Loading...
Northampton Final Next Steps Memo Technical Assistance Tool: Green Streets Northampton, MA – March 29th and 30th, 2012 To: Wayne Feiden, Doug McDonald, and Sarah LaValley, City of Northampton, MA Cc: Kevin Nelson, US EPAClark Wilson, US EPA From: Doug Bisson, HDR Date: April 2, 2012 Re: Next Steps for Green Streets Strategy Assistance in Northampton, Massachusetts Key Issues Addressed during Technical Assistance Workshop The Green Streets Technical Assistance Workshop addressed a number of items. The workshop started out with a presentation titled Green Streets 101. The purpose of this presentation was to get all participants “up to speed” on Green Streets, their key principles, implementation tools, case studies, and challenges. The session was attended by approximately 30 – 35 participants. It was followed the following morning by a session titled Green Streets Report Card. This session reviewed the results of the pre-workshop Green Streets Audit, and identified Northampton’s Green Streets efforts to date, which are more advanced than many of Northampton’s peer communities. Armed with this knowledge, a follow-on session titled Green Streets Implementation was held. This session examined four potential sites within the community to implement Green Street solutions, and ideas/concepts were discussed for each of the locations. A Green Streets Summary session wrapped up the workshop. This session focused on steps moving forward, including operation and maintenance and funding opportunities. Key issues addressed throughout the workshop centered onimplementation (funding, technical approaches, and locations), building community and political support, and on-going operations and maintenance. Targeted Policies/Ideas/Strategies Discussed during the Workshop Several policies, ideas, and strategies that would help advance Green Streets were discussed during the workshop. These are discussed in the order of their workshop session: Green Streets 101 Presentation: Participants wanted to build on Northampton’s successful complete streets policy and enhance the City’s tree canopy. Continued education of key City staff and community stakeholders needs to occur, and would greatly benefit the implementation of Green Streets. Due to narrow right-of-ways, not everything will be able to occur along every street and allocations will need to be made based on priorities. Green Streets Report Card: The City of Northampton has made good progress to date with implementing Green Streets. However, full-scale implementation of GreenStreets does not occur over night. The City should continue to encourage small projects. Over time, these smaller projects will help to educate policy makers and the general public, and open the door for further substantive efforts. The City is trying to manage their budget during these times of austerity. This “start small” approach that the City has been taking to date makes good fiscal and political sense, and will build continued support. By starting small and building successful projects over time, the City is making a case to get aheadoffuture requirements, which are expected to be more stringent in requiring Low Impact Development where feasible. Green Streets Implementation: Several sites within the City were identified for potential future Green Streets implementation. These sites provided for a range of scenarios (urban, suburban, retrofit, etc.) and a variety of implementation tools were examined for each site. Main Street–This site, located in Downtown Northampton, has limited room for green streets implementation due to its dense, urban setting. In order to be successful, the Green Street tool(s) for the site will need to address a variety of goals and serve more than one purpose, i.e. stormwater detention with pavers above to accommodate heavy foot traffic. Moser Street – This site is located in a new Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) subdivision on the edge of town. The purpose of choosing this site was two-fold: to look at what could have been done differently to address stormwater, and to look at retrofit and/or options for inclusion of green streets implementation tools in future phases of development. North Street – This is an example of a predominantly residential street that carries heavy local and regional traffic at peak times, including trucks that serve the adjacent industrial park. This corridor also has limited right-of-way in certain locations, making Green Streets implementation a challenge. South Street – This street corridor has many competing interests, including a narrow right of way, heavy traffic, multiple residential curb cuts, and on-street bike lanes. Addressing the competing goals will be difficult, and will need to be based on agreed-to priorities. Summary Presentation: The Summary Presentation recapped the workshop and discussed “next steps” for moving forward with Green Streets implementation tools. Key policies, ideas, and strategies discussed included the following: Green Streets Tools, Operations, and Maintenance – Start simpleand place in locations that will not create maintenance issues. Funding – In this time of limited budgets, the funding of Green Streets implementation tools (capital, operation and maintenance, etc.) will be a challenge. Creative funding solutions, such as incorporating simple and inexpensive green streets implementation tools with scheduled minor roadway improvements, or combining a variety of funding sources for one project, will be necessary. Regulatory –Northampton should work within the regulatory framework to provide incentives for Green Street Implementation. Funding–Continued Green Streets implementation will require creative funding options by the City of Northampton. Actions to Address Strategies Note: Actions are options that the community can consider; these are not requirements and are completely up to the community to determine the viability of each idea. Based on gathered information and discussions held during the Green Streets Technical Assistance Workshop, seven follow-on actions are identified below: Build on Northampton’s successful complete streets policy and enhance the City’s tree canopy. Action: Future Green Streets initiatives should build on early successes and theexisting support of established advocacy groups, such as the tree advocates that attended the workshop. Source Document/Material to Change: None Responsible person/department: Planning Department and Public Works Department Continue educating key City staff and community stakeholders Action: Update the Green Streets Workshop PowerPoint Presentation to include more basic information