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UREAN

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Streetscaping

Maintenance and upgrades to the
streetscape of Main Street is critical.
Begun in the early 1980's, the streetscape
program has been a great success. The
comfortably wide sidewalks, warm red
bricks, and the canopy of street trees cre-
ate a pedestrian environment that has
been instrumental in Main Street’s resur-

gence over the past 15 years. However,

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

some sidewalk bricks have been dis-

lodged and many of the street furnish-
ings are either historically inappropriate,
poorly located, or in general disrepair.

Basic upkeep and selective improve-
ments to the streetscape on Main Street
North are as critical today as the intro-
duction of these standards 20 years ago.
If the public sector falls behind in its

responsibility, the private sector will not

Main Street North 53
A Main Street North
Streetscaping

B Relocation of Joanne’
Kitchen

C Spring Street
Institutional Spine

D Citizen's Bank site

E New Nashua
Commons

F SENHMC
expansion

G Redevelopment of
existing buildings

Main Street North

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Benches

Several benches along
Main Street are poorly
located. Benches that
face traffic or are located
in the middle of
sidewalks are rarely
used, Where possible,
benches should either be
paired, facing each
other, or they should be
located with their backs
to storefronts.

Diagrams
Inappropriate bench
location (below left}

Appropriate bench
location (below right}

re-invest. The Master Plan therefore rec-
ommends pursuing a responsible mainte-
nance and upgrade program for

streetscaping on Main Street North as an
early action item for the City. At a mini-

mum, “responsible maintenance” should

include annual inspection of sidewalk

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

conditions following the spring thaw and 54
immediate replacement of damaged

pavers. In addition, the City should con-

sider utilizing a more delicate sidewalk

sweeper, one that does not damage the

pavers as it cleans them.

Pavers and grates on
Main Street in need of

replacement

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Pedestrian Connectivity
The Library Walk is a great success. It
provides pedestrian access through
Nashua's long blocks to destinations
located one block behind Main Street.
More such connections are required in
order to connect and stimulate invest-
ment along Spring and Elm Streets.
The Master Plan recommends creat-
ing five additional through-block pedes-
trian connections: two on the interior of
buildings, and three exterior. The exterior
pedestrian paths should be public, well-
lit, and modeled after the successful
Library Walk. The interior paths require
partnerships with private building own-
ers. They should be integrated with the
interior circulation through a lobby or

public corridor.

Hollis and Main Street Intersection:
The Region’s 100% Corner

‘There is no more important intersection
to redevelop in Nashua than the intersec-
tion of Hollis and Main Streets. The
intersection is the region's “100% corner,”
as it creates gateways to Main Street
from the east and west and south.

All four corners of this intersection
are currently underutilized and under-
performing. In a City with limited avail-
able land and relatively low-scale
buildings, three of the four corners pres-
ent opportunities to add significant
square footage to the Downtown inven-
tory of office, retail, institutional, and
cultural space without creating an inap-
propriately sized building. Downtown's
largest new buildings should be sited at

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

A Through an existing 55
building

B In place of the
relocated Joanne’s
Kitchen

CA new lane beside
relocated parking

D Along side of the
church

E Through new
Downtown common
F An extension of the
rail trail

New Pedestrian
Connections
Several new pedestrian
connections (similar to
Library Walk and
shown in red) should be
created to improve the
permeability of Main
Street’ long blocks,

Board of Aldermen Page 17
December 13, 2016

arranged for representatives from the Academy of Science Design and the Micro Society to be here. He asked
them if they had any problems. We are talking about $70,000 for ASD and $20,000 for the Micro Society. The
ASD guy we are okay but the Micro Society representative said that their lease is at $180,000 and it goes up in
$20,000 increments and they owe $170,000 and they have difficulty making the money and $20,000 would
certainly help them. They can’t go out and raise taxes or fees, they have to beg parents for money which can
be difficult for them to do. You wouldn't even allow them the $90,000. The teacher ratio is usually 20 to 1 and
the Nashua School District it's 14 to 1. | didn’t vote for Donald Trump but he appointed a staunch charter
proponent to be Secretary of Education. | did vote for Chris Sununu for Governor of the State. Chris Sununu
also says he is for charter schools. | hope we start proposing charter schools. The views on this Board
against charter schools is just unacceptable. It a bias. There’s 491 kids that reside in Nashua go to charter
schools. All the taxpayers in the state contribute $5600 to the student of a charter school. A cost of a student
in the Nashua School District is $13,000 a year. That’s a big difference. IEP kids in the schools are high. It’s
20 percent. | just checked with the school district this afternoon. One out of every five kids have an IEP. | find
that difficult to believe. One out of five kids is dysfunctional. I’ve used that word and I’ve been criticized for it.
We need to support charter schools. The school district is always complaining they don’t have enough money.
| mentioned it earlier and I'll go over it again. Since 2001, 2002, the state population went down by 2,218
students. That represents 17 percent of the student body. Most of the kids have come down in the elementary
schools and the middle schools: 1918 kids less. It keeps going down, but we still have the same number of
schools. This was recognized in 2007 when the school district sponsored a study. They didn’t draw a
conclusion; there’s no conclusion in the report. | find it hard to believe that they spent $100,000 or $40,000 -
$50,000 on a study and there’s no conclusion but they do talk about closing a school. Mount Pleasant was the
one most likely. You close Mount Pleasant down because they don’t need a school. They’ve got plenty of
space. They even have a gym at the Mount Pleasant School for free to a charter school. That’s the kind of
thinking that needs to take place instead of just looking at percentages. It’s never enough and they always
complain. | hope this carries a message. Thank you.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderman Lopez

