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URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

to create a series of initiatives around
which different activities and develop-
ments are organized. Private efforts,
along with public improvements and
public/private partnerships have been
formulated into five initiatives for the
City:

1 Riverfront West

2 Riverfront East

3 Railroad Square

4 Main Street North
5 Main Street South
Frameworks

In order to support these five initiatives,

the Plan recommends improving upon

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

and creating a series of frameworks that

connect different parts of Downtown.

The frameworks, focusing on connectiv-

ity, are designed to:

* continually enhance the pedestrian
experience on the streets of Down-
town

* support and extend the system of
bikeways and trails that link the areas
of Downtown to each other, as well
as the neighborhoods, and to the
region’s remarkable recreational and
heritage amenities

* clarify pedestrian and vehicular circu-
lation through an incremental

process of converting one-way streets

Main Street South
New Streetscaping and
redeveloped parking lots
will transform Main
Street South into a
pedestrian friendly
shopping street.

Existing Condition
(top)

Proposed

(bottom)

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

to two-way streets

* establish an alternative for the Broad
Street Parkway that provides access
to development parcels, connects the
trail system, and improves congestion
at Railroad Square

* create guidelines for architectural
character consistent with the tradi-
tion of the City and the objectives of
the Plan.

The Plan will be implemented over 10
years. Upon completion, approximately
500 new residential units, and 500,000
new square feet of
commercial/retail/office and institutional
space will be added to Downtown
Nashua. In addition, with construction of
new riverfront parks, Performing Arts
Center, Center for Nashua Heritage and
Future Technology, regional and local
trail connections, the Downtown will
become the region's center for cultural,
entertainment and recreational networks.
The primary projects to be com-
pleted within three years of adoption of
this Plan will include
- Main Street South Streetscape

(Design and Engineering)

- Bronstein Homes (Design and Hope
VI Application)

- Broad Street Parkway (Design and
Engineering)

- One Way Street Conversion Study

- Center for Nashua Heritage and
Future Technology (fundraising)

Implementation of the Master Plan
will create two legacies. The first legacy
will be a completely revitalized Down-
town with a diversified economy that
benefits all residents of Nashua. Down-
town Nashua will solidify itself as soul of
the region,; it will become an indispensa-
ble component to the region’s superior
quality of life.

Equally important to the historic
legacy described above, will be the legacy
of new partnerships and civic coopera-
tion that are essential to and will result
from implementation of this Plan. The
Plan should not be thought of as simply
a way to spend public resources - rather
it should be thought of as a way to form
partnerships, increase investor confi-
dence, raise capital, with the purpose of
leveraging public investments.

The ideas set forth in this Plan come
from the vested interests of the City's
diverse body of residents and investors.
The realization of these ideas rely on a
coordinated, cooperative and active pub-
lic sector working in tandem with a
entrepreneurial private sector. The results
of this private-public partnership will be
a lively and vibrant Downtown for all
Nashuans; a place which embodies both
its history as well as the future aspira-

tions of the region.

s Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Site Analysis

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

I X-Rays A UDA X-RAY DRAWING ALLOws the Design team to better IO
understand the study area, as well as illustrating for city resi-
dents and stakeholders the myriad assets and natural patterns
found throughout the City. An X-Ray drawing isolates a phys-
ical element or category of land use (such as streets) to illus~
trate patterns and opportunities difficult to perceive when
combined in a single drawing. By studying the various natural
and man-made systems, urban designers can unveil the under-
lying patterns, problems, and opportunities of a project area.
Often, from these natural, historic, and development patterns,
the beginnings of strategies and solutions emerge.
UDA X-Rays are drawn at several scales. By examining the
site within the context of the region, city, and immediate study
area, one can begin to see the physical forces that impact and
influence it. In the case of Nashua’s Downtown, X-Ray draw-
ings at the regional scale illustrate the City’s strategic location
within the region, while X-Rays at the site scale depict the
immediate patterns of the built and natural landscape within
the boundaries of the City.
The study area for the
Plan is centered on ea
Main Street but
extends east and west
to include the adjacent
neighborboods and cross
streets— the extent of
the historic and
traditional

Downtown.

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Regional Locator
Map

(top left)

Located just north of
the Massachusetts state
border, Nashua is the
outermost major city in
the Boston “tommuter-
shed.”

Regional Natural
Features

(bottom left}

Located at the
confluence of the
Merrimack and
Nashua rivers, the City
is connected to
watersheds and natural
systems that reach out to
the region in every

direction.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

e Hi
(top right)
The City of Nashua is
located at the
convergence of several
arterial roads, each
well-connected to the

Interstates.

Regional Streets
(bottom right}

Main Street is one of
only two surface road
crossings of the Nashua
River within the City.
Downtown Nashua
comprises a collection of
colliding, irregular grids
and connective arterial
roads.

The suburban street
pattern, where most of
the new growth has
occurred in the last 10 -
20 years is distinctly
different than the urban
arid of the bistoric town

URBAN DESIGN

Topography

(top left)

The Downtown gently
slopes to the Nashua
River from the south,
with the land dropping
more steeply to the river
on its north side. The
lowland stretching from
the Nashua River to
Salmon Brook
represents unstable soils
for development and
bas therefore historically

been an industrial area.

