To: Downtown Plan Community Advisory Committee

From: Thomas F. Galligani, Jr., Director of Economic Development

Date: September 7, 2001

If you haven’t commented on the latest version of the Downtown Lowell Master Plan, time is running out. The latest draft of the Downtown Lowell Master Plan was reviewed by a limited number of CAC members at the August 30^th meeting of the Community Advisory Committee and additional comments were sent to me via email. The final version of the Downtown Lowell Master Plan is scheduled to be printed in the last two weeks of September. Any CAC member who wishes to comment on the Plan, must do so by contacting me by Monday, September 17^th.

The Downtown Lowell Master Plan will be presented during two separate public meetings during the month of October—at a Lowell Planning Board and Lowell City Council meeting. You will be contacted as soon dates are confirmed. Your attendance at one or both of these meetings is strongly urged.

It was also suggested at the last meeting that a team comprised of three to five members of the CAC develop a presentation of the Downtown Lowell Master Plan to the Planning Board and City Council. Anyone member interested in participating in the presentation, and its preparation, should contact me as soon as possible at tgalliga@ci.lowell.ma.us or (978) 970-4285.

The minutes of last month’s meeting have been attached for your review.

Community Advisory Committee

Minutes- 08-30-01

Thomas Galligani, the Director of Economic Development opened the meeting by requesting the CAC to make their comments on the last draft of the Downtown Master Plan. Bill Lipchitz mentioned that while reading the Plan, he was not able to find enough reference to the potential growth on the ethnical diverse retail market in the Downtown. According to Bill, this segment of the market plays an important role in the local economy of the Downtown, which we cannot underestimate. Tom Galligani argued that the Plan mentions certain ethnic clusters such as the Upper Merrimack Street Asian cluster. Galligani stated that Lowell has potential to have unique ethnic oriented stores in the Downtown, which could give a unique flavor to Downtown Lowell and attract the population from the suburbs.

Although Colin McNiece mentioned that it is OK to integrate this ethnic diverse population aspect in the Downtown throughout galleries, restaurants, and retail stores, the idea of creating an ethnic district similar to "Chinatown" would not be feasible. The idea of a "Chinatown" for the Middlesex Street area was already suggested in the past, but McNiece does not think that this concept would work in Lowell. McNiece thinks that it would be more feasible to bring art galleries (i.e. Cambodian and Vietnamese art), restaurants and stores to the core of Downtown. Galligani mentioned that he wished Lowell had a Cambodian/ Vietnamese restaurant on Merrimack St, closer to the Downtown core. McNiece clarified that when we talk about the Downtown Core often only Merrimack Street comes to mind. We often ignore other important retail clusters such as Central, Market, and upper Merrimack Streets. However, these areas are mentioned in the Plan and have been incorporated in the "Market Analysis", and in the "Improvements Strategy" sections. McNiece mentioned the example of the upper Merrimack Street as a very successful ethnic retail cluster. According to McNiece, people have the perception that Merrimack Street ends at the Arcand Drive intersection, ignoring the upper side of Merrimack Street. Traffic improvements should be in place shortly to facilitate pedestrian access to this important Asian market cluster. Galligani concluded this discussion by mentioning that he will do a final review of the Master Plan in order to give more emphasis to this issue. Bill mentioned that the Plan defines the Downtown Planning Area and the Downtown Core, but the Central Street is not clearly mentioned as part of the Core.

The other issue mentioned was the Business Recruiting Strategy discussed in the Plan. Bill stated that the Plan does not clarify what types of businesses are favorable to the Downtown. A list of desirable businesses is in the Plan, but some of the CAC members suggested that the ethnic aspect of this market would bring a unique flavor to the Downtown Core. Mark Goldman brought the idea of finding a physical space, such a mill building and showcase all the different ethnic groups. Brown Miller stated that the most important aspect is to market Downtown Lowell as a destination point. Mr. Miller gave the examples of Boston and Philadelphia, suggesting a creation of a tri-dimensional map of the downtown area showing all the businesses and point of attractions. Colin mentioned that a similar map already exists and Galligani also informed the CAC that the Convention & Visitors Bureau recently published a map of the Downtown.

Bill showed his concern of how to implement the recommendations presented in the Plan. Tom Galligani stated that the Proposed "Downtown Plan Executive Board" should be the entity responsible for the implementation of the recommendations stated in the Plan. A mix of Downtown stakeholders and representatives from existing organizations would run this new downtown organization. Galligani mentioned that the Division and Planning and Development should not be the entity responsible to solve all the problems related with the Downtown. Diane Tradd and Kathleen Muldoon mentioned the Streetscape program as a good example of the City’s tools to revitalize the Downtown. Improvements on some of the storefronts in the Downtown could be done with City funds creating a starting point for future physical improvements using mainly private funds. The proposed Downtown Plan Executive Board should be responsible to finance and run these various downtown projects. Galligani informed the CAC that a Downtown Coordinator will be hired by DPD, and will be working under the supervision of the Economic Development Department. Kathleen Muldoon also mentioned that some of the downtown groups need support such as the Chamber of Commerce and the DLBA. Galligani suggested that different downtown groups could take advantage of this new Downtown Executive Board, i.e. sharing administrative and other operating expenses.

Bill suggested that the proposed Downtown Executive Board could use the same structure of the Center City Committee, making use of its existing non-profit and organizational structure. Bill asked Tom if the funds available from the City for the creation of the new cultural organization and the Downtown Coordinator could be combined and used by the proposed Executive Board. Mr. Smith agrees that now is the right time to start looking for candidates for the Downtown Executive Board. The Downtown Plan suggests a nineteen-member executive board.

The CAC also mentioned mandatory retail use for the first floor. Galligani informed that this issue has been discussed in the Plan and is included in the recommendations.

The CAC agreed that the Plan is almost complete, and gave the "green light" to DPD staff to print the final color version of the document after a final spelling check, and a final review of some of the recommendations. The CAC insisted that the final document should be completed in the next few weeks. Bill Lipshitz suggested having the Plan online for public access. Galligani informed the CAC that, due to the extensive size of the file, the complete document cannot be online. It was agreed that the "Executive Summary" and the "Downtown Improvement Strategy" chapters should be available online (Center City Committees’ website) as well as these meeting minutes.

Everyone agreed that the DPD staff should send a letter to the absent CAC members and give them a deadline to present their comments. Past this deadline, and following the final revision of this Plan done by the DPD staff, a color version of the Final Plan should be reproduced.

CAC member also offered to help DPD staff to work in the presentation of the Downtown Master Plan to the Planning Board and to the City Council.