Next Wednesday, December 21, at 5:00 p.m. in front of the Main Street Methodist we are holding a vigil to
remember the people who have passed away that are homeless. It’s the longest night of the year so we
thought that was appropriate to remember them. On a slightly lightly note, we’re organizing the decoration of
the Delanis Hall, the veterans housing program. Anybody who has extra Christmas decorations, it would help
the veterans decorate their halls.

Alderman O’Brien

Over the last month of December, we lost two retired firefighters. Artie Paine did a lot of good years of service
to the community and the fire department. Another, Lt. Michael Dolan, who upon his retirement sought a
second career and worked very hard with the Salvation Army and gave a lot of himself to that organization.
Both of these people are wonderful human beings that will be sorely missed. | would like to thank everybody
on the board the best of the holiday season and to all the constituents and citizens of Nashua the same.

Alderman Moriarty

| do want to apologize | missed last Tuesday’s Planning & Economic Development Committee and | forgot to
all ahead. | was on business on Ohio and at the time was on a plane. | just want to wish everybody a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Alderman LeBrun

Today | had the pleasure of welcoming 70 4" graders from Main Dunstable Elementary School at the State
House. We had quite a conversation for about two hours. They presented with a challenge. They gave me a

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, January 26, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.

President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson led in the
Pledge to the Flag.

The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Stephen M. Bennett were also present.

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Mayor Donchess

First | wanted to point out the report we put on your desk regarding what we are calling the Opioid Task
Force meeting that we held last week. We called together people from prevention, treatment, recovery,
and law enforcement and we’ve given you a list of the people who attended in order to try to improve
communications a health crisis in our community. The meeting went very well. | think we did identify
communication gaps that exist. We talked about additional things that we can do in the city. | think that
people are working so hard in their various areas that often they don’t meet each other and have an
opportunity to talk with each other. Specifically | think we can do more with the outreach effort of working
with the Nashua Prevention Coalition. Also, trying to stimulate the greater availability of treatment beds
in our region and recovery support for people who have emerged from treatment after 28 or 90 days or
even longer and need support in their daily lives as time goes on. In any event, it is a very important
issue and | wrote this up for you so you could get a sense, if you wish to read it, what the kind of things
that were discussed and just let you know that | think it went well and we will be holding future meetings.

Number two is that we’ve gone through five Ward input meetings in Wards 9, 1, 6, 7 and 4 in that order.
I’ve only fallen once going into the meetings and so only one torn pair of pants so far. | think things are
going very well. We've had a number of members of the Board who have come. Alderman McCarthy
and Alderman Wilshire have been to all of them. Alderman O’Brien has been to nearly all of them and
the Ward Alderman have come from each of the Wards where we’ve held the meeting. A lot of people
have come and they have given us some very positive input and very interesting thoughts about what
their hopes are and what they think is important to the city as well as some neighborhood problems that
we want to try to address going forward. We have the Ward 3 meeting tomorrow night, the Ward 5
meeting on Thursday and then subsequent Wards 8 and 2. | hope anyone who can attend will and |
think you will learn something.

Finally | wanted to update you on the building we purchased on Burke Street. Of course we want to
move forward with that project as soon as we can. | asked the Director of Public Works, Lisa Fauteux to
put together a group of people to define the project for us and so Alderman Deane and Paul Bergeron
from the Board of Public Works are working with Lisa and some other staff members to define the project
and will begin with making a recommendation to this Board, to the Finance Committee regarding what
architect should be chosen to proceed with that project. There was an issue that came up this past week
or so regarding the building. As you probably know the building that we acquired includes a very large
garage along with a 50,000 square foot office building. At this point while we are waiting to decide
exactly how to proceed and what to do to renovate this facility, the office building is heated and
sprinkered but the main garage is not. The issue came up if the garage should be heated and
sprinklered and the information we came up with was first of all that we can increase the insurance on
the entire facility to $12 million which gives us good coverage. We bought it for $4.2 million. In addition
the cost of heating the garage so that we could sprinkler it would be $100,000 in addition to regular utility
cost between now and the spring and furthermore the heating system is not very good at this point so
that if we were to sprinkler it the pipes might freeze causing water damage and thirdly if there were a fire

