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| Planning for Quincy's redevelopment | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | UPDATES | |
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UPDATES
DAY 1 STORIES
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GROWING SMARTLYRevitalization plans seem perfect fit
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GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger
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| Vacant storefronts currently plague Hancock Street. |
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| Click above to view map of Developing Quincy (requires Macromedia Flash Player). |
Call it “smart growth.” Call it good planning.
To Douglas Foy, the chief of commonwealth development, the goal is simple: maintain and improve traditional town centers.
“We all live in New England for reasons other than the weather,” said Foy, Gov. Mitt Romney’s top aide on development issues. “We live in New England and Massachusetts because we have great cities and towns.”
Foy’s enthusiasm for downtowns isn’t just about keeping things quaint or his nostalgia for years gone by. It’s about money.
The state has a limited amount of cash to invest in transportation and other infrastructure improvements. That money goes farther in communities with traditional village centers than in suburbs marked by sprawl, Foy said.
Take these examples.
If Quincy goes through with its current plans to build a new high school downtown, students can take the T or use existing public bus routes to get there, saving money on transporting children and keeping cars off the road, Foy said.
The state could also get more bang for its buck by improving existing roads and making the public transit system cleaner and more user-friendly than it might by building new roads to far-flung, less densely populated regions, Foy said.
“I think a smart growth strategy is a way to spend your money wisely,” he said. “The real reason it should be done is there are only so many public resources available to provide transportation, sewage, education and other elements of government. You need to target them in ways the delivery is cost-effective.”
What all that means is the Romney administration will be looking more favorably on plans that call for utilizing “smart growth” principles.
If Quincy moves forward with plans to redevelop its center, it might be able to rely on financial help from the state for key projects, like finishing the much-talked-about Quincy Center Concourse and fixing chronic flooding problems near the Hancock lot, a potential development site. Both are multi-million dollar projects.
Foy isn’t prepared to make promises, but he, too, sees opportunity in a revived Quincy Center.
“The state has its own reason for wanting to see this future unfold in the city of Quincy,” he said. “To the degree we have the same vision, I think we have the opportunity for magic.
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