Loading...
River Swimming public forum closed_caption 18:12:53 Our first swim area is the Connecticut River Greenway. 18:12:59 We're looking at this dark red line is 91. The skinnier red line is route nine, and you can see kind of running along Route nine is the mill river you can see it very, very faintly there. 18:13:14 The swim areas that we took a look at along the middle river where mains field, non attack damn cooks damn to to swim areas, actually it cooks down, and then one, an orange Damn. 18:13:33 So the first area that we're going to dig into a little deeper is the Connecticut River green when. 18:13:40 So these photos give you a sense of the character, the swim area along the Connecticut, there's a large sandy beach, you can see that the views are pretty expansive. 18:13:53 The river is is fairly wide at this point. 18:13:57 What we're seeing here in the foreground is Barrett Brook, and there's a photo of that, over, over to the right as well. 18:14:07 So now as we as we orient you from site photos to looking at things in plan view. 18:14:15 We just wanted to show you where those photos are approximately looking so we're here's approximately the area of the beach. And this is Barrett broke. 18:14:27 And just to further sort of orient you. 18:14:30 This is 91 North 90 south. Here's Damon road, and the river run condominiums, this is the North Hampton owned property that we're taking a close look at and central to that property is that the North Hampton community rolling facility. 18:14:52 We always like to take a look at land use for more when we're studying a given area and helps us to, to understand how how these different uses are coming together. 18:15:06 So you can see that the Connecticut River is primarily flanked by open space so Connecticut River Greenway. 18:15:16 To the south of the property that we're looking at is an industrial use. And then to the east is residential use the river run condominiums. 18:15:30 And then as we started to look at the swim area it helped us to understand, you know what is the approximate swim area so we've tried to identify that in this reddish pink area on each one of these for each one of these sites. 18:15:45 And then we also tried to identify points of access. So these red dots identify where we understand people are are getting into the water. 18:15:58 We also, it's really important as we're studying these swimming areas and rivers to understand the associated wetlands and buffer areas. So the buffer areas. 18:16:13 The areas identified in light blue are 100 foot buffer areas associated with the rivers and a nearby weapons. 18:16:22 And then the purple dashed line that you see is the riverfront area the 200 foot Riverfront area. And those areas are important because they're regulated by both the city and the state. 18:16:36 And it's important, those areas are regulated because activities in these areas affect the the quality of the water. They affect flooding, and ultimately the integrity of those water bodies so we want to be aware of where they are and try and have a light 18:16:57 touch. 18:16:58 If any touch at all in those areas. 18:17:04 Additionally, we took a close look at circulation for each one of these swim areas. Understanding how people get to these places is really important. 18:17:15 It's an important way of making sure that people can access these places safely and that they're available to different people. So we took a look at the dealer circulation, so at the Connecticut River Greenway you can see there. 18:17:35 There's plenty of parking near the North Hampton community rowing facility and access is off of Fiedler access is off of the room. 18:17:48 And we also took a look at glossary and access and bike access. 18:17:52 We also took a look at glossary and access and bike access. Currently pedestrian access to this property is pretty, pretty limited. 18:17:58 That's also the case of bike access. 18:18:01 But we do believe that in the future with improvements to the streetscape along Damon road that pedestrian and bike access in this area will be will be more likely. 18:18:15 So once you drive here and Park, there's a very clear, walk down to the water. There's also an accessible route that gets you almost down to the water but but not quite. 18:18:28 So that's something that will will be taking a close look at. There's also some informal walks that go from the condominiums down to the water way finding is an important aspect of of safety making people feel safe and also making places feel accessible, 18:18:51 and as of currently as of right now there's, there's limited sort of signage, available at Damon road, you know this this is a private drive that extends past the condominiums, so we finding here is limited. 18:19:07 However, once you do make it over to the parking area. 18:19:11 There's a strong visual connection to the water. So it's really obvious how to get down to the water once you once you make it here, some points of concern or some safety concerns that that we've been made aware of. 18:19:27 Lots of folks uncertain about currents in the Connecticut River concerned about boat wake and water quality. So we've, we've heard those concerns. We also understand that there are concerns about the safety of of some of the informal walkways down to 18:19:47 the informal paths down to the water. 18:19:51 So the second swim area that we took a look at was at Maine's feel these photos give you a sense of the character of means field. So you can see that. 18:20:03 Now we're looking at the mill river, much, much smaller river than the than the Connecticut. 