UREAN

Ffollis and Main
Street: The region’
100% Corner

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

this intersection. A series of distinct, 4-
to 6-story, mixed-use buildings wold cre-
ate a center to the Downtown. They
buildings would anchor both ends of
Main Street by creating a strong center.
and transform an anonymous intersec-

tion into the region’s symbolic heart.

‘The most important site at Nashua’s
100% intersection is the northeast corner
of Hollis and Main Streets - commonly
referred to as the Citizen’s Bank site.
‘This site has an address on two of the
busiest arterials in Nashua (Main Street
and Hollis) and is a gateway to the
Downtown. Additionally, with the Main
Street Marketplace under reconstruction,
it is the largest remaining developable
site fronting Main Street. The long term
redevelopment of the Citizen’s Bank site
must establish the standard for all other
development in Nashua because it is a
front door to the region. It should leave a

positive legacy for years to come.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

In December 2002, Citizen's Bank
secured approval for plans to build a sin-
gle story bank with drive through facili-
ties. This building should be considered

an interim solution for this important

56

Main Street as a
Series of Rooms
The entire length of
Main Street should be
designed as a series of
rooms and experiences,
not asa single
monolithic avenue.

A Railroad Square

B Main Street North
C 100% Corner: Hollis
Main Street
Intersection

D Transitional area:
Flollis to Otterson
Streets

E Secondary retail
node: Main Street
marketplace

F Southern Gateway:

Salmon Brook

The intersection of
Flollis and Main
Streets as it exists today:
an under-developed
intersection dominated
by high volumes of
through traffic.

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

site. When market forces dictate redevel-
opment of the site, the City should part-
ner with Citizen's bank to create a legacy
project.

The public outreach process and the
market study both conclude that this site
would be best developed as a mix of uses,
including a ground floor bank, and
anchored by an institutional use such as a
a downtown campus for an area college.
Such a use would bring a diverse group
of people into the area at all hours,
enforcing the desire of developing
Nashua as a “24-hour city”.

As an educational building, class-
rooms would occupy the upper floors of
the buildings with Main Street retail at
the ground level. This configuration
allows for active, pedestrian-oriented
uses on the street to add to the already
healthy street-life on Main Street North.
Also, providing for retail uses on the
ground level allows for businesses and
restaurants to be open and active after
office hours.

The site north of the Citizen’s Bank

site can also be integrated into an

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

amenity for Main Street. The potential 57
relocation of Saint Patrick’s gymnasium

to Spring Street provides a proper civic

greenspace for the City of Nashua. The

desire for outdoor, public space is great in

the City, and this resource would provide

a new “Commons” for Nashua.

Southeast Comer of Hollis Street and
Main Street

To truly create a 100% corner at Hollis
and Main, the southeast corner of the
intersection should also be a redevelop-
ment opportunity. At present, this site
houses a service station, a drugstore, a
few miscellaneous businesses and restau-
rants, and surface parking for Southeast
New Hampshire Medical Center
(SENHMC). Constitution Plaza occu-
pies the other corner of the site, that of
Main and Kinsley Streets, though few
would know it is there amidst the unco-
ordinated land uses. The proposed build-
ing configurations will not only define
the corner of Hollis and Main Streets as
a gateway, but with ground floor retail

uses they will encourage pedestrian-ori-

ented street-life.

Citizen's Bank Site,
Short Term Vision: A
bank with a drive

through facility. (left}

Citizen's Bank Site,
Long Term Vision:
Redevelopment as an
Educational Complex
with ground floor retail
and Main Street
Commons (right)

UREAN

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

The proposed buildings would have Hilustrative Plan ofa 58
retail businesses at street level with redeveloped Hollis and
offices above. The offices could be used Main Street
by the hospital, or physicians offices, or ntersection
other businesses seeking office space in
the heart of Downtown.

At the easternmost part of the block,

a parking garage is proposed to accom-
modate current parking needs for
SENHMC as well as addressing parking
requirements of other uses on the block.
And most importantly, Constitution
Plaza will be surrounded by public uses
te provide a more defined, Proper eavie Analysis and public testimony sup-
ronment for community gathering. .

port the fact that there is not a shortage
Parking Strategy of parking, but rather that the existing
Easy access to parking was identified by parking supply is not well-managed,
many as a problem in Downtown coordinated or visible. Therefore, simply
Nashua. Currently, there are approxi- providing more parking would not only
mately 3,500 parking spaces and 850,000 _ fail to solve the parking problem, but it
square feet of retail/office/commercial would conceivably create additional
space in Downtown. This is over 4 spaces problems in Downtown.
per 1000 square feet - a more than ade- Parking issues should be addressed
quate supply for an downtown that on two fronts. First, the current parking
aspires to be pedestrian friendly, mixed resources should be better organized and
use, dense and urban so supply is not the managed. Second, new parking should be
problem. carefully and selectively added to proper

Existing conditions at c Tl] Proposed redevelopment
Hollis Street and Main of Hbllis Street and

Street Main Street

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

locations when it is needed. Determina-
tion of need should consider issues such
as the deleterious effect of excess park-
ing, the potential impacts on surrounding
properties, and the need to create a dense
unique urban environment for Down-

town.

Currently the 3,500 parking spaces
downtown are scattered throughout
downtown in private and public lots,
large and small lots, metered and free
lots, on streets, and in public and private
structures. Existing parking resources
must be more effectively managed. This
should be a priority, initially, over build-
ing more spaces.

As an inexpensive first step, the City
should implement a wayfinding and sig-
nage system to help visitors to Down-
town have better access to the City’s
parking supply. In addition, parking lots
and sidewalks should be designed with
comfortable pathways, trees, and lighting
in order to maximize their use.

A second step should be to organize
and manage the current parking space -
both public and private. Metered spaces
should be used for short-term parking.
They should be the most expensive cost
to park per hour, and have a limit of two
hours. Because they are the most accessi-
ble and important to retail, the metered
spaces should encourage a high turnover
of users.

The parking garages should be used
by employees and for longer-term park-
ing. Upper floors of garages, the least

convenient spaces, should be reserved for 59
employees who park all day.. They can be

leased out to business owners, thereby

freeing up their on-site spaces and street

spaces for customers. Lower levels of

garages should be used for both long

term and short term parking.

The City should enter into discussions
with owners of large parking lots and
parking structures (SENHMC, BAE
Systems, Indian Head Plaza, etc) in
order to allow these facilities to be used
at “non peak” times.

For example, the Performing Arts
Center (PAC) may require very little new
parking if the unused evening capacity of
the BAE parking lot (connected to the
PAC with a walkway atop the dam) and
the Indian Head Plaza are utilized. Both
are within a five minute walk of the pro-

posed PAC.

Limited surface parking located on street
or in small lots is important for retailers
in Downtown Nashua. The spaces are
easy to use, have a rapid turnover, and are
readily accessible in small lots, behind
buildings or mid-block. They lots should
be well-designed and have clear pedes-
trian connections to sidewalks and paths.
Many of downtown Nashua’s parking
spaces are scattered throughout the
downtown in small and large lots. The
dozens of small parking lots provide an
efficiency and efficacy that belies their

size. Many smaller lots, tucked away and

UREAN

Parking Strategy
Upon completion of the
proposed garages, the
Downtown core will be
well served with
parking, as denoted by
five minute walking

radii. (left)

A well-defined parking
lot in the beart of
Lowell, Massachusetts
illustrates that small,
surface parking areas
can be tucked in and
around buildings and
landscaped creating a

pleasant street wall.

(right)

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

behind buildings, are more effective and
efficient than fewer larger lots, but the
location and availability may be difficult
to discern for visitors.

On-street parking should be intro-
duced wherever possible. If peak hour
traffic flow is an issue, parking can be
prohibited during rush hours. Cars
parked on the street provide convenient
short-term parking as well as acting as a
traffic calming barrier between cars and

pedestrians.

No new parking garages are immediately
needed. There is adequate parking to
serve today’s inventory of occupied com-
mercial/office/retail space as well as to

absorb the current vacancies (approxi-

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

mately 200,000 sq..ft. of
commercial/office/retail space). How-
ever, implementation of the Master Plan
will further intensify downtown uses and
necessitate the conversion of some sur-
face lots to structured lots. The Master
Plan proposes five potential sites for
parking garages. These new parking
garages, combined with the three exist-
ing garages will adequately serve down-
town upon build-out. The proposed
locations will correspond with places
where there is a current parking deficit,
or where new development will generate
future parking demand. With two
garages currently located on the west side
of Main Street, priority should be given
to a new structure on the east side of
Main Street. Any new parking facility
should be matched with a private sector
initiative. Parking should be shared to

balance the daytime and evening uses.

Spring Street Institutional Spine

The Master Plan proposes Spring Street
as an institutional spine. Currently sev-
eral public buildings are located along
Spring Street. However, they are not

connected to each other or related to

Main Street or the neighborhoods.