CONWAY SCHOOL CONNECTIVITY PROJECT - City of ...
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CONWAY SCHOOL CONNECTIVITY PROJECT
Come voice your opinion about the
Easthampton Trail
Connectivity Project
at a public meeting!
The EASTHAMPTON
CONNECTIVITY PROJECT
What:
Graduate students at the Conway School are working with the Planning
Department to develop a conceptual multi-use trail network connecting
local schools, Nonotuck Park, and downtown to the residential commu-
nity and the Manhan Rail Trail.
When: Where:
Tuesday, February 12th Café Commons
from 4pm-5:30pm Easthampton High School
70 Williston Ave
Easthampton, MA 01027
*Child-care drop-in provided from 4pm-5:30pmThe mission of the Conway School is to explore, develop, practice, and teach design of the land that is ecologically and socially sustainable.
January 28, 2019
Jeff Bagg, City Planner
City Planning Department
5 Payson Avenue
Easthampton, MA 01075
Email: JBagg@easthamptonma.gov
Dear Mr. Bagg,
Thank you for taking the time to meet with us on Thursday, January 10, 2019, to
discuss the Easthampton Trail Connectivity Project. We are excited to contribute to
Easthampton’s growing efforts to become a more sustainable and connected city.
Based on our conversation we understand that the primary goal of this project is to
develop a plan for a comprehensive, multi-use trail network that connects
neighborhoods, the new K-8 school, Easthampton High School, Williston
Northampton School, and downtown Easthampton.
The enclosed proposal addresses the project scope, summarizes the services we will
provide, reviews the report’s contents, gives a timeline for the project, and reviews
the payment schedule. If you are in agreement with the contents, please sign and
return the Proposal and Agreement. We will sign and return copies to you for your
records. We have also enclosed biographies of our team members for your
information.
We look forward to working with you, the City of Easthampton, and other
stakeholders to build on the groundwork already laid for achieving Easthampton’s
vision to become a more bikeable and walkable city. If you have any questions or
concerns regarding the proposal, or any element of the project, please feel free to
contact us via e-mail at easthamptontrails2019@csld.edu.
Sincerely,
Kristen Gessinger
Mary Sage Napolitan
Mallory RaskyProposal for Easthampton Trail Connectivity Plan
Date: January 28, 2019
Submitted to: Jeff Bagg, City Planner
City of Easthampton
Planning Department
5 Payson Avenue
Easthampton, MA 01075
Submitted by: Kristen Gessinger, Mary Sage Napolitan, & Mallory Rasky
The Conway School
88 Village Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Overview
The City of Easthampton is made up of a patchwork of residential neighborhoods, town-owned
properties, historic mill buildings, protected farmland, and open spaces including the beloved
Nonotuck Park, Mount Tom Reservation, and Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. The history of
Easthampton is closely tied to the development of its mills, large industrial buildings that have
helped define the layout and character of the downtown with its growing arts district and mixed
use spaces.
The city has embarked on many ambitious projects in recent years to improve city infrastructure,
support residents’ quality of life, and welcome visitors and new residents to the area. Town
projects include the construction of the Easthampton portion of the Manhan Rail Trail, acquisition
of new protected open spaces, and the Easthampton Bike Initiative, which will involve joining the
ValleyBike Share program and other efforts to improve residents’ access to bicycles. Residents of
the city also recently approved the building of a new K-8 school, to be opened in 2021. The
opening of this school will correspond with the closing of Pepin, Center, and Maple elementary
schools, which will be retained by the City for other public uses to be determined. Additional
schools in Easthampton include Easthampton High School and the private Williston Northampton
School.The City of Easthampton is seeking a conceptual multi-use trail connectivity plan to support the
goals iterated in its 2008 Master Plan and 2013 Open Space and Recreation Plan. The Master
Plan stresses the importance of improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, encouraging alternative
modes of transportation throughout the city, and complying with Safe Routes to Schools
guidelines. The Open Space and Recreation Plan emphasizes the need to connect
neighborhoods, parks, and schools through formal bike lanes and more sidewalks.
Scope of Services
The mission of the Conway School is to explore, develop, practice, and teach design of the land
that is ecologically and socially sustainable.
