In Massachusetts, the chief drivers of sprawl include larger home sizes and lots. The Daily Item reports (3/8/04): Despite its gradual land protection progress, Massachusetts still lost more than 202,000 acres of forest, farmland and open space between 1985 and 1999, nearly 90 percent of those 40 acres a day taken for residential construction, while […]
Infill
Natick Hailed as Example of How to Do Smart Growth Well
NSNA is not opposed to all compact growth strategies. What concerns us most is when “smart growth” is cited as an excuse to consume precious downtown greenspace. However, we support efforts to revitalize commercial sites and underused parking lots, such as can be found on King Street. In this vein, MetroWest reports on successful initiatives in […]
The Atlantic Monthly: “A Good Place to Live”
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 […]
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 […]
The New Draft Sustainable Northampton Plan: Balancing Compact Growth Against Taxes, Urban Greenspace, Homeowner Preferences; Come to the November 8 Hearing
The Planning Board will hold a formal public hearing in collaboration with the Sustainable Northampton Steering Committee and City Council on the draft Sustainable Northampton Plan on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 7:00pm in the Cafeteria at Bridge Street School. Cecil Group consultants will hold an informal Open House question and answer session on the […]