Mayor, DPW expect Complete Streets to focus downtown

April 13, 2022 | Peter Currier
pcurrier@thereminder.com

WESTFIELD — The City Council voted 10-2 to implement a Complete Streets ordinance April 7, and city officials will now need to decide which streets in Westfield will be the first to see an official Complete Streets project.

Mayor Michael McCabe, a proponent of the Complete Streets program, said that the city will now go through the process of determining which streets in Westfield are amenable to such an upgrade. Complete Streets is a Massachusetts Department of Transportation program that provides funding for cities and towns to re-engineer roadways to better accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit alongside personal vehicles.

“It is a step towards making our city safer,” said McCabe.

McCabe said he would seek input from ward councilors about which streets in each individual ward would benefit most from a Complete Streets overhaul. Much of the initial focus will likely be in the roads surrounding the downtown corridor, including the Franklin Street area.

Interim Public Works Director Fran Cain said that having the program would be a good thing for Westfield, as it provides the city extra funding for street upgrade projects. As a party to the program, Westfield will have four years to spend $400,000 in MassDOT funds on Complete Streets projects.

Cain said that the project could include additions such as raised islands as “traffic calming measures.” The recent rebuilding of Western Avenue by MassDOT put the street in compliance with Complete Streets, even though the city was not part of the program at the time. It features raised islands, clearly defined bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks to better accommodate pedestrians.

“If we were doing it already, the only thing we are missing out on is funding,” said McCabe. “When people complain that we don’t have any money, this is a perfect solution to part of that problem.”

Though the program was passed by a wide margin by the City Council, it had its detractors ahead of the vote. Councilors Dan Allie and Nicholas Morganelli Jr. voted against the program. Allie linked the program to Agenda 21, a nonbinding United Nations resolution from 1992 that aims to encourage sustainable development in developing countries, and said it removes local control from road construction projects.

He also noted that the City Council had rejected the program in 2016, as did other surrounding communities at the time. Since then, Holyoke, Agawam, Longmeadow, Springfield, Northampton and Easthampton, among others, have each implemented Complete Streets.

McCabe denied Allie’s claims linking Complete Streets to Agenda 21, and said that the program was different than when City Council first took it up, with fewer strings attached now.

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