In an interview with Tom Vannah last week on WHMP, Mayor Clare Higgins admitted the plan for the new Hilton in downtown Northampton was unimpressive, calling it "modest." Earlier, on the same program, city planner Wayne Feiden insisted that what will be the tallest building in town would be invisible, hidden by trees. The mayor repeated this, and assured listeners that the hotel plan adhered to the principles of Smart Growth design concepts and was therefore a good move for the city.
Northampton city officials and committee members have been emphasizing that such development projects are guided by the principles of "Smart Growth." But as the mayor unwittingly made clear in last week's interview, she doesn't understand those principles. Asked by Vannah whether historic preservation and preserving the appearance of a city were key provisions of Smart Growth, she said they were not.
The mayor is wrong. What Vannah outlined are fundamental building blocks of Smart Growth. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists 10 principles. Number 5 is: "Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place." The American Institute of Architects urges local officials to "support legislation that promotes smart-growth development. …These programs preserve urban centers, promote managed growth, decrease congestion and sprawl, enhance neighborhood identity, and support outstanding architecture."
There are many prime examples of Smart Growth in Northampton: Fly By Night's expansion along State Street. The rejuvenation of the fire station on Masonic Street. The row of shops and offices and the renewal of the Bay State on Pearl Street. The Calvin. In each case, the architects created structures that worked within the fabric of the buildings around them, adding character without drawing unwarranted attention.
Of the 10 principles of Smart Growth, the only ones the hotel remotely matches are "mixed land uses" and "take advantage of compact building design," and these are debatable. An ugly hotel will diminish the investments made by private citizens seeking to protect the way our Main Street looks. Despite assurances that Northampton will get a bigger park, we will in fact lose the only such public space downtown when that space becomes the front doorstep of a multi-million dollar business.
This is not just a problem of City Hall's misunderstanding a single term. It would be unfair to require every elected official to have a degree or even a strong interest in architecture. But given the widespread use of the term in City Hall, you'd think someone might have looked it up. Rather, it appears the misunderstanding has spread to other words, like "preservation."
In April, Jack Hornor, the head of the Community Preservation Committee, spoke at the Florence Community Center on the subject of "Preserving Northampton." The Community Preservation Act that created his position permits communities in Massachusetts to use tax dollars for three basic purposes: historic preservation, open space preservation, and affordable housing. His talk was exclusively on affordable housing; it closed with 15 examples of what other communities had done with their tax dollars on preservation. Only one mentioned open space being preserved; no examples of historic preservation were offered.
The city has pointed to the Smart Growth awards it received from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, which has also apparently missed the point of Smart Growth. The criteria the PVPC used to judge the awards listed six principles, as opposed to EPA's 10. Projects, such as the Ice Pond development, that clearly don't exemplify Smart Growth, homes hewn out of living forest miles from town, receive awards for things that haven't happened, such as "pedestrian and bicycle path connections to downtown." We should be wary of projects which are sold to us under the rubric of Smart Growth until the civic leaders in our region demonstrate a better understanding of the concept. "
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
About Smart Growth
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Pioneer Valley Smart Growth Awards Juror's Comments
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Clarification: In his column last week about Smart Growth (“Selectively Smart,” June 21, 2007), Mark Roessler criticized the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission for, among other things, praising the Ice Pond development in Northampton for yet unrealized plans to build, “pedestrian and bicycle path connections to downtown.” The phrase in quotes comes from the PVCP, rationalizing its award for what remains, at best, an unfulfilled commitment: a sidewalk has been installed, but not a bicycle path.