A team of graduate students from the Conway School will generate a report that inventories and
analyzes current connectivity patterns, and includes a proposal for potential multi-use trail
networks specifically focused on the project area including the new K-8 School, Easthampton
High School, Williston Northampton School, and Nonotuck Park. The team will use information
gathered from community meetings, stakeholder input, GIS data layers, city maps, and additional
resources to determine assets and barriers to connectivity and safe pedestrian access within the
project area. The final report will provide the City with recommendations for a feasible conceptual
trail network that can be further developed in the future into more detailed, site-specific designs
for implementation.
The Conway team agrees to:
● Meet with Jeff Bagg and other Easthampton representatives as needed, and consult via
telephone and email as well as in person.
● Lead two community meetings with resident stakeholders to present the project and gather
relevant feedback from community members.
● Conduct a broad-scale ecological analysis of the project area.
● Inventory and analyze accessibility and connectivity between Easthampton schools,
residential neighborhoods within the project area, and Nonotuck Park.
● Develop a conceptual trail network for improved connectivity within the project area.
Jeff Bagg, Easthampton City Planner, agrees to:
● Consult with the Conway School team as needed, by phone, email, or in person, and
provide information and materials as available.● Act as the primary contact between the students, City representatives and community
stakeholders.
● Arrange a location for community meetings, advertise meetings, and introduce students at
those meetings.
● Attend formal presentations at the Conway School on February 22, 2019.
● Consolidate stakeholder responses and provide timely feedback to the Conway team on
draft reports.
● Distribute the final report to appropriate recipients.
Schedule
Initial client meeting: January 10, 2019
Information gathering: January 7- Late January, 2019
First community meeting: Late January 2019
Analysis and Project Development: Early February - February 22, 2019
Second community meeting: Mid-February 2019
Formal presentations: February 22, 2019
Draft document comment period: March 11-15, 2019
Project Delivery Date: April 15, 2019
Deliverables to follow include two bound hard copies of the project document and an electronic
PDF version of the same.
Project Fees and Paperwork
The fee for this project is $9,999 (inclusive of travel costs), which is paid in two installments. You
were invoiced for the first half of this project fee prior to the beginning of the project. You will be
invoiced for the the remainder of the fee upon receipt of the final project.
Agreement
The attached Agreement is to be signed by the client and returned to CSLD as a necessary part
of this proposal. Once a signed copy of the Agreement is received, it will be signed by Conway’s
Academic Director and a copy will be returned to you for your records.Team Biographies Kristen Gessinger grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Colorado College in 2009 with a B.A. in Political Science. Kristen eventually moved to Portland, Oregon, where she lived for the past eight years. Her experience living in Portland, and watching it grow rapidly, inspired her interest in landscape design and sustainable development, which ultimately led her to the Conway School. Prior to Conway, Kristen’s background is in childcare and she has experiential insight into the needs of families and children in regard to their communities. Mary Sage Napolitan is from Martha’s Vineyard, MA. She graduated in 2012 from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Ecological Agriculture. Since 2015, she has worked at the non-profit organization Island Grown Initiative as a school garden coordinator and community food educator, and she is attending the Conway School with the support of a Vision Fellowship awarded for progressive commitment to sustainability. Although her professional work has been largely focused on food systems, she has broad interest in ecological stewardship, social ethics, and design. Mallory Rasky is from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, a northwest Chicago suburb. In 2015, she graduated from Drake University with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and Music (percussion). After college, she joined a conservation corps through AmeriCorps working on trail maintenance in state and national parks throughout the southwest and southeast. Most recently, she worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden doing a variety of jobs, from restoring the prairie and river corridors as an ecological