While the Sustainable Northampton Plan is under consideration, let’s consider some successful initiatives seen elsewhere. In this Atlantic Monthly article (March 1988), Philip Langdon discusses architects who spurn sprawl and admire characteristics of nineteenth-century American towns, all while acknowledging the preferences of today’s homebuyers and the realities of cars: At first glance, what seems to make Seaside [Florida] special is […]
Author: NorthAssocAdmin
AP: “Empty Houses Home to Crime As Loans Fail”
An undersupply of houses in an area is bad, pushing up prices, but so is an oversupply. Aggressive plans to build housing units merit caution in the face of today’s uncertain demand. This month, AP reports how foreclosures and vacant homes are damaging neighborhoods: As defaults surge on mortgages made to borrowers with spotty credit and adjustable-rate […]
Gazette: Over-55 Condo Project in Amherst Stalled for Lack of Demand
Today’s Gazette reports how a condo project at Hampshire College has stalled for lack of demand. High prices are part of the problem. Veridian Village is asking $350-$385 per square foot. Some of the expense is for green features like bamboo flooring. Other local projects for retirees, however, cost $240-$275. More broadly, developers say the […]
Metro Portland: “Nature in Neighborhoods”
Metropolitan Portland has been grappling with issues of Smart Growth for years. Its Nature in Neighborhoods program recognizes that greenspace is an important amenity for residents: The Portland metropolitan region is set in an exceptional natural landscape. It is surrounded by hills and mountains and laced with rivers and streams. It is a region of national […]
Letter to Gazette: “Increased housing density will hurt Northampton”
Saturdays’ Gazette publishes a letter from Beverly Parker Bingham of Northampton. She expresses concerns about the higher densities sought in the draft Sustainable Northampton Plan: …The Northampton we all wish to sustain is the Northampton that we have now…The Northampton League of Women Voters was the major force behind the creation of our master plan. The […]
Pictures of Northampton Streets at Various Densities
Yesterday we called for the Sustainable Northampton Plan to include pictures so the public can better understand its vision. Northampton planning director Wayne Feiden alerted us to images relating infill and density on the Office of Planning and Development website.Below we have extracted images from OPD’s Density Study Poster (PDF) and Northampton Density Samples (PDF). OPD also presents […]
Grasping the Sustainable Northampton Vision: We Need Pictures
In all the 78 pages of the draft Sustainable Northampton Plan (PDF), there is only a single graphic. It’s the Future Land Use Map, an abstract, top-level view of the city. That’s unfortunate, because without drawings, pictures and illustrations, it’s difficult to envision how the Plan will change the look and feel of Northampton. James Kunstler, […]
Berkeley, California: Cautions on Infill
In what may be a preview of infill controversies in Northampton, many Berkeley residents are protesting plans to build a three-story rooming house with six units in the back yard of an existing single-family home in a residential neighborhood. The Berkeley Daily Planet tells the story: “LeConte Neighbors Protest Proposed Project”, 10/30/07“A three-story accessory building […]
Tailoring Infill and the New Urbanism to Northampton
The North Street Neighborhood Association is not opposed to all infill per se. The “new urbanism” has many appealing features, but three cautions come to mind.First, due to Northampton’s chronic flooding issues, the proportion of impervious surface in a neighborhood should be closely monitored. A front lawn may not be as “useless” as it looks, […]
Video: The 1936 Connecticut River Flood
Historic Northampton hosts a 6 minute 30 second video on the 1936 Connecticut River flood. View it with Windows Media Player. You will see several feet of water swirling around familiar roads and buildings. This flood imposed $400,000 worth of damage on the city at that time (1936 dollars). Cleanup was a time-consuming process. In the ensuing decade, the Army Corps […]