Head of Falls park is shown Friday along the Kennebec River near downtown Waterville. City officials and urban planners have held a series of meetings with residents, including a final one Thursday, on further improvements they’d like to see for the downtown area. A common request was to improve access to Head of Falls from downtown. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE — Imagine three or four floors of housing developed above businesses at The Concourse, such as the Goodwill store, former Save-A-Lot and the dollar stores, with parking provided inside those structures.
Envision better pedestrian access from downtown to Head of Falls via a landscaped art walkway from Castonguay Square that leads under the skywalk at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, continues to Main Street and exits onto a renovated Temple Street, where you can then progress to the waterfront park.
And imagine that, when you get there, you find a pickleball court, sensory garden, amphitheater for concerts, playground and a “park house” with restrooms along the west side near the railroad tracks. You will find the large green space at Head of Falls untouched.
Those are some of the short- and long-term plans that emerged from four workshop sessions with residents, business owners, city officials and urban planners over the past year that were aired Thursday night at the Schupf center. About 50 people turned out for the session.
The ideas are part of a “visioning” process for what can be done to improve the downtown beyond the most recent developments, which included the change to two-way traffic on Front and Main streets, construction of new buildings and rehabilitation of others. Thursday’s workshop was the final one, but organizers say there is more work to come.
Neil Kittredge, a partner and director of planning and urban design at Beyer Blinder Belle, an architectural and planning firm headquartered in New York City, has been working on the project with the city and Colby College over nine years.
Downtown Waterville is shown Friday. City officials and urban planners have held a series of meetings with residents, including a final one Thursday, seeking input on further downtown improvements people would like to see. The large Concourse parking lot can be seen at top of photo and there was discussion as to how the lot can be better used in the future. City Hall can be seen at lower left. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Along with representatives of Beyer Blinder Belle, officials from BFJ Planning and Mitchell & Associates also presented plans Thursday. Mitchell designed the RiverWalk at Head of Falls.
A pedestrian-friendly redesign of Appleton Street is one of many ideas that emerged from the process. A concern voiced by many residents is for the green space at Head of Falls along the Kennebec River to be maintained and not be developed for housing or commercial uses. Residents also said they want to see more activity there at various times of the year, and possible recreation space to help increase safety in the area.
In addition to constructing housing on top of buildings along The Concourse, multilevel housing could be built on the parking lot, with parking space developed inside the buildings, officials said. They said it is done in other cities.
Georges Jacquemart, principal at BFJ Planning of New York City, has been part of the planning process since 2015 and is considered an expert in parking matters. He said as new development comes to downtown, there will be a need for parking management.
Jacquemart recommended several ways to improve parking in the city, including having parking meters on Main Street.
“There’s no turnover,” he said. “We want more turnover on Main Street.”
This rendering is a depiction of Temple Street in downtown Waterville looking east toward Head of Falls park and the Two Cent Bridge over the Kennebec River. City officials and urban planners held a series of meetings with residents over further improvements they’d like to see downtown, and a common refrain was improved access to Head of Falls. The rendering shows what Temple Street could look like with wider sidewalks. The proposed Head of Falls Village housing complex is shown at left. Photo courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle
He recommended the city continue municipal and shared parking, encouraging people to park and walk, prioritizing short-term parking on The Concourse and long-term parking at Head of Falls, and adjusting zoning regulations for downtown parking.
City Council Chairwoman Rebecca Green thanked the many people who took part in the process, saying, “Your input and engagement in this process has made it rich and meaningful.”
The council voted last week to lease 46 Front St., next to City Hall, to use as a council chambers, for public meetings and possibly a community center and warming and cooling space, something residents urged the city to do in the workshops. The urban planners called that a smart and strategic move for all the plans being developed.
Kittredge said a top priority is filling downtown spaces and helping owners renovate old buildings by exploring and investigating programs that would help fund such work. Attracting companies and jobs to those buildings is critical, he said. More people downtown will support businesses because the people will shop, eat and patronize other enterprises, he said, calling it a “virtuous cycle.”
The next steps are to create an implementation committee that would develop a roadmap and strategy for the plans, Kittredge said.
“From all of our work with you, we know the ‘why’ and ‘what,'” he said. “An implementation committee will help us figure out the ‘how.'”
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