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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDAC 02/28/2017Downtown Advisory Committee REtENED Minutes ! f' i ' €;;' 3 OFFICE February 28, 2017 2011 AR 26 P 12: Ol Present:l _ Lincoln Todd, True Value Hardware; Nancy Wall, IDC; Neil Rhein, Keep Mansfield t( �D I -S Donnelly, Fales Fuel Reuse Committee; Walter Wilk, Finance Committee; George antb5 )imh4 s ° Pub; Frank DelVecchio, Board of Selectmen; Beth Ashman -Collins, Planning Board Steve Schoonveld, Board of Selectmen; Brian Quinn, Mansfield Cultural Council; William Ross, Town Manager. Call to Order Mr. Ross called the meeting to order at 7 PM. Minutes MOTION to approve the minutes from the January 10, 2017 as drafted (Wall /Quinn). All in favor. PASSES. N Main Street Traffic Pattern / Downtown Parking / Map of Available Parking Mr. Ross shared the downtown parking map indicating where 2 hour parking and commuter parking are allowed. There are zones were residents of local streets or employees of downtown businesses are allowed to park on -street for more than 2 hours. Mr. Ross addressed the question of how much converting N Main to two-way traffic would impact on -street parking. He shared a map showing the North Main Street layout converted to two-way traffic indicating 16 spaces of on -street parking that would need to be eliminated to achieve two- way traffic. The street is 35 feet wide. South of Cottage it is 26.5 feet wide and by Middle Common it is 20 feet wide. Parking lanes require 8 feet of the roadway. Mr. Pantos agreed that the one-way street pattern is confusing, but pointed out that we need parking in downtown whether on street or off. There would need to be a plan to create off-street parking to compensate for lost on -street parking. The consensus of the group was that any plan to convert N Main to two-way traffic would need to include a plan of where to create off street parking to replace lost parking spaces. The Fire Station will be available for a new use in two years and the question was asked if that could create opportunities for parking. The potential for parking is limited as the town does not own the adjacent vacant parcel and the hope is to reuse the Fire Station. Wilk added that the property has lead, asbestos, a collapsing roof, structural issues, and no access for people with disabilities beyond the first floor. Redevelopment for any use will be costly and the land is worth more than the building. Mr. Ross added that there will need to be conditions on any sale of that the property so that it would revert to the town if the developers do not move forward within a designated period of time. The town does not want a repeat of the Paine School that sits vacant and deteriorating 10 years after the town sold it to a private owner. Ms. Ashman suggested there be incentives to keep the facade even if the developer replaces the rest of the building. Mr. Ross says there are some historic preservation credits that he has seen used to preserve facades even when the building itself needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Keeping historic facades has value. The group agreed it would be worth the town spending $10-$15 K to assess what the remediation costs would be. Cultural Council is interested in a cultural use for the Old Fire Station. 1 Downtown Signage / Banners Ms. Wall explained that DPW has a plan to place 30 new (18 x36 inch) banners on light poles. DPW has a plan that spaces the banners and avoids locations were delivery trucks have damaged banners in the past. The banner design was shared with the committee and received positive feedback. These banners are for year-round use, but could be rotated with holiday or event banners as desired. Mr. Ross explained that sufficient funds for banners and si tap the Downtown Improvement Middle Common Beautif downtown facade improvement. The feedback was that the banners should be as large as possible given the height of the light poles and the clearance needed for pedestrians. Pantos finds welcome banners that are targeted for events to be good for marketing, for example welcoming golfers from the PGA Tournament. Ms. ' Ashman said the banners we are proposing are screen printed on durable high quality canvas, but that event banners can be laser printed at lower cost for limited time use. Recurring events like PGA could have banners designed to be reused for many years. Wilk drew the group back saying that purchasing the green Mansfield banners is a quick win that we can do without delay.; Other seasonal banners can be designed and purchased later. MOTION to recommend to the town that we purchase the green banners as designed. (DelVechio/Wilk). Motion PASSES with all in favor. Ms. Ashman shared slides with a design for a directional sign, parking sign, and welcome sign. There was a map showing the locations where signs could be placed at decision points for cars heading toward downtown. 'All the signs use the Mansfield font and greencolor. Pantos particularly liked the two-color look of the parking sign with the darker green. MOTION to recommend to the town that it purchase parking signs using the two -color design for public parking areas (Pantos/Wilk). Passed with all in favor. The groups discussed adding more icons (food, T, shops, gas) for signs at key entry points from the Interstate. Donnelly asked what is different about Mansfield that we can call out. Ms. Ashman said that she hoped to keep the signs clean and uncluttered, but she thinks icons could work if the sign is bigger than 24 x 24 inches. Directional signs placed next to xfinity directional signs should match the size and shape of the xfinity sign. P Mr. Ross shared that getting permission to put up signs near Interstate exits has its own challenges because the town needs permission on state roads like 140. MOTION (Donnelly/Pantos) to replace the directional signs with the new design. With all in favor, the motion PASSED. Walkway to Rumford Avenue Near Fulton Pond Ms. Wall reported that she met with DPW and McNatt from the Historical Society and they have first phase plan with brush clearing, grading, drainage clean-out, stone wall repairs, low level lighting, bollards to prevent vehicles access, and put down gravel and stone dust for the path. There will be directional signs. The town will rebuild Rumford Avenue in 2017 and that creates an opportunity to pave the path. The neighbors are supportive of the project. MOTION (Pantos/Wilk) to endorse the concept PASSED with all in favor. Old Colony Way / Fales Oil Property Mr. Ross reported that clean-up will start this spring. We should get a consultant to a design a phase 1 conceptual design for that section of the bike path and the Fales Property. The consultant would survey and determine if we have enough room for the separated bike path, parking, and travel lanes and park on town property. There are a variety of practical considerations. To what extent can we separate the bike trail from the cars and parking? We need to make sure there is room for dumpsters on private property. The Grain Mill has an agreement that they can use 21 parking spots for residents and we need to preserve that. The parking on town owned property from Park to East is dedicated to those condos and the Housing Authority for resident parking. Once we have a solid plan Mr. Ross said that the town can apply for 80-20 federal -local match for implementation because this project connects a bikeway to transit. MOTION to support hiring a consultant for a feasibility plan from East Street along the bike path to the Train Station (Ashman/Quinn) PASSES with all in favor. WiFi Donnelly met with Town IT Director, Sacha Zlatkova about the WiFi. Zlatkova is willing to cost out Wi-Fi, but asked for more information on the extent of desired wi-fi coverage and the business case for having public wi-fi downtown. Is the area of coverage North Common to South Common or something more limited? The business case will inform,where coverage is important. The idea for wi-fi comes from our Strategic Plan. It is something that has worked well for the Town of Amherst and is a plus for marketing. Mr. Ross will reach out to colleagues at the Town of Amherst to learn about the value of public wi-fi. Wi-fi difficult to pilot because you have to buy the infrastructure. Schoonveld asked if Verizon or Xfinity could be asked to sponsor it. There would be advertising opportunities. Donnelly will follow up. Review IDC Brochure. Ms. Ashman (also a member of the IDC) indicated that the brochure is not print -ready and needs professional graphic design work. Marketing student interns created the draft brochure as well as the IDC web presence. Wilk questioned the purpose of the brochure. Wilk and Donnelly talked about effective business attraction being a person-to-person marketing effort. No brochure from the town can make much difference.