In Your Opinion: Hamilton Street Development Needs A Plan

By Bill Connell, Somerset.

Tonight (March 11, 2019) the Hamilton Street Advisory Board is having a meeting regarding future development on Hamilton Street . The area has had stagnant change for years.The town tweaked the zoning ordinances in recent years to find the sweet spot that would attract attention from developers. One look at Hamilton Street now you can see they found the right permutation. I have never seen shovels go in the ground so fast, this not a bad thing.

With a change like this people already there will be visually, emotionally, and pragmatically impacted by traffic and parking needs. This should not stop development but should be taken into consideration by the planners. History is littered with examples of developers taking what’s there’s and adding nothing. Some states even charge impact fees.

For years the Hamilton Street board imagined it as a quaint walking street. That vision still may come true but the zoning changes have attracted a more serious kind of money that does not care about that notion. Parking is important, but it’s an amateur argument. I am more interested in the long-term. What is the overall plan?

Maybe an overall plan is impractical, you can only plan one building at a time, but I think it’s a good question to ask. How can you judge one aspect without full context?

Your Thoughts

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