18:20:11 It's relatively shallow here and you can see the stream bank. 18:20:28 As wooded with residential properties just beyond. 18:20:21 And as we orient you to plan you just want to show that those photos were taken approximately this area looking cross the river towards these backyards. 18:20:35 So Mansfield, also a city owned property, and to just give you a better sense of the context we have Riverside Drive, roughly to the, to the north, east, the middle river sort of wraps around the, the southern edge of the property and Mansfield is home 18:21:02 to a baseball, softball fields and volleyball fields and non a DA compliant bathroom. 18:21:09 That is open when when leagues are renting the athletic facilities. 18:21:17 So, those facilities are heavily utilized. we understand. 18:21:23 In the summer, especially weeknights, and then more casually or informally. 18:21:29 On the weekends. 18:21:31 So once again taking a look at land use, you can see that this area is primarily open space. In this instance, it's recreational open space, and then surrounding most of Maine's deal you can see a lot of orange and orange is residential use. 18:21:49 So this area is a, is a big asset to this primarily residential neighborhood. 18:21:59 As we 18:22:05 identify the swimming zone, and the access points. We, as a swimming zone and three different access points, although they're probably another number of other access points that folks use. 18:22:21 And once again, we always like to look at the regulated areas and the buffers to understand where those are located. You can see most of Maine's field falls within that 200 foot Riverfront buffer. 18:22:36 And looking at access so vehicular access people drive in from Riverside Drive to the two main parking areas, and then make their way down to the river. 18:22:49 There's also a bus stop on, not a tuck and pedestrians make their way down to me and feel. 18:23:02 And we also understand that because of the proximity of neighbors, that there's are likely some visual and noise disturbances associated with people swimming in these areas. 18:23:18 We also wanted to point out that the path of the mill refer us to look very different, a long time ago. 18:23:27 The milberger us to actually cut through the middle of main spiel and go straight across. And this area was building. 18:23:36 I believe I was told the, the 1930s or the 1940s and ever since this area has been very prone to flooding. 18:23:44 So investments in this area, we would want to be careful to avoid areas that are prone to flooding and make sure that the city's investments were were resilient and good for a long time. 18:23:59 So the next swimming spot we want to take a look at is that the non dam. 18:24:06 And these photos show both the upper area, the damn and the lower area of the damn. 18:24:15 And once again, we want to orient you to plan view since that's where we did much of our analysis. So, here is the damn. This is the upper level of the damn, the lower level of the damn. 18:24:32 There's Pine Street, not a tuck Street, Florence road, and cross street. 18:24:42 And as we took a look at land use, you can see that there's a significant amount of residential space below residential uses below the swimming area just south. 18:24:58 And you can see that to the north of this one Mary is primarily industrial uses. 18:25:17 Those are open space but they are not owned by the city, they are owned by the utility company, and I don't not not open, not a not officially open to the public. 18:25:27 The swim area that as we understand it is roughly the entire area north of the dam in between, and, between the dam and, and Pine Street, as well as the, the lower part of the dam that extends behind the middle of buildings with access points being on 18:25:53 both sides of the upper portion of the dam. 18:25:53 Once again, we, we always like to take a look at the the buffers and the regulated areas. This is a much more densely populated area so lots, lots of development within those within those buffer areas. 18:26:08 In terms of circulation and how people are getting to this swim area. 18:26:16 Parking is is not readily available on cross street it appears that people do park on cross street but it's relatively narrow minimal shoulder there. 18:26:27 Similarly on Pine Street, and then people are walking, walking down to these access points. 18:26:36 There are a couple of bus stops nearby. And then we assume that there are some people that they take the bus and then walk down to these swim areas. 18:26:48 Additionally, we assume that because these residential properties are within close proximity that if there's a lot of folks parking along cross street and Florence road, and a lot of books swimming in this area that likely does cause some disturbance 18:27:05 to those folks 18:27:09 in terms of way finding there are no signs or anything like that encouraging swimming in this area in fact there are signs saying no trespassing and concrete barriers, blocking vehicles from bowling closer to the river and, and to encourage people to 18:27:33 to stay away safety concerns are significant there is a pretty substantial drop off. 18:27:43 Along the mill River and the dam itself is is certainly a potential safety hazard for swimmers. 18:27:53 The fourth and fifth size so we looked at. We're at the cooks damn both upper and lower portions of cooks down. 18:28:03 So these are photos, looking at the upper and lower portion. So, the upper one on a nice plate summer day, the lower on wintery site visit, We took recently. 