Commercial
(middle left)

Main Street retail
development north of
Hollis Street is a
relatively dense
concentration of small-
scale, street-oriented
buildings that form
pedestrian-scaled spaces.
South of Hollis Street,
the commercial
buildings on Main
Street are scaled to the

automobile.

Residential

(bottom left}

Many of the City’
neighborboods are
intact; however, their
edges are frayed.
Nashua’s neighborhoods
engage neither the river,

nor Main Street. .

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Streets RQ
(top right)

The street framework of
Downtown Nashua is
comprised of several
grids, South of the
Nashua River, the grids
are organized relative

to Main Street. North
of the river, the street
grids respond to the
several diagonal
arterials that converge

at Railroad Square.

Building Footprint
and Flood Plain
(middle right)
Downtown is generally
comprised of medium ~
sized commercial
buildings, small-scale
residential buildings,
and long, linear
industrial buildings.
Several of the original
Nashua Manufacturing
Company buildings,
now conuerted to other
uses, were originally
built in the 10-year
flood plain (shown in
light blue)

Neighborhoods
(bottom right}

The neighborhoods of
Downtown Nashua are
delineated by the
arterials and corridors
that carry cross town

tr

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Institutions and
Open Space

(top left)

The core of Downtown
Nashua has many
institutional buildings
(purple) but no central
park or public gathering
space. The beginnings of
a network of trails (red
dots) follow the natural
areas along the Nashua
River and the

abandoned rail line.

Parking

(bottom left}

Surface parking lots
(light grey) are a
dominant land use in
much of Downtown.
Only a fow parking
garages (dark grey)
presently exist forcing
much valuable
Downtown real estate
to be used as surface

parking.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Industrial B
(top right)

Industrial uses

dominate the edges of

the Nashua River and

rail lines. Throughout

the City, many of the
former industrial uses

have been converted to

offices or commercial

space.

Connectivity

(bottom right}

Despite having tight
grids of streets and
being located at the
traditional center of the
City, few streets extend
beyond the Downtown.

UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

II Precedents THE BEST DESIGN SOLUTIONS emerge from the inherent pat-
terns and vernacular of a region. Nashua is one of several Mer-
rimack Valley river towns unique even within the greater
region of which it is a part. Planned as settlements to support
the textile manufacturing industry in New England in the early
nineteenth century, Nashua and its sister cities along the Mer-
rimack River are strikingly similar in their history and plan-
ning. By studying the original urban form and the
redevelopment that has occurred along the Merrimack Valley
as the economy and development base has changed over time,
Nashua can develop strategies to root itself in its unique past
while planning for an ever-changing future.

Other Merrimack Valley cities similar in both form and
history to Nashua, such as Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill,
provide precedents of exemplary spaces, development strate-

gies, urban design approaches steeped in a similar regional fla-

vor and industrial past.

UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

u1 Historic Analysis

THOUGH DANIEL ABBOTT 18 WIDELY REGARDED as the “Father 15
of Nashua,” the area of the City now known as Downtown was
designed by Asher Benjamin from 1824 through 1827. Primar-
ily known for his use of the pattern book for residential design,
Nashua was Benjamin's only foray into town planning. Ben-
jamin originally planned Nashua as an industrial town with an
area for the region’s textile manufacturing on the river, drawing
power for its operation from Mine Falls located three miles
west. His ideas were utilitarian and simple. A north-south
main street provided a bridge across the Nashua River at its
north end, leading to Union Square, a public space and railroad
depot known today as Railroad Square. A cross-axis was estab-
lished along Factory Street, which defined the heart of the
Downtown. At one end of the Factory Street axis stood the
Olive Street Church, later Pilgrim Church; and at the other
end, the great smoke stack of the Nashua Manufacturing

Company. These simple but powerful urban relationships

remained intact for over 150 years

The Olive Street
Church, Asher
Benjamin’ beautiful
religious structure,
defined the end of a
visual axis between
itself and the Nashua
Manufacturing
Company buildings.

IV. TERM.

The term of this Agreement shall be extended from April 31, 2016 to
December 31, 2016.

OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS REMAIN.

In the event of any inconsistencies in the Agreement and this Second
Amendment, the terms of this amendment shall control. Except as expressly set
forth in this Second Amendment, the Agreement otherwise is unmodified and
remains in full force and effect. Each reference in the Agreement to itself shall be
deemed also to refer to this Second Amendment.

CAPITALIZED TERMS.
All capitalized terms used but not defined herein shall have the same

meaning as defined in said Agreement.

IN WITNESS WHEREFORE, the parties have caused their authorized representatives

to execute and seal this First Amendment on the date set forth below.

Date:

Date:

CITY OF NASHUA

, 2016 By:

Jim Donchess, Mayor
DULY AUTHORIZED

NASHUA COLLEGIATE BASEBALL, INC.

, 2016 By:

DULY AUTHORIZED

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