CLAREMONT — They want to make Pleasant Street a destination, not a truck route.
City officials, with support from members of the business community, are mobilizing behind a plan to revitalize what had long been the aorta of Claremont’s downtown shopping district before a string of vacant storefronts turned Pleasant Street into a symbol of the city’s post-industrial decline.
A long-gestating revitalization plan came into sharper focus earlier this month as the city unveiled crucial details of how it proposed to convert a stretch of Pleasant Street downtown to make it one-way southbound, reroute trucks around it, widen the sidewalks to 16½ feet on each side and introduce angled parking.
The cost of the project, which also would involve infrastructure upgrades to separate sewer lines and storm water runoff, would come to $4.5 million, according to city officials. But there would be little or no extra burden on taxpayers than present because the new bonds to pay for the project would kick in only after the city’s current bond payments are set to end, city officials said.
“It’s a good time to do this,” said Ed Morris, Claremont city manager, citing cost advantages that have aligned in the current economic environment. “Interest rates are at or near historical lows and the bids we are getting back on construction projects are a bit lower than a year ago.”
Morris said he hopes the City Council will vote to approve the plan later this summer in order to sell the bond in time for the 2021 construction season.
Reviving Pleasant Street, which once drew people from across the Upper Valley to roam Woolworth’s, Montgomery Ward and the J.J. Newberry five-and-dime store, has been discussed and debated for decades in Claremont.
But the initiative had been stymied either by prioritizing other redevelopment efforts — such as the tax increment finance districts on Water Street and River Road — or a City Council reluctant to take on new spending commitments. This time may be different, however — or at least some downtown business people hope.
“I just want them to pull the trigger. I think we’ve talked about it long enough,” said Gary Trottier, owner of the mixed-use Union Block building at the corner of Pleasant Street and Opera House Square. “Even if there is a small (tax) increase, a rebuilt Pleasant Street will pay for itself many times over.”
At present the 2½ block stretch of Pleasant Street between Opera House Square and Glidden Street features a smattering of restaurants and small shops. There are six vacant storefronts on the east side of the street and four on the west side.
The biggest recent change has been at the Goddard Block, an $11 million, 36-unit affordable housing renovation project that opened this past spring. Many see the Goddard Block as an inflection point for a Pleasant Street revival.
“The Goddard Block got things rolling by bringing young people into downtown,” Trottier said. “Young people bring enthusiasm and vibrancy.”
Claremont’s City Council already authorized $200,000 over the two previous budget cycles for a traffic study and a preliminary engineering study to weigh various options on how Pleasant Street could be improved. The engineering study has been undertaken by McFarland-Johnson, of Concord, the same firm that handled the $14 million Concord Main Street Project a few years ago.
McFarland-Johnson has conducted several input sessions with residents and other stakeholders to get their feedback on what they would like to see happen to Pleasant Street.
“What we heard from the public was a desire to change this section of Pleasant Street from what feels like a state highway running through the center of the city to a destination that attracts people to the center of the city,” said Brian Colburn, the McFarland-Johnson engineer who had led the project.
“The main goal of this project for rethinking Pleasant Street is to change the focus of this stretch of roadway from simply moving cars through Claremont to attracting people, becoming a destination, making it more pedestrian-friendly with wider sidewalks, trees, benches, and with the goal of facilitating economic development, new housing, new businesses in the downtown area,” Colburn said.
The first order of business has been to figure out a way to reroute trucks, coming from both north and south, which roll down Pleasant Street at the rate of 12 per hour during peak times.
Under the proposed plan, Pleasant Street would become one-way southbound and closed to trucks from Opera House Square to Glidden Street, and the sidewalk widening would occur along the same area. Glidden Street, which connects to Broad Street, is currently two-way, but would also become one-way from Pleasant Street to Broad Street.
Trucks coming up Route 11 from the south now normally use Pleasant Street as a through-way but would instead be directed to turn right onto South Street and then left onto Broad Street, from which they could connect to either Route 12/Route 11 or Route 103.
Trucks coming from the north and east of the city would take North Street and then make a left onto Main Street. Once on Main Street they would take a right onto Union Street which feeds into Mulberry, where they would continue until it reconnected with Pleasant Street.
Colburn said the introduction of angled street parking would result in the loss of nine spaces, but the city is in talks with property owners to accommodate parking in lots on the backside of the buildings. Lighting would be added to improve visibility at night.
Benches would be installed and trees planted to provide shade.
Business owners last week were upbeat about a one-way truck-free Pleasant Street.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Errol Letman, owner of Sunshine Cookshop, a Jamaican restaurant that was doing a brisk lunchtime business last week. “It might add a little more life into the downtown area.
A few doors away, April Woodman, owner of 100 Mile Market, which sells produce, meats, fruit and packaged food all sourced from within its namesake distance from Claremont, said the city’s plans were “fabulous.”
“It would show commitment and investment in the downtown and a goal to bring people here, not just come to Washington Street,” she said.
Nancy Merrill, Claremont’s city planning and development director, said she remembers Friday night shopping excursions to Pleasant Street from when she was growing up in Lebanon decades ago.
“Back in the ’60s, Route 12A (in West Lebanon) was a farm and Pleasant Street was the place to go,” she said.
Merrill doesn’t expect those days to return, and the object of the revitalization project would not be to recreate the Pleasant Street of old. Washington Street in Claremont and 12A now permanently have a lock as commercial corridors.
“When you look at it now, people aren’t necessarily going to city centers anymore just to shop. People go to city centers for the experience, meeting friends for coffee, maybe going to the opera house. It’s not just retail anymore,” Merrill said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
