the entrance closer to Cottage Street — will be easier to access.
In 2022, the more than 100-year-old Maple, Center and Pepin elementary schools closed pending the construction of Mountain View School, where Easthampton’s public elementary students now attend. Later that year, the city began looking for contractors to redevelopment the schools, guided by the Elementary School Reuse Committee. According to minutes from the city council’s May 17, 2023 meeting, Arch Communities was selected out of three proposals submitted with a unanimous vote.
The proposal says it will redevelop Maple School into affordable housing and retain the gym and auditorium in the Pepin school.