GREENFIELD — After two years on pause, the city has officially launched a “reboot” of its initiative to update the Downtown Greenfield Revitalization Plan.
In a virtual presentation Monday night, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, Community and Economic Development Director MJ Adams, and Hannah Rechtshaffen, chair of Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee, provided the community with a recap on the 2020 initiative and update on what has happened in the time since.
Wedegartner, recalling her time on the Planning Board in the early 2000s when the city began the process of creating a new Master Plan, said she never wanted to create a plan that “sat on a shelf.”
“I wanted something that was a living document that we could refer to and, above all, to the extent we could … implement it,” Wedegartner said at the “2022 Reboot — A Deliberate Downtown: Growing by Design” meeting Monday night. “That gave us the Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee (SGIC).”
In February 2020, just prior to the pandemic’s arrival to Greenfield, the Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee launched a new initiative with a focus on the downtown business district.
“How do we make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists … and ultimately for drivers, because I think we need to factor them in,” Wedegartner said. “We want to make sure, at least as you’re coming into Greenfield, you have a ready and very well-designed Main Street infrastructure.”
It also focuses on improving the open spaces downtown, she added.
“While COVID has been going on … we haven’t just been sitting around wondering what to do next,” she said.
Over the last two years, the city was able to conduct a business and market analysis with the help of a consultant funded by a $90,000 Local Rapid Recovery Plan grant. With that came a dozen recommendations, from looking into how Court Square is used to improving wayfinding and signs.
“Despite the pandemic happening, we had new businesses that were flourishing, starting to pop up in downtown Greenfield,” Adams said, pointing to Plum, Parker on Main, Wild Roots Cafe and Nima’s Nails.
Between the construction of the new fire station and the new Greenfield Public Library, the city is looking at “a very different” Main Street in five to seven years, she said.
“There are a number of things influencing the downtown, and we want to make sure we’re all understanding what was going on and what the timeframe was, so we could do things in a plan-ful way,” Adams said.
The Main Street Improvement Program, funded by state Department of Transportation (MassDOT), for example, will handle surface roadway reconstruction from “curb to curb,” she said, and conversations are ongoing regarding the state of the underground infrastructure that will likely need to be improved to meet “modern demands.”
The Fiske Avenue Pocket Park is moving forward, too, with the project out to bid for reconfiguring the parking to allow for more green space, according to Adams.
Topics that will be considered as the discussion continues include the Hope Street parking lot once it’s no longer in use by the temporary fire station, the Greenfield Armory — the city is trying to determine if it will have a hand in its future — and the reuse of the long-vacant First National Bank on Bank Row.
“The challenge is … the building isn’t considered safe to be occupied,” Adams said of the First National Bank building. “The real challenge is we can’t let these little things (pop-ups, for example) go in there because the building inspector won’t let us use it because it doesn’t meet code.”
And finally, the sale of the former Wilson’s Department Store will significantly shape the future of the downtown.
“There are some active conversations happening about its future and we’ll all keep our fingers crossed that that building moves forward into its next stage of life,” Adams said.
The Sustainable Greenfield Implementation Committee plans to hold its next meeting to discuss the Downtown Greenfield Revitalization Plan on Feb. 24, Adams noted. She said the city hopes to have its plan completed by September.
“This is not a done deal,” she said. “There is not something that is carved in stone in terms of what we’re doing. The idea is this is a conversation that will be going on the next several months.”
For anyone unable to attend the meeting, written comments will be accepted through Feb. 10 via a Google Survey (bit.ly/3L4VHiv).
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne