Urbanizing my Hometown: Saugus

[BostonUrbEx]

I find the southern portions of Saugus to be within reasonable distance of Boston to qualify for more density and better bus service, but as is now, the planning clearly sucks and everyone drives to everything, even down the street.

I decided to start with Cliftondale Sq, a stone's throw away from Revere, it seems to be the most sensible place to start; in my opinion it would be one of the easiest parts to redevelop and needs it the most. It has a small commercial base which is then surrounded almost entirely by single family homes with no market or convenience store all that close. The roads are clogged constantly with parked cars on both sides, which frankly this street cannot handle. Walking is treacherous from sunrise to sunset.


This is the area today: http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=42.448735,-71.008549&spn=0.00232,0.005681&t=h&z=18

Here's what I have for Phase One:

Phase One immediately sets the permanent street layout, reconfigures the circle to allow better traffic management and improve pedestrian options to a very significant degree, and sets the parking maximum. All parking in front of businesses is prohibited and there will be no more parking lots or on site parking outside of the designated parking lots or residential driveways.

Residences purchased and razed: 5 (5 single family homes)

Phase Two will improve the remaining commercial lots and will convert the pocket of houses on the dead end streets at the bottom into a few floors of apartments or something.

So, the zoning:

Dark Blue: Commercial/Mixed Use. Minimum 3 floors, maximum 4 floors. 1st floor must be retail. 2nd floor retail, office, doctor, or residential. 3rd-4th floors office, doctor or residential.
Medium Blue: Commercial. Minimum 2 floors, maximum 3 floors. 1st-2nd floor retail, office, or doctor. 3rd floor office or doctor.
Light Blue: Commercial. Maximum 2 floors. All floors retail, office, or doctor.
Emerald Green: High residential, no build in Phase One.
Lime Green: Medium residential, no build in Phase One.
Pastel Green: Low residential, no build in Phase One.
Light Olive: Park/Green Space
Beige: Plaza
Dark Gray: Parking, access, or otherwise paved.



This is mostly just blowing time with some fantasizing, but would it be worth it to toss it at the Saugus planning board or something (I have no idea how this town works)? At the very least I would like to see them get parking off the streets and follow through with changing the traffic circle as shown.

 

[Patrick]

I think the zoning you mentioned sounds like a Form based Code, and it might be worth bringing it up not to the planning board but to the City Council or maybe the Planning Staff to then bring it up to the Council (or whatever, the government). Massachusetts has a lot of instances of this type of zoning being considered, and the Hamilton Canal district in Lowell is a place that has actually adopted it, after a long public input process. FBC does what you desire, re-establishes street networks and requires min/max heights with certain uses on certain levels of the building. If you are not familiar with FBC, you might be interested. The planner for Somerville knows quite a bit about FBC, actually. Might be a good contact. Last name is Proakis or something like that.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

That's not a bad idea and one that actually seems rational and practical. You should start talking with city officials, planning staff (who probably would take your side), and just getting your message out there. It will take time but this is feasible.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Something different I've taken up, on the opposite side of town... I kind of left the original idea hanging. The idea is make the 428 bus utilized (it is literally empty once it goes west of Rt 1, and then continues all the way to Wakefield High School) and to hinge off of Melrose's rather decent development all things considered, and get some sort of bus loop going off of Melrose Highlands and Melrose Cedar Park stations over to this area. Melrose citizens have commented on the lack of east-west transit and maybe this could bring that about.

There would be absolutely no parking on main streets, and all parking must be hidden behind developments on main streets whenever possible. The major streets are Lynn Fells Pkwy (bottom left, hooks up to the top right), Main St (right to top left), and Howard St (left to center, ending at Main St, but extended on map to top (the extension would not be considered a "major" street)). Bus cutouts on Main St between Lynn Fells and Howard for use by 428 and potential loop route from Melrose.

This is sort of a Phase I, where I just want to get my foot in the door and set the pace for sweeping zoning changes in this whole neighborhood. Bike lanes are something all of the major roads here could have right now, there's wide shoulders except at the intersections, which I would hope could be addressed with these changes. Some of the corners are so wide and cars just whip around them, definitely not good for bikes. And the crosswalks are non-existent/suck.

Only obstacle with this is convincing the landlord who has the Howard extension run through his property. I'd hope he'd sell it to the town if we can convince him to develop in what would be a more attractive method (ie: profitable and sustainable).

 

[Patrick]

I think these are some pretty cool ideas...the good thing about urbanism is that it can happen at virtually any scale, and any population, so you don't need to wait for Saugus to be further absorbed into greater Boston for it to become "urban" -- all the key ingredients are most likely there already, but are not "arranged' correctly. I think your proposals have taken a step in the right direction in terms of making the arrangement better. Ham, cheese and bread only become a sandwich when put together in the right way...same with urbanism and true city comforts.