NORTHAMPTON — A coalition of leaders affiliated with the city and its major business associations have come together to advocate for the Picture Main Street project, currently on pace to begin construction next year to dramatically remake the city’s downtown.

The $29 million Picture Main Street project envisions reducing traffic to one lane in each direction while adding a bike lane in each direction and expanding sidewalk space through the downtown area. The project also calls for replacing sewer, water and stormwater infrastructure, currently more than 100 years old. The project would also mean a reduction of 57 parking spaces downtown.

The coalition group, known as Pardon Our Progress or POP, is made up of members of the Downtown Northampton Association, including Executive Director Andrea Monson, and board members Bob Fazzi and Randy Krotowski, the latter of whom is also the president of the Parlor Room Collective. Also members of the group are the city’s Director of Planning and Sustainability Carolyn Misch and Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vince Jackson. The POP group is chaired by former City Council president Jim Nash.

All of those members except Jackson were present at the Northampton City Council Committee on Community Resources’ meeting on March 17 to present the group and its various goals for supporting the community throughout the project. Monson told the committee that POP had been meeting for around a year, but it was only recently starting to “aggressively organize.”

“There are several committees within POP that address different parts of the Main Street project,” Monson said. “So you have marketing, you have construction mitigation, you have business assistance, and you have general, local community marketing.”

Monson said the group was working on submitting a survey to members of the business community to gather further feedback on the project.

Krotowski, whose Parlor Room Collective bought and reopened the Iron Horse Music Hall downtown last year, said the group was working on how to improve visitor experiences during the construction period, such as adding additional signs for parking spaces, as well as working with construction crews on mitigation efforts to ensure sections of downtown remain more accessible while other parts are worked on.

“Our goal is that we come out of construction with this beautiful new downtown, with every storefront filled and maybe some new awnings and places the public wants to come and spend time,” Krotowski said. “While it will be awkward while some things are going on, we’ll get as many people in stores, in restaurants and downtown as possible.”

Though strongly advocated by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and the City Council, which passed a resolution in support of the project in 2023, the project is not without its detractors, who remain concerned over whether the design is proper for Northampton and whether it will hurt businesses that are still uneasy from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several of those detractors were in attendance during the community resources meeting, speaking during the meeting’s public comments period. Northampton attorney Jim Winston, who has an office downtown and has voiced opposition to the project in the past, said the city needed to hold a trial run of the project before officially beginning construction.

“Having a trial run for such a huge, extensive project that we’re told is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is really a standard procedure,” Winston said. “Flying full steam ahead without a trial run may be not only reckless and irresponsible, but could be doing a huge disservice to the entire city.”

Bob McGovern, the owner of Packard’s restaurant on Masonic Street, also spoke critically of the plan.

“Losing [almost] 60 parking spaces, that’s absurd,” McGovern said. “It hasn’t been a friendly city to business for a long time. And this project going forward, bad idea.”

Others spoke more positively of the project during public comments, including Alex Bowmnan of Ward 3.

“I am really excited about the safety enhancements that are going to be part of this project,” Bowman said. “Being a cyclist and pedestrian, I’m disappointed that they didn’t go further.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.