technician, presenting butterfly releases as an assistant horticulturist in the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit, and monitoring rare and native plants as a Chicago Park District Research Assistant.These experiences led Mallory to pursue further education at the Conway School in order to promote ecology through design and interpretation. The Conway School is the only institution of its kind in North America. Its focus is sustainable landscape planning and design and its graduates are awarded a Master of Science in Ecological Design degree. Each year, through its accredited ten month graduate program students from diverse backgrounds are immersed in a range of real-world design projects, ranging in scale from residences to regions. Graduates go on to play significant professional roles in various aspects of landscape planning and design. Jeff Bagg, City Planner Signature:______________________________________ Date: _________________________________________ Ken Byrne, Academic Director, Conway School Signature:______________________________________ Date: _________________________________________ Attachments - Agreement
EASTHAMPTON BIKE INITIATIVE 2018
CONNECTIVITY A $10,000 PROJECT WITH THE CONWAY SCHOOL TO DEVELOP A CONCEPTUAL MULTI-USE TRAIL NETWORK TO THE NEW K-8 SCHOOL. IT WILL BECOME THE BASIS FOR FUTURE SITE SPECIFIC DESIGNS
EXPLORATION A $225,000 STATE GRANT TO PAY FOR THE EQUIPMENT NECESSARY TO BECOME PART OF THE VALLEYBIKE SHARE PROGRAM WITH APPROXIMATELY 4 STATIONS AND 35 ELECTRIC ASSIST BIKES
AVAILABILITY A RE-VAMPED BIKE AUCTION PROGRAM W I L L B E E X PA N D E D TO R E C E I V E DONATED BIKES FOR RESIDENTS OF ALL AGES TO GET ACCESS TO A BIKE AND NECESSARY EDUCATION AND EQUIPMENT
CITY OF EASTHAMPTON
Mayor Nicole LaChapelle
50 Payson Avenue, Suite 115,
Easthampton, MA 01027- 2263
413-529-1470 Fax 413-529-1488
e-mail: mayor@easthamptonma.gov
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information, Contact:
City Planner Jeffrey Bagg
City of Easthampton
50 Payson Avenue
Easthampton, MA 01027
(413) 529-1406
jbagg@easthamptonma.gov
EASTHAMPTON ANNOUNCES NEW BIKE INITIATIVE
Future multi-purpose trail to new school envisioned, ValleyBike Share, and new
bike donation program planned
Easthampton, Massachusetts, October 16, 2018 - The City of
Easthampton Planning Department in coordination with the
Mayor’s office was awarded a grant from the Housing Choice
Program for its work and achievements on providing new
housing over the past five years.
“I’d like to congratulate Easthampton on receiving this
significant grant and thank the Baker Administration and
my colleagues in the Legislature for making this funding
available for the betterment of our communities,” said Don
Humason.
The grant will be used, in part, to launch a new initiative aimed
at providing new bicycle access in Easthampton to residents and
visitors. The new initiative is spurred on and supported by three
key projects:1. A $10,000 project with the Conway School of Landscape
Design to develop a conceptual multi-use trail network to
the new K-8 school which will become the basis for future
site-specific designs.
2. A $225,000 state grant to pay for the equipment necessary
for Easthampton to become part of the Valley Bike share
program and install 4-5 bike rental stations and
approximately 35 electric assist bikes.
3. A new re-vamped bike auction program will be expanded
to receive donated bikes to create opportunities for
residents of all ages to get access to a bike and necessary
education and equipment.
Over the course of the next 8-12 months, the City of
Easthampton is poised to begin this initiative which will help
provide access to bikes for all users including residents and
visitors. The key elements of the projects will be:
Connectivity – The City was recently selected by the Conway
School of Landscape Design to participate in their winter land
use planning term. The project will provide us with an initial
opportunity to explore potential options for connecting the
existing bike path to the new K-8 school. Immediately
following the vote to fund the new K-8 school at the White
Brook Middle School property, the Planning Department
(supported by others) began to urge that the time to begin
exploring this option was now. The goal to connect the bike
path to neighborhoods, and especially schools, was identified
clearly in the 2008 Master Plan. This project will allow for
the exploration of potential routes, options, and barriers to
making the connection from certain areas to the new K-8
school. It will create a foundation for potential future design
work and more substantial funding requests that could align in
time to be a part of the new school opening in 2021. The
project will begin in the winter of 2018/2019.
