ATHOL — Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith Tuesday night brought selectmen up to speed on two grants; one which the town has received, another soon to be sent off for consideration.
First, Smith told the board he had recently attended an event in Topsfield, where he received a $15,000 Massachusetts Downtown Initiative grant award from Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Janelle Chan. The cash will be used to for consultant services to develop Athol’s Downtown Parking Management Plan.
Smith said the work will “not just look at the parking meter situation, but really kind of look at the whole supply and demand of parking, of the private/public partnership working with the savings bank. So, it’s a broad study and we’re going to get this going and come forward with any recommendations that come out of the study. So, stay tuned for more public involvement, too, during the process.”
Next on Smith’s agenda was a discussion of the town’s Downtown Local Technical Assistance grant, which will be submitted to DCHD.
“It’s money that provided from the state to the regional planning agency,” said Smith, “which is Montachusett Regional Planning Commission territory. The town has made use of this program before. Working with Planning Board, we were actually able to get a couple of Master Plan chapters done in the last couple of years; a draft economic development chapter, a draft transportation chapter. So, there’s different chapters that might be eligible under this program.”
Smith said he spoke with John Hume, manager from MRPC, about the program “and we felt the most logical chapter to tackle next would be Historic and Scenic Resources. The Planning Board actually voted to support this project. I know the Historical Commission may be interested in some sort of downtown historic district, National Register district.”
“Scenic resources certainly are important with all the solar projects coming before the board and in my office lately,” said Smith, “so I kind of wanted to go for that next.”
Smith also told selectmen would like to use DLTA grant funds for an urban renewal planning program. The project would be to “determine need and what is appropriate in establishing an urban renewal entity in accordance with” state law.
“I know there have been some discussions at Downtown Vitality Committee meetings over the past year…about certain blocks,” said Smith. “There are a lot of vacant buildings. What can we do with them?”
“At least this is just a first step,” he continued. “Maybe it’s not the appropriate deal for downtown Athol. But, I thought by having this report and assessment done we could inform the downtown committee and selectmen could see what we want to do along this avenue.”
The Planning Board supported this planning project and the Historic and Scenic Resources chapter, and the selectmen voted unanimously to support the proposed DLTA grant application.