Attleboro plans downtown revitalization

THIS CLOSE-UP shows how the development will hug Attleboro's riverfront. /
THIS CLOSE-UP shows how the development will hug Attleboro's riverfront. /

Frank Cook, chairman of the Attleboro City Council’s finance committee, sees the council’s vote last month to approve a downtown renewal plan as the most important vote that any council member ever has taken or ever will take.
“Our future lies in moving forward with this project,” Cook said.
By a 10-to-1 margin, the council approved a $61 million plan to create an “urban village” in the heart of the city, featuring an enhanced transportation hub built around the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority train station as well as new residential and commercial development.
The council also authorized a $2.5 million bond to cover the city’s share of the $14.7 million cost of the first phase of the plan, which focuses on 26 acres along the riverfront and a six-acre industrial site; $10 million in federal grants will cover most of the rest of the cost.
Michael Milanoski, executive director of the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority, which drafted the plan, said the MBTA station and the city’s proximity to both Providence and Boston make downtown Attleboro a prime location for this kind of project.
“Where can you find 26 acres in a downtown and a commuter rail station adjacent to a river ready for development?” he said.
The plan is especially timely because, in addition to there being no more land to develop in New England, Milanoski said, the city’s commercial core has been sapped by suburban malls in the last few decades. In fact, the Emerald Square Mall, opened in 1989, is particularly close. And the newer Wrentham Village Premium Outlets has only increased the competition.
The Attleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, which represents about 700 businesses in the city and its surroundings, has supported the plan, focusing particularly on physical infrastructure improvements downtown “to support development and create a pleasant environment where people will want to shop, live, work and eat,” as the Chamber put it in a position paper last September, as well as on zoning changes to encourage private investment.
The Chamber also explicitly supported a proposal in the plan to develop an intermodal transportation center that incorporates a new parking garage, commuter rail and a bus terminal, as well as the creation of new public green spaces and promotion of arts and cultural institutions in the city.
Chamber President Jack Lank said he has lived in Attleboro for 23 years, and he has seen business slowly dwindle away after the mall and other big stores were built along Route 1. This project, he said, could revitalize downtown.
But the Chamber has raised some caveats: implementation of the plan should balance “the many financial needs of the city;” it should “not place any unreasonable financial burden on local businesses;” it should continually include input from businesses; and it should not involve takings of private property “without just compensation.”
Concerns about the latter were a key reason why Councilman Jim Hanley cast his lone dissenting vote on March 27. Hanley said there are still parcels that were taken by eminent domain for the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority’s 10-year-old industrial park project for which there have yet to be settlements, and he hasn’t seen an influx of investment.
Hanley said he is in favor of revitalizing downtown, but that it is backward to have a plan without having bankers and developers supporting the project.
The urban renewal plan has been in the works since 1999, when it began as a far more modest effort to improve the MBTA station. As approved by the city council, the plan now includes the development of 500 new housing units within downtown Attleboro, including new construction as well as the redevelopment of older buildings. It also includes the intermodal center, improved public parking and commercial development.
The project would mainly focus on developing three areas of downtown Attleboro: the downtown commercial district, the Union Street district and the riverfront. Also included are the six-acre Cookson Precious Metals site and Olive and Lamb streets.
The lion’s share of the development would be in the riverfront district, where a new residential neighborhood would be created along the river with 300 units of mixed-income housing.
Cook, who shepherded the plan through the city council, said the project is encouraging current business owners in downtown Attleboro, who now want to improve their own businesses. Cook added that people are for the plan.
Asked about the one “nay” vote, Milanoski said the plan represents change. Some people don’t like change, he added, but people must change to survive.

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