18:28:17 You can see that on the upper portion of the dam, much more open, there's some deeper swimming spots, the lower portion, much more Rocky, and there's some little pockets pockets of deeper swimming areas but generally very rocky. 18:28:39 So to orient you to plan view so here is here is cooks Damn, the upper part of the dam is here along the middle river lower part of the dam is here. 18:28:51 This is the North Hampton Country Club along along Main Street and the main street runs runs up and through leads. 18:29:02 And here is his Arch Street. 18:29:08 And as we take a look at land use, you can see that there's a lot of open space around this portion of the mill river, but not not much of it that that is owned by the city of North Hampton. 18:29:23 So this area south of the mill worker owned by the North Country Club in this area to the North Park, you have some conservation area over here. And some of the open space. 18:29:45 Adjacent to that upper swim area is is owned by utility companies. But you can also see that towards the north of the swimming areas, it's a substantial neighborhood of residential properties. 18:29:56 So as we understand it. This one there to swim areas one to the north, one to the south of cooks Dan, and the access points, 18:30:08 we really weren't starting up but we understand that people do come down from our street and come down to swim. They also likely come down by the. 18:30:20 The North Hampton Country Club, and then there's folks that hike the trails over here and jump off the rope swing. 18:30:40 And once again, we're showing. 18:30:52 Understand, 18:30:49 and limited parking and this is extremely narrow the show. 18:30:59 Signal sing. 18:31:02 Hampton Country Club does not want folks that are not members of the country club parking there so so that 18:31:17 think we just lost Emily has connection was unstable. 18:31:24 Allison Do you have her Catherine Do you have out of his way for me to come back on. 18:31:30 I'm back. Can you see me. Yes, I can see you. Maybe we make you a host again. Sorry about that. That's fine. You may want to turn your camera off cut us up some bandwidth. 18:31:42 Sure thing. 18:31:45 Okay, you should be a co host you should put your presentation up. 18:31:50 Okay, I'm going to turn off my video and we'll see if that for. 18:32:03 I'm not able to share my screen 18:32:15 right now. 18:32:16 Okay. 18:32:19 There we go. 18:32:23 Alright thanks everyone for your patience. 18:32:26 So I believe we were talking about circulation cooks Damn. 18:32:32 So, parking is limited, although people still do Park along Arch Street. 18:32:38 I'm sure they also sometimes park at the North Hampton Country Club and and on Water Street make their way to the slum areas. 18:33:00 So bike circulation. We also wanted to look at that. We're very near the bike path. You can see the bike circulations the blue dotted line. So it's very easy to get over from the bike path, over onto Arch Street and make your way down to the swim areas. 18:33:19 We also understand that there's likely visual and sound disturbance to the folks at the North Hampton Country Club as well as some of the residential properties nearby. 18:33:34 In terms of way finding their know clearly marked trails or paths to the swim areas. And you can see in these little exclamation points. 18:33:48 The try the diamond shapes the explanation points are areas of safety concern. So, there are folks that, you know, jump off the rope swing and jump off the data and make their way down this steep slope and those are of course, potentially hazardous. 18:34:08 And finally the last swim area that we looked at the one that's the northern most swim area and our study is at the orange down. 18:34:17 These are some photos, standing on the damn looking towards leads. 18:34:25 And as we orient you to plan view you can see this is the orange Damn, This is the, the, if you're standing on the damn your view would be down back down this way towards leads. 18:34:40 And then this photo is sort of up river, looking at a part of this swim area that has a very different character character attracts slightly different user groups and the than the area, directly adjacent to the, to the damn. 18:34:59 We also wanted to point out with this area that city of North Hampton does not own any of the property along the, the orange dam, or along the mill river in this this area, but we did want to mention that there is a parcel identified by this dashed white 18:35:20 line that is a possible future city own property. 18:35:27 So in terms of land use. 18:35:31 You can see that there's a substantial residential use to the east of the mill river, and to the west, a substantial industrial use. Much of this area is owned by chart pack. 18:35:47 We're showing the area between the bike path and the mill river, as open space, but it's important to note that, despite the fact that these are different colors, green and purple that turf pack owns. 18:36:01 Much of this space on the east side of the mill river as well. 18:36:09 So this one area. 18:36:11 This particular swim area is expansive extends, just south of the dam and further on North, We're showing to swimming access points but we imagine there are a number of access points that are that are informal that people use 18:36:30 buffer areas we wanted to take a look at those understand what falls into those areas you can see that much of the bike path falls into the buffer area, even some of the nearby residential properties. 