As presented by Sandra Hackman for the Bedford Planning Board
The Planning Board adopted Bedford’s new Comprehensive Plan in February last year—and completed a Comments document in May—based on extensive public input. A Comprehensive Plan is a long-range look at all aspects of community life, supported by extensive data gathering and analysis. It includes a vision, needs, goals, strategies, and action items in key areas such as economic development, transportation, and natural and cultural resources. The plan ties all these topics together and points the way to future policies.
Although Bedford’s plan is less than a year old, the town has made significant progress on a number of action items, thanks to work by a wide variety of actors. I would like to highlight some of those achievements.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Revise the industrial mixed use provision—as well as basic industrial zoning—to spur redevelopment.
Last fall town meeting approved a completely new IMU special permit provision. The bylaw includes a cutting-edge list of industrial and retail uses, and gives developers more incentives and flexibility to pursue them. The business community has been enthusiastic, and the Planning Board expects to see its first proposal under the new bylaw soon—at Crosby Corporate Center.
The planning staff and board have also done extensive research and analysis to inform changes in the town’s basic industrial zoning, to respond to requests from developers on allowed uses, density, and building height while considering traffic and the environment. The board intends to propose these changes at town meeting later this year and next.
Engage in dialogue with Bedford’s major employers.
The town’s new economic development coordinator has established strong lines of communication with the business community and town departments. For example, she has convened numerous meetings with property owners and employers in the Middlesex Drive and Wiggins Ave. areas, to discuss zoning changes, infrastructure, and traffic. She and the Planning Board also actively engage with the Chamber of Commerce, whose members include smaller businesses.
She, the selectmen, and the Planning Board and staff are also active participants in the Middlesex3 Coalition. Created to promote regional economic development, the coalition includes representatives from the public and private sectors in eight area towns and the city of Lowell. In fact, our own town manager heads that coalition.
The Trails and Bike committees are working with DPW, the Conservation Commission, and a landowner to improve a pedestrian walkway connecting Wiggins Ave. to The Great Road, as requested by area businesses.
Consider a zoning overlay district to spur redevelopment of the east end of Great Road.
The planning staff and board have submitted a proposal to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council for a land-use study of the area around the Bedford Shopping Center. Staff and board would use the results to develop a zoning overlay or other measures designed to revitalize this key retail district and entrance to Bedford. We are awaiting word on whether that proposal will win funding.
Provide market incentives to enliven the town’s village centers.
Zoning overlay districts that town meeting already approved to do that are bearing fruit. The mixed-use project at 54 Loomis Street, which includes retail and housing, is now under way at Depot Park.
The Planning Board will soon consider a proposal to add a cafe to the bike shop building at Depot Park, and another proposal to rehab the former Country Store building at 15 Fletcher Rd.
Streamline the town’s permitting processes.
Planning directors from all nine towns in the Middlesex3 Coalition, including Bedford, have been meeting monthly to explore ways to expedite and coordinate their permitting processes. Participants have completed a survey, and will bring proposals for streamlining permitting back to their towns. In the meantime, the planning staff works closely with other departments to help to smooth the path for complex projects.
TRANSPORTATION
Pursue transportation projects that help local business.
The town’s active participation in the Metropolitan Planning Organization—the town manager has a seat on the MPO—has kept the Middlesex Turnpike improvement project in full implementation mode. The third phase, at a cost of $29 million, is now scheduled for bid in 2016.
Meanwhile Healthy Bedford—a coalition spearheaded by Youth and Family Services that includes selectmen, health, schools, public works, the Bike Committee, the Planning Board, and the Department of Transportation—has won approval for state funding to revamp the intersection of Mudge Way and Great Road. That project—funded through the Safe Routes to School program—will also help North Road and Town Center businesses.
Pursue transportation demand management, and advocate for transit serving Bedford.
Economic development brings traffic—long a major concern in Bedford as well as the region. The Planning Board is developing a regulation that will ask larger businesses that come before us to join the Middlesex3 Coalition’s new Transportation Management Association. The TMA will help organize shuttle buses to and from transit nodes such as Alewife, car and van pooling, and other options for reducing single-occupancy vehicle trips.