Exploration – The Department of Housing and Urban
Development (DHCD) grant will cover the costs of locating
and installing numerous bike share kiosks and approximately
35 electric assist bikes to be located in Easthampton. This
project will allow Easthampton to become the sixth
community in a consortium of nearby municipalities thatmake up Valley Bike Share. The other towns are Amherst,
South Hadley, Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield. The
Bike Share system will build upon our existing characteristics
and help us grow and support residents and visitors. The bike
path brings in residents and visitors who support local
businesses and will help to create new economic development
opportunities derived from the bike path. To view the
ValleyBike Share program, click here:
https://www.valleybike.org/. The bike share systems should
be in place by June 2019.
Availability – The project will include providing more access
to bicycles for residents of Easthampton. The City has for
years conducted successful auctions of bikes obtain by the
Police Department. The revamped program will seek donated
bikes to help ensure that anyone in Easthampton who wants a
bike can get access to one. This program can grow to include
bike safety training opportunities, bike repair options, and
engagement of our youth. The goal is to provide additional
access to bicycles by summer 2019.
Easthampton has a truly rich history of supporting bicycles. The
creation, expansion, and continued popularity of the Manhan
Rail Trail supports our creative economy. It provides
alternatives to using cars and allows a truly unique recreational
experience. Avid cyclists or leisure bikers, families to walkers,
the Manhan Rail Trail continues to help define Easthampton.
Combined, these projects will begin to explore and connect our
neighborhoods and schools, broaden ridership, and enhance
access to equipment and education about the benefits of
bicycling.
Other ongoing bike-related activities include:
▪ The City Council recently approved a revision to the city’s
bicycle ordinance due to safety concerns for cyclists and
which now allows for full lane use by cyclists.
▪ The City will receive $2.5 million dollars from MassDOT
for the full reconstruction of Union Street in 2021 which
include upgraded bike access (lanes and “sharrows”) and
enhancement of the Manhan Rail Trail crossing.
▪ The City has become a partner with the MassBike coalition
to support “bike to work” and “bike to school” days.▪ The Millpond Live concert series successfully incorporated
and encouraged arrival by bikes through a popular “bike
valet” program.
▪ Other private events have been organized around the bike
path, including a monthly “slow ride” rolling gathering.
▪ In 2014, the City received grant funding to install pole
mounted lights along a portion of the bike path between
Union Street and the Mill District.
Attached is a short visual presentation.
****
About the Manhan Rail Trail: Nestled in the heart of the
scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, Easthampton’s
Manhan Rail Trail offers unique recreational opportunities to
people of all ages and interests. Bike, jog, roller blade, cross
country ski or simply enjoy a leisurely stroll on what was once a
viable rail corridor. The first section of the 5 mile (off-road)
paved trail was completed in 2003 after 10 years of planning and
fundraising. A second section opened in the spring of 2011 and a
third section was completed in 2016. It is proposed that
eventually, the trail will connect all the way from New Haven,
Connecticut to Northampton, Massachusetts and beyond.
About the Conway School of Landscape Design: The Conway
School’s graduate program in landscape design and planning
equips students with a Master of Science in Ecological Design in
ten months. Students work on real projects for real clients,
learning an effective, practical design process rooted in
ecological thinking. Through Conway’s intimate, intensive, and
collaborative environment, students gain the skills they need to
address complex environmental and social challenges, such as
water quality, climate resiliency, food access and security,
habitat connectivity, and environmental justice. The Conway
School is located in Northampton, Massachusetts, and looks
forward to connecting with prospective students, clients, and
other partners.
About ValleyBike Share: The communities of Amherst,
Holyoke, Northampton, South Hadley, and Springfield, along
with the University of Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission have contracted a collaboration andpartnership with Bewegen Technologies and Corps Logistics to bring bike share to our region. To meet the Pioneer Valley’s unique challenges, ValleyBike Share is designed to promote short bike trips within core communities, where clusters of large employers, colleges, shopping, tourist destinations and residents can readily be connected. About the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition: The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) promotes a bicycle-friendly environment and encourages bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation. MassBike’s vision for the future is that bicycling in Massachusetts is a safe, respected, convenient, and enjoyable way to get around. Roads throughout the state are safe and welcoming for cyclists, and all users interact in a courteous and legal manner. Car-free pathways connect our communities, bicycles are fully integrated into our public transportation system, and secure bike parking is located where people need it. People of all kinds and means choose to bicycle for life, work, and play.
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