18:36:47 In terms of access and circulation. 18:36:52 And we understand that folks, arriving by car, have have somewhat limited parking options so parking has been reduced along Grove Avenue, there is some parking along Main Street. 18:37:11 And along reservoir road. So once folks park in this area, they've been make their way to the bike path, and walk down to the river bike access is is really, really great for this particular swim spot because it's right along the bike path. 18:37:27 So if you live in this neighborhood, you can walk or ride your bike don't bike trail connector, and then connect over to the river. You can also come from Florence or North Hampton up the bike path and make your way over to the river. 18:37:43 There's also a bus stop here at the corner, and a future Valley Bike Share stations that will be going in along Main Street, 18:37:55 we've, we've heard that there's significant concerns from neighbors about both visual and noise disturbance from folks using the river. 18:38:11 We've also heard that littering is a significant concern from folks that live nearby. 18:38:19 And then we understand that the orange dam is a significant safety concern with folks, jumping, jumping from it. 18:38:34 So, as we wrap up our site analysis. 18:38:39 I wanted to take this opportunity to see if there any questions about the study overall or about any of the information that we presented. So we'll open it up to questions for a few minutes, and then, if anyone has any specific thoughts about a specific 18:39:03 swim area that they want to share they want to talk more about one of the specific areas. 18:39:08 I'd encourage you to save those comments and questions for the breakout rooms. 18:39:16 See. 18:39:24 So at this point. 18:39:28 If anybody has any questions. Wayne does it work for you if folks, raise their hand to ask questions. 18:39:37 Yes, if you know how to raise your hand there, because there's 77 people on the call it's hard for us to physically see your hand. I see your hand. Raise your hand in reactions are hand raising that would be ideal. 18:39:49 If that doesn't work at the end we're going through quickly and see who's wildly way, crazy. so share, share all studying by her right. 18:40:00 Well, it's actually Cheryl steadily and Robin duty over here on Warner row and leads. 18:40:07 I was just curious if we're going to see another summer of heavy duty police enforcement of parking and signs and all the rigmarole we went through last year, is anybody have any clue on how the North Hampton police department and parking commission are 18:40:23 going to react again this year. 18:40:26 I'm totally lost. 18:40:29 So I don't know the answer to that. I mean, our focus is being. There's a short term problem. 18:40:36 And we're focused on trying to figure out what's, what's the long term solution, so I don't really know in terms of short term needs. Okay, fine, thank you. 18:40:46 Kristen to sign up. 18:40:49 Yeah. Hi, I'm Emily you talked a little bit about the city, possibly gaining ownership of some land by the orange dam. Can you do know anything about what that process looks like or what needs to happen in order for that to take place. 18:41:08 So that's, that's probably me I can talk about that for this city so we've applied for to Community Preservation Act funding that has to be approved first by CPA CPC and then my city council. 18:41:21 We're very much concerned about the maintenance tail, because the city doesn't really have the ability so it's it's our hope if we're funded to make some capital improvements which is part of we're talking about today and breakout groups, but to partner 18:41:47 lead civic and others who maintenance, we probably wouldn't acquire it until unless we're able to work that that that arrangement. So, we're working on it the weather goes for sure we don't know. 18:41:48 So Michael, you're up next. 18:41:51 Yeah. Hey, like a horror Hannah 127 round Hill Road. 18:41:55 You guys had mentioned grants, and I don't know how much of this is sort of grants that are part. Are they state grants are we is are time constraints on using them. 18:42:09 Or we do have a long term view of how much money would be available for any given projects we have in mind. 18:42:15 So for capital projects we have no grants yet, we think we think there's a compelling story and we are optimistic would be funded. But until we finish this process and know what it is we actually want. 18:42:27 We're not in a position to apply for grants. Got it. 18:42:32 Gabby. 18:42:35 Hey everybody, I'm a two part question. 18:42:39 One is, can you speak a little bit to the legality of public access to reverse versus private property. 18:42:47 And then the second is the private property part, what's the liability issues in terms of somebody actually getting hurt at one of these sites. 18:42:56 Thanks. 18:42:58 So I guess I can start. Emily, you can add, if I'm missing something but. 18:43:06 So, you know, the city only controls access to city property. So the half the sites that we own the parcels that are privately owned up to each property owner what they do and they could host the property to prohibit people from coming on, or they can 18:43:19 allow people on the property that that's really up to them. They have every right to ban people in terms of liability Massachusetts, along with every other state in the country has a recreation liability statute, which basically says in shorthand if you 18:43:37 don't do something really stupid. You don't put a piano wire three feet off the ground when there's a TV is gone through to to some really stupid, then you're not responsible for a game and you don't charge, then you're not responsible for interest. 