Healthy Bedford is also working on a proposal for a bus with a fixed route around town, to complement Bedford Local Transit, which is at capacity. The bus might run in the afternoons, to help students and other residents get to various locations.
Develop a pedestrian/bike master plan, and raise awareness of alternative options for getting around.
Healthy Bedford has used Community Preservation funds to commission a design group to develop a bike/pedestrian plan. Participants in a public meeting last fall and an online Wikimap helped identify “hot spots”—priority areas for future investments. The design group will convene another public meeting On May 13 to discuss the first draft of its plan.
To make biking safer, the Bike Committee asked residents to respond to a survey on key biking routes. The committee then worked with DPW to paint trial “sharrows” on Springs Rd. and Hancock Street, which alert drivers that the streets are a major biking route to town center.
NATURAL and CULTURAL RESOURCES
Promote “open space residential design” and ecologically sound landscape practices.
Last fall town meeting approved a zoning amendment that asks developers to use the natural features of their site in designing landscape buffers for their projects. The Planning Board intends to propose a more expansive four-step bylaw that would require developers to design housing around the natural features of their land.
The Bedford Arbor Resources Committee has worked with DPW and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to train volunteers to inventory street trees on private and public land. That project will provide information on the diversity of our trees, and pests that threaten their survival. The Arbor Resources website also provides information on native trees, tree care, pests, and invasive species.
Protect and highlight the town’s cultural and historic assets.
The Historic Preservation Commission has expanded the Old Bedford Center National Historic District to include mid-nineteenth-century buildings, as well as Fletcher Road and Crescent Avenue neighborhoods built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Bedford Historical Society is publishing a revised book on the town’s historic properties that includes these additions.
The Historic Preservation Commission also gave the code enforcement director a list of more than 200 buildings still standing in Bedford built in the 17th through 19th centuries. Fall town meeting also approved the commission’s proposal to extend the town’s demolition delay for historic properties from 12 to 18 months.
The economic development coordinator—with assistance from planning—has applied for a Wayfinding Grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development. The grant would fund kiosks and signs identifying historic sites and other important destinations in Bedford.
HOUSING
Raise public awareness of the town’s housing stock and needs, and identify opportunities to address them.
In response to growing public concern and confusion, the Planning staff and Board issued a report last fall on growth in the town’s single-family, multifamily, and affordable housing. Print, online, and broadcast media covered the report.
In response to vigorous action by the selectmen, the Coast Guard agreed to allow the town to drive redevelopment of its abandoned housing on Pine Hill Rd. Bedford’s Municipal Affordable Housing Trust organized a public meeting where residents explored and chose preferred options for the site. The town will soon issue a Request for Proposals to developers to build cottage-style housing. That RFP is based on a report on the public meeting and input from planning staff and board on ensuring high aesthetic value and sensitive design.
Planning staff have also been working with a developer who wants to build cottage housing near Depot Park targeting empty nesters and downsizing seniors, who say they need more options for remaining in Bedford.
GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND FACILITIES
Strengthen long-term planning for capital expenditures.
The town, schools, and Capital Expenditures Committee began a joint process for reviewing capital projects last year, drafting a six-year plan as well as an annual proposal. And the town’s Capital Asset Management Program became fully operational in 2014.
The Comprehensive Plan advocates a 10- to 20-year timeframe for considering the town’s investment needs and lifecycle costs. A study to address future school needs, and a project to upgrade street lighting to energy-efficient LEDs—both proposed at this town meeting—are steps in that direction.
Study heavily used park and recreation facilities and provide new ones.
Two key town assets—Springs Brook Park and Fawn Lake—face debilitating problems. The Recreation Commission has engaged a consulting firm to study long-term alternatives for Springs Brook, and the Fawn Lake Study Committee is asking a consultant to study options for restoring Fawn Lake.
The Fields Partnership is finalizing plans for creating playing fields on the St. Michael’s land, and is also considering synthetic turf for the heavily used B Field at the town center complex.
Many thanks for the hard work and input from so many people in helping to create the Bedford we want. We look forward to continuing that work in the coming year. Thank you.
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