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Date: 2/2/2022
NORTHAMPTON – The Northampton Planning Board conducted a public forum on Jan. 27 to talk about proposed changes in downtown Northampton and Florence Center.
“What we’ve heard and what we’ve seen through various projects, avenues and requests from people throughout the community is that the zoning is stale,” said Carolyn Misch, the assistant director for planning and sustainability. “It’s not meeting the current market demands … retail trends have changed since the last time that we really taken a hard look at zoning, and we want to make sure we keep up with those trends.”
The goal of these proposed zoning changes is to use a form-based code, which would help provide new opportunities for new housing, dining, and other retail or business opportunities throughout those two areas. “We know that one big block of zoning doesn’t necessarily address the individual characteristics of different parts of these downtowns,” said Misch. “And also, there have been some projects that have been completed that aren’t quite consistent with what people feel is appropriate for downtown.”
Currently, the zoning in the downtown section of Florence is the same as other highway business districts, even though the makeup of those sections is different. Because of this, Misch said she heard that people want zoning in the Florence Center to reflect its character and sense of place.
A form-based code, according to Misch, includes standards that are used to incorporate or merge rules about design and use into one or a few parts of documents. The code is available to differentiate between different sections of downtown, in both the private business side and public street interface.
Having this set of rules would make it easier to understand for people who are applying for projects, and would also make processes with the Planning Board easier. “The goals are really to create through pictures and graphics what the vision for that buildout would be for any new spaces or buildings that are created to enhance pedestrian space…and essentially create a very clear path for applicants going forward,” said Misch.
Specifically, in the Florence district, the proposed changes would take the two business districts and reconfigure them, so they are more uniquely tailored to different parts of Florence Center-all while maintaining those two main business districts.
The downtown Northampton proposal, meanwhile, is to take four of the existing commercial zoning districts and create three that would then have differentiated rules about form and layout within those areas. Central business would be the umbrella district, but the area would also have a central business core, a central business gateway, and a central business side street district.
“For the core, the goal is really to bring the focus of the existing design guidelines that have been in place for 20 years down to the core side of Main Street, a little bit of King Street and Pleasant Street, down to the bike path,” said Misch. The goal for the gateway district, meanwhile, would be to create a set of standards that are similar to the other districts but also unique to the increased amount of green space between sidewalks and buildings in that particular area.
Under the new form-based code, multifamily housing would be allowed on more side streets, and first-floor housing could be added to existing industrial-zoned structures like the former mill building.
The city has been working on this project for the last four years and started the path in 2018 by hiring Dodson & Flinker to assist the city throughout the entire process by conducting different focus groups throughout that time period, as well as other business and property owner meetings.
The public at the forum, for the most part, were supportive of these proposed new changes, but there were a couple comments suggesting the city allow these ordinances to be less car-centric and allow for more areas where transportation by bike or other environmentally friendly modes are utilized.
“There’s a lot of underutilized commercial space that would immediately turn to housing, which is fantastic,” said Planning Board member David Whitehill, referring to the new proposal. “I think this is great progress.”
The Planning Board plans to host additional public forums in the future, and will present a draft to the City Council sometime in March. For more information on the specific proposal, visit http://archive.northamptonma.gov/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=701308&dbid=0&repo=CityOfNorthampton&cr=1.
Also, during the meeting, Wayne Feiden, the city’s director of planning & sustainability, gave updates on the former Hampshire Probate and Family Court, which is a state-owned building on 33 King St. In September 2021, the City Council passed an order that authorizes the mayor to accept the property as a surplus from the state and enter into a profit-sharing agreement for the eventual sale.
The goal right now, according to Feiden, is to figure out what conditions the city would want to put into this property before making the sale. For example, it will probably have to be a fossil fuel free building. “There’s certain things that we’ll probably have to do that are musts,” said Feiden.
The project has been delayed and the city cannot take title of the property until they understand the hazardous materials within the building. Their last site assessment found that, at one point in the past, there were four underground gas tanks. For the next two to three months, the city plans to do more research on what happened to those tanks. Depending on what they find in the environmental site assessment, the city will most likely bring more updates on the project back in late spring or early summer.