Leaving its options open, the Select Board at its June 10 meeting voted to direct the Envision Needham Center committee and consultants to consider new plans for the downtown revitalization project but held off on a vote to reject a grant for a demonstration pilot that requires bike lanes.
The board also voted, in a split 3-2 decision, to add another member to the 15-member Envision Needham Center working group who would represent a downtown business.
Three parts of the four-point proposal offered by Select Board member Cathy Dowd to guide those working on the Envision project for the town center streetscape were approved unanimously:
- To consider at least three possible plans, to include optimal versions of the current four-lane configuration, as well as a three-lane plan, and a two-lane plan.
- To evaluate each plan for its impact on traffic congestion, parking, bike safety, pedestrian safety, economic vitality, and cost.
- To gather extensive public feedback on each of the plans.
But the board did not agree on Dowd’s first point, to give up the grant that requires a 12-month pilot of a plan that must include bike lanes. The money is a $320,000 federal demonstration grant from the Safe Streets for All program of the US Department of Transportation.
Several board members favored leaving the grant in place until new options for the Envision project are explored.
“Why dispense with the grant right now?” asked board member Kevin Keane. “We don’t know the financial implications of giving up the grant right now.”
“Rejecting the grant now takes it out of consideration for these options if we progress forward with any of these options,” said Chair Heidi Frail.
Dowd disagreed. “I don’t see how we can actually look objectively at the different options when we’ve still committed to that money. It’s just going to stay there as the elephant in the room,” she said. “I do feel like the money has a certain power and momentum.”
Board member Marianne Cooley advocated taking time to gather more data before making a decision.
“I do not want to see us rushing to the grant. I think we need to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” she said. “I don’t know how long we can hold the grant. If we can sit on the grant for a year, by all means sit on the grant for a year.”
Department of Public Works director Carys Lustig, who is overseeing the Envision project, told the board her team is working on finalizing the grant over the coming months. It was unclear whether there would be a penalty for turning it down.
When the board moved to a vote to adopt Dowd’s other three points and leave the grant as is, Dowd reluctantly went along. “I’m still in favor … but understand,” she said. “I hope we can really have an open mind and not be blind to the money.”
The board then discussed a motion to revise the Needham Center working group’s charge and composition. The 15-member committee currently includes three designated representatives from the Needham Center business community, and the motion would add a fourth business representative.
Frail acknowledged that the size of the group is unwieldy but said she was open to it. Keane, who is on the committee, suggested remaking it with a smaller number of seven or eight, while Dowd and Josh Levy supported having more voices.
“I prefer a soft reset,” said Levy. “I feel like basically disbanding the committee and forming a new one is a hard reset and that kind of throws away a lot of the effort that has gone in already. We can work with what we have and I think there’s also benefit in adding someone.”
“I think we need to show that we’re listening and that we want the feedback,” said Dowd, who said she felt they need voices in the room that they didn’t have before. “A committee of 15 is totally unwieldy and I think going forward with new committees we should not have committees of 15. But the difference between 15 and 16 to me is immaterial; it’s unwieldy either way.”
The motion passed with Frail joining Dowd and Levy in favor of the motion to add a committee member while Cooley and Keane voted against. The next meeting of the working group is scheduled for June 25.
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