for the lay public. Action: Conduct periodic Green Streets 101 public presentations. Source Document/Material to Change: Green Streets Workshop PowerPoint Presentation Responsible person/department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff for continued education and updates to the PowerPoint presentation Build on the City’s existing progress to date with continued small steps forward in Green Streets implementation. Action: Continue to develop and maintain small, easily implemented Green Streets projects. Source Document/Material to Change: Prioritized Green Streets project list Responsible person/department: Planning Department, Public Works Department, Transportation staff Identify key corridors, evaluate Green Street feasibility, and begin planning/design of those key projects. Below is a description of next steps for Main Street, Moser Street, North Street, and South Street, which were identified during the workshop as priorities: Main Street – This site, located in Downtown Northampton, has limited room for green streets implementation due to its dense, urban setting. In order to be successful, the Green Street tool(s) for the site will need to address a variety of goals and serve more than one purpose, i.e. stormwater detention with pavers above to accommodate heavy foot traffic. Excess right-of-way exists in front of City Hall. Action: Extend the curb in this location (in front of City Hall) and install a rain garden in the reclaimed space. Action: Close the parking lot access alley in front of City Hall to vehicular traffic and re-pave with permeable pavers. Source Document/Material to Change: N/A Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff Moser Street – This site is located in a new Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) subdivision on the edge of town. The purpose of choosing this site was two-fold: to look at what could have been done differently to address stormwater, and to look at retrofit and/or options for inclusion of green streets implementation tools in future phases of development. Action: In future phases, or on retrofit sites, install Green Street solutions (i.e. bio swales, rain gardens) within the parkway strip. Action: Where low traffic volumes permit, convert existing streets to shared streets, employing curb-less gutters, filter strips and permeable paving. Source Document/Material to Change: N/A Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff North Street – This is an example of a predominantly residential street that carries heavy local and regional traffic at peak times, including trucks that serve the adjacent industrial park. This corridor also has limited right-of-way in certain locations, making Green Streets implementation a challenge. Action: Excess right of way exists at the Market Street intersection. Extend the curb in this location and install a rain garden in the reclaimed space. Action: Eliminate the curb adjacent to the cemetery and install a vegetated filter strip or vegetated swale. Curb extensions/bump outs with rain gardens and sidewalk crossings could also be placed at intersections. Source Document/Material to Change: N/A Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff South Street – This street corridor has many competing interests, including a narrow right of way, heavy traffic, multiple residential curb cuts, and on-street bike lanes. Addressing the competing goals will be difficult, and will need to be based on agreed-to priorities. Action: Evaluate the possibility of using combination curb extensions/rain gardens at key locations. Source Document/Material to Change: N/A Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff Develop Operations and Maintenancestrategies Action: Strategically locate Green Streets solutions, such as permeable paving on sidewalks/alleys that do not get sanded vs. on City streets, so that expensive maintenance equipment (i.e. vacuums) does not have to be purchased early on. Action: Do not “over-engineer” initial Green Streets solutions – go simple with bio-swales and vegetated filter strips in an effort to reduce long-term maintenance requirements. Action: Consider “pooling” maintenance equipment with other jurisdictions in order to spread the cost. Maintenance schedules considering multiple jurisdictions will have to be established accordingly. Action: Select Green Streets solutions that do not require the upfront purchase of costly maintenance equipment (i.e. shovel sediment from catch areas vs. vacuuming). Source Document/Material to Change: N/A Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff Work within the regulatory framework to provide incentives for Green Street Implementation. Action: Revise the City’s subdivision regulations to provide alternative paths for permit compliance, including routes that incentivize Green Streets implementation. Action: The City cannot require anything from private developers that the City does not do itself. Therefore, the City may considercreating a list of Green Streets implementation tools (permeable pavers, rain gardens, shared streets, etc.) that it desires, begin installing them, and then publicize them so that the development community can learn from those public demonstration projects. Action: Install Green Streets implementation tools now, as feasible, to keep the community positioned well ahead of any real or perceived impacts resulting from more stringent regulatory requirements that are anticipated in the future. Source Document/Material to Change: Subdivision Ordinance Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff Identify creative funding options by the City of Northampton. Action: Establish a storm water utility for Green Streets implementation. This would require an upfront education campaign, and would allow Northampton to achieve its community goals. Source Document/Material to Change: Create new utility funding mechanism Responsible person/Department: Planning Department and Public Works Department staff Timeframe for Accomplishing Actions In line with Northampton’s current approach, most of these actions can be accomplished immediately. The Green Streets implementation concepts could be phased in as funding permits, while the establishment of a storm water utility will take time and require up-front community education. Implementation Coordination Northampton’s Planning Department and Public Works Department staff will provide the bulk of the coordination necessary to implement the recommended Green Streets solutions. This includes administrative, education, design, construction, and long-term operation and maintenance of constructed Green Streets projects.