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Date: 4/4/2023
AMHERST — Amherst’s Planning Board has begun to look at ways to bring more businesses and residences to East Amherst Village Center. Among its top priorities are keeping and attracting smaller mom-and-pop type shops with reasonable rents and making the area a more walkable community.
Much of the Planning Board’s discussion at its March 29 meeting focused on expanding the commercial zone down Belchertown Road to where Maplewood used to be, thereby allowing more businesses to set up shop in that area.
One of the more immediate items on the board’s to-do list will be looking at the Maplewood lot. The board expressed a strong desire to have a grocery store there which would provide more food access to the local residents.
Another idea was the need for new construction to have commercial retail space on the bottom floor and residential space on the upper floors. Currently, buildings in this area cannot be more than three stories high, so the board may consider increasing the height. This would likely make the buildings more economically feasible for the owners and help them to keep down the rents for the commercial portion.
Chair Douglas Marshall noted that many of the smaller retailers and businesses end up in older buildings because the rent is more affordable. The town will need to be aware of this if new buildings are built, adding that the town needs to focus on having “affordable commercial” areas. However, the town of Amherst also has a small commercial base, he said. Member Andrew MacDougall agreed, adding that the town needs more commercial revenue.
“Allowing more development may run those businesses out of town,” noted Amherst resident Maura Keene.
“It’s important to keep in mind the commercial and retail that we want,” said MacDougall.
Planning Director Christine Brestrup noted that the plans for this area of town really come from as far back as the 1950s when there were different priorities.
“[Now] we’re really trying to make that into a walkable community,” said Brestrup.
While the board agreed that it should continue looking at these changes, it also discussed possible issues with nearby wetlands and maintaining the smaller retailers and shops that now exist in that area.
“We have to be wise about how we do this,” said Karin Winter, Planning Board member.
The Planning Board agreed to continue work on this initiative but did not set a date for further discussion.