By James Lomuscio
With its Phase I, town wide, baseline traffic and parking study completed, Westport’s Downtown Steering Committee (DSC) met today to kick off Phase II focusing on infrastructure and aesthetic improvements in the wake of current and planned development downtown.
Dewey Loselle (l), chair of the Downtown Steering Committee, said the emphasis today was about getting community involvement, (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“We have a lot of opportunities to build on something that’s good and to make it great,” said Dewey Loselle, chairman of the 14-member DSC.
In addition to committee members, present at the meeting were Mark Keener and Victor Minerva, planners for the RBA Group, the Norwalk-based consultant hired by the town to come up with a master plan of development for the downtown. RBA was engaged by the Downtown 2020 Committee, the DSC’s predecessor advisory group formed by the previous town administration.
Loselle said results of RBA’s traffic and parking study will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) at its April 10 meeting. Phase II should be completed by late summer he said.
“Hopefully the plan will have consensus and basically be adopted,” Loselle said about the proposals to incorporate streetscape and pedestrian friendly improvements and to maximize downtown’s frontage on the Saugatuck River.
The master plan aims at dovetailing with current and upcoming projects downtown. They include Bedford Square, replacing the Westport Weston Family Y, a movie theater on Main Street, redevelopment of National Hall, rebuilding the Westport Public Library and the Levitt Pavilion, and redevelopment of Save the Children.
“The real emphasis today was about community involvement, how to get Westporters involved in this process, to get them engaged and get their input,” Loselle said.
“We’re going to be doing a community survey and have it placed at different places around town,” he added, “and we’re going to have a new website that’s interactive, high end so people can post and comment when we do our visual preference survey.”
Loselle said he selected Melissa Kane, DSC member and former member of the Representative Town Meeting, to head a subcommittee on website development and community outreach.
Also at the meeting DSC member Stephen Edwards, director of the Department of Public Works, talked about the $497,000 Main Street Investment Grant the town received from the state last year, and the installation of new curbing, lampposts and the planting of trees on Main Street to commence this spring.
Edwards said current plans call for planting 12 trees between Elm Street and Post Road East which will replace the 10 trees that had been removed.
“That was a new state program, and they’re going to offer it again this year, and I will be working with Steve Edwards and the consultants to do a new application,” Loselle said. “Though we got a large one (grant) last year, it may diminish our chances, but if we have a very good application, maybe we’ll have to opportunity to get further grant money.
“If we’re creative, we should be able to develop the grant application in such a way to use it to address things in Parker Harding Plaza and Jesup Green,” he added.
At today’s meeting, committee member Steve Desloge, president, Downtown Merchants Association, suggested funding needs for Main Street include replacements of benches and hanging plants and a need for recycling trash.
Catherine Walsh of the Planning and Zoning Commission, also a member, said there is a need for curbing in the rear of the buildings that border Parker Harding Plaza.
