More than 300 people packed Powers Hall Tuesday night, with another 85 joining online, for a Select Board public hearing on the Envision Needham Center project that has generated considerable opposition in recent weeks. Residents and business owners weighed in on the town’s conceptual plan to redesign the downtown streetscape to create a safe, sustainable and vibrant destination.
Parking, traffic flow and safety were the top issues cited by many of the 40 people who spoke during the two-hour meeting, along with concerns about bike lanes and the potential economic impact on businesses. The feedback was heavily negative with a few positive comments, and there were many questions about the proposal as well as skeptical assumptions about outcomes.
At the outset of the meeting the consultants from the Apex engineering and design firm presented the current proposal and discussed the design challenges involved with meeting the three goals of safety and mobility, sustainability and resilience, and beautification and placemaking. The draft concept would narrow Great Plain Avenue through the center and reduce the number of street parking spaces while creating more sidewalk and pedestrian space and adding bike lanes.
How that proposal might affect traffic flow was a significant issue. “I really appreciate the innovation and vision of trying to beautify our town,” said resident Vipul Bhushan, who said he must drive into and through the center for various family needs. “I’m concerned about any solution that would slow the traffic.”
The Envision project was initially slated to pilot the design this summer, but the Select Board this month voted to delay that phase for at least six months. Bhushan urged that the pilot be launched when school is in session. “If it turns out the traffic still flows then I would be happy. But if it doesn’t, then let’s learn about it before it’s too late,” he said.
Several speakers echoed that sentiment and asked about traffic studies. They are planned, said Carys Lustig, director of the Department of Public Works who is overseeing the project. “We’re going to do more analysis prior to the implementation of a pilot looking at the current traffic processing time and what the processing time would look like moving forward,” she said. “I think that’s the concern, that if you eliminate a lane of traffic it will be double the amount of time to get through the downtown. That is not what we believe will happen, and we’ll have more modeling that we’ll be able to present as we get further into the project.”
Plans for bike lanes are a contentious aspect of the design. Business owners have said they see few bicyclists in town. They want the space for their customers to park.
Needham Florist owner Julie Ben-David said that in 30 years “there has not been a single cyclist that has come to my store to buy a vase of flowers. People drive to my store, they do not pedal to my store to buy anything. And the same is true for many of the stores in my block and throughout the center.”
“Our businesses will suffer,” Ben-David said. “We will be out of business. We need parking.”
But cyclists spoke up in support of the bike lanes and said they welcome the safety and mobility they will offer. Kilpatrick Carroll, one of 10 bicyclists who spoke at the meeting, called Envision a detailed and thoughtful plan.
“I spend a lot of time on my bike. I have three young kids and I often ride to town to partake in businesses, ice cream … there are lots of places we eat and patronize,” Carroll said. “Not being able to ride our bikes to town in a safe way, or riding on the sidewalk where we have to push old ladies out of the way, is not a comfortable feeling and I don’t love doing that. But the alternative is riding in the street and I don’t love doing that, either. So I love the idea that the bike lanes offer some safe way for me to get to town without having to push our way through with bikes.”
Another cyclist, Gershon Gacs, said he and his family walk and bike whenever they can, including to restaurants. “I appreciate listening to the business owners and I don’t want this to be an us-vs-them kind of thing. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from local businesses.” He said bikers are a somewhat vulnerable population and asked the Select Board to take a more holistic approach to biking safety throughout the town and not just in the center.
Some raised the question of doing an economic impact study. Business owner Eileen Baker of Proud Mary said small businesses drive the local economy. “While we agree there are improvements that need to be made, it should not be to the detriment of our livelihoods. In this current economic climate of uncertainty, we need your full support not added obstacles.”
Resident Mary Sprogell said she supports the spirit of the plan and offered a different view. “I would just like to challenge the assumption that businesses are going to be hurt by changes in making the town more beautiful, more walkable, more green and going to one lane of traffic,” she said, citing Wellesley as an example. “Drive through Wellesley, which is a thriving center where cars go slowly because it’s only one lane in both directions. It’s actually an inviting community, in my opinion, because there is only one line of traffic going in each direction.”
Others suggested looking at the experiences, pro and con, of neighboring towns that have adopted similar proposals. Concerns were also raised about dedicated turning lanes, traffic being pushed to side streets, safety at crosswalks, adjusting for the effects of snowfall and plowing, and finding a balance between cost and what is actually needed.
The town’s contract with Apex is for nearly $900,000 over the life of the project, which comes from state funds for public way improvements. Select Board Chair Heidi Frail said approximately $80,000 has been spent to date.
After more than two hours of comments, Frail thanked everyone for attending and closed the public hearing. The board then continued its discussion of the project, including further suggestions to the members of the design firm based on the public comments.
“Needham center belongs to everyone. We saw from the huge crowd of people that showed up,” said Select Board member Cathy Dowd. “We don’t have crowds of people like this ever. People really care. And everyone has a stake in it, all the residents, all the businesses. And so I guess the principle that I draw from that is that we really need a very broad support for anything that we do; we need consensus.” She asked the design team to come up with more options to compare with the current proposal to reflect the feedback from the hearing.
Frail agreed the board is looking for consensus and said the town feels there is a lot of potential upside and benefit to the project. “It’s going to be a process, though,” she said. “These things aren’t easy. We’re in the middle of it. It’s uncomfortable. That doesn’t mean that we have to be on different sides,” said Frail. “We’re all going to need to work together.”
The Envision Needham Center committee will continue its work on the project with the Apex design team under Lustig at the DPW. The slots for representatives from the business community on the working group have now been filled by Liz Hay, owner of barre3, and Diane Nanni, manager of Michelson’s Shoes, along with Paula Jacobson, executive director of the YMCA.
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