18:43:55 And sorry just to follow up the. 18:43:58 And sorry just to follow up the wind can you just explain that like the river, the water column belongs to the public, but the land belongs to private, can you just speak a little tiny bit to that, you know, I mean he just said if you're canoeing and 18:44:11 not touching the bottom. You have the right to pass over private property but as soon as he touched the land. 18:44:17 That's privately owned. 18:44:24 Emily I don't see any other hands. 18:44:32 I think what we should do is take the next three to five minutes to transition to the breakout rooms. So, hopefully everybody will be patient as we work through this. 18:44:49 So, when will make the breakout rooms available, and most everyone will get to self, select what breakout room they would like to go to. If for some reason you don't see breakout rooms as an option on your, your zoom toolbar. 18:45:12 Don't worry, we will have somebody, send you to the breakout room that you would like to be in 18:45:20 cities. 18:45:34 Okay so, 18:45:33 Emily actually for those are co hosts, do you know where are traces to go to break out. 18:45:48 Can you tell us more about the breakout rooms. 18:45:58 What we're doing there. These breakout rooms for each of the psych six sites. And we're going to go into a little greater detail about the sites asking your questions about them, then we could have a whole group. 18:46:05 So just choose whichever one you're most interested in you're welcome to go to more than one if you want to start at one and help yourself later and Wayne I'm seeing on my screen, there's a button for me to join main field which is the one I'm going to 18:46:21 be facilitating so I assume that would be the same for you. Okay. 18:46:29 Anybody have any questions before we go to rooms. 18:46:36 So you should be able to seeing your screen, your name and choose which other rooms you want to go to and just press join. Next technical river or orange damn whatever you want. 18:46:49 If you can't see that on your screen you have any idea what what's missing. 18:47:00 Um, no. Yeah, I don't see anything either. I don't need it. 19:19:27 Hey Alex. 19:19:32 Hey, done it means field on the other side of the river there was that's really the thing is that still an award fibers that word six there toward five, it's still worth five on that side okay, I was curious about that when I saw it on the map. 19:19:40 Hey Michael. 19:19:50 Are you hosting the meeting right now. 19:19:54 Yeah, so I'm saying you should have you left to some point. 19:20:00 Yes, I was. 19:20:04 Okay, you're back to being focused and it's your meeting I'm like, thank you. 19:20:14 Alright so we won't take much more of everyone's time. 19:20:18 But I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who joined us this evening, I know that the Connecticut River Greenway breakout room we had a really great conversation about things that people really, really like about the space and, and things that 19:20:38 they want to see changed or improved in the future so that was really valuable feedback for us. I hope that everyone got to contribute in the breakout rooms if you didn't, please, definitely make use of the online form. 19:20:53 And if you haven't already please be sure to take our swim area, survey, so that will be up and running for a couple weeks to come. So please, please take advantage of that. 19:21:10 Thank you, Wayne and Sarah and Carolyn for helping facilitate this evening and thanks Allison and and Catherine for your help as well everybody has a great night and we will be in touch, in a couple weeks with recommendations based on all the things we've 19:21:27 we've heard from you. So thank you, Emily, before you sign off Can you put a let people know where the online form is or that will post it on our website. 19:21:42 Maybe that will be helpful because I know I forgot to mention that in the in our room but we had a pretty good participation in our account. Sure. 19:21:54 I don't know if you can put that on your screen. I will put that on my screen just a second. 19:22:34 Hopefully everybody can see. 19:22:39 on the lower right hand corner, unfortunately if you try to click on it it's not going to work. 19:22:47 But if you type this into your browser will take you to a form you can fill out with the questions from the breakout rooms. 19:23:04 us also if people are interested on our website. There is a page on river swimming it we're both the link to the surface there now as we get more data will be populating that site. 19:23:24 Alex to do you want to say something, final tell you raise your hand. 19:23:30 Yeah, just have a question Where can we find the recordings from the other breakout rooms somewhere. 19:23:47 I'm so assuming it all works. 19:23:42 I know my group was recorded assuming they're recorded, it's going to be on that same they'd be a link on that same river swimming site. 19:23:50 It's over there. So, I'm sort of long address to get there but if you go to Northampton ma.gov slash plan. That's the planning and sustainability website. 19:24:04 Click on environment and green ways and click on river swimming. And again right now that's where the survey link is and that's where recordings everything else.