Williamstown Studying Major Overhaul for Main Street
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town is working with a Worcester civil engineering firm to redesign Main Street with an eye toward a major project sometime in the next decade.
Community Development Director Andrew Groff was before the Select Board on Monday night to talk about Town Hall's use of a $500,000 state grant to do preliminary design on major improvements to that portion of Route 2 that runs from Water Street west to the Field Park rotary, through the middle of Williams College's campus.
Groff introduced the elected officials to Amanda Bazinet of Worcester's Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, who is helping the town to develop a plan for Main Street that would align with the commonwealth's Complete Streets Program.
"Our project goals, in addition to the increased pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, is just, in general, improving the sightlines and improving the intersection geometry," Bazinet said.
"Complete Streets … has a lot of different facets to it. As Andrew had mentioned, the goal is to improve the safety for all of the roadway users — not just the motorists. We're looking at improving it for pedestrians, bicyclists, anyone using a mobility device. We want to create streets that are safe for all ages and abilities to use. So, while bicyclists will still be allowed, legally, to use the roadway, we want to look at providing a separate bicycle accommodation along the corridor, whether it's a shared use path along both sides of the streets that is a little more accessible to young children or older people with disabilities to look at all transportation options."
One goal is to encourage "active transportation." The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who the town hopes one day might fund the construction, has a "healthy transportation policy," Bazinet said.
That MassDOT funding would come through the Transportation Improvement Program, which is managed locally by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The design work underway now is being done with an eye toward going after TIP funding years down the road.
"The TIP is actually planned in five-year increments," Bazinet said. "Right now, they've already planned from 2027 all the way to 2031. So we'd be looking to get added for 2032, potentially. Funds might become available sooner. No guarantees. Sometimes project schedules slide. But that's the overarching timeline. TIP projects take a really long time to get through the design process and to get funding."
The town is responsible for the design process, which would include opportunities for public feedback, permitting and acquisition of a right-of-way, Bazinet said.
Williamstown already has a substantial right-of-way on both sides of Main Street. Researching the history of that ROW might be a bit tricky.
"The corridor through the college campus is actually the original town green," Groff explained. "It's this very wide corridor here. Amanda said they're starting the research for right-of-way layout. This might be an issue that comes back to the Select Board at some point. This is original to the first land grants in Williamstown, that green layout. They cannot find any documentation of it at the Registry of Deeds. It goes back that far.
"So we might have to do a formal layout process at some point. That's farther down the road. Generally speaking, at least the area we've always agreed upon — you see the sidewalks? That's where we've roughly always said [the ROW ends]."
The agreement in question is with the college, the principal landowner on both sides of Main Street for the area covered in the Complete Streets study. In answer to a question on Monday night, Groff noted that the stairs that carry pedestrians down to Main Street on either side of a crossing near West College are in the town's right-of-way (though likely built by the college). In fact, West College itself, a dorm built in 1790 and the oldest building on campus, is in the town's right-of-way.
The redesign and, potentially, rebuild of Main Street will involve discussions with Williams as a major stakeholder in that stretch of Route 2, Groff said. Ultimately, efforts to make Main Street safer for vehicles and pedestrians alike could involve a consolidation of some of the numerous pedestrian crossings, he told the board at one point.
The Main Street project and emphasis on Complete Streets design is just one of the projects Town Hall is undertaking this year to address goals in the comprehensive plan that was approved in 2023.
Groff used his appearance before the Select Board to update the body on some of those initiatives, which are focused on housing policy, economic development, regional cooperation and parks, in addition to transportation.
The housing policy changes are primarily driven by the Planning Board, which hopes to have a rewrite of the town's subdivision control bylaw in place this fall, Groff said. That revision will come with a recommendation to the Select Board to make changes to its standards for road acceptance. It also will come with some zoning bylaw changes to help the zoning bylaw line up with the subdivision law, he added; those zoning amendments could be ready in time for next May's annual town meeting.
On the economic development front, Groff said the town is going after a Community Planning grant from the state to pay for a study of how form-based codes can be incorporated into zoning, and town hall staff is looking to revive the monthly "town-gown" meetings between college and town officials that were held regularly before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main initiative on the table for the town's parks is a renovation of Broad Brook Park. Following discussions last year with the Community Preservation Committee, the town hired Berkshire Design of Northampton to look at how the park in the White Oaks neighborhood could be refreshed.
Groff said the town heard feedback from the community that indicated a desire to "spruce up" what already is at the park, including a redesigned and relocated playground, improvements to an existing ballfield and a replacement for the current basketball court.
"'We love this park, but it's tired,'" Groff said, summarizing the comments residents provided to the town.
In other business on Monday, the Select Board approved the warrant for the Sept. 1 state primary election, settled on a process to review the town manager and discussed how a goal-setting exercise in the spring could help inform future evaluations and approved several utility pole locations on Oblong Road, Hopper Road, Potter Road and Henderson Road.
Tags: complete streets, Main Street, public parks, Williams College,
