Northampton Design Forum on March 11 2009

PRESS RELEASE

The Northampton Design Forum will hold an open public forum on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7 PM in the Bridge St. School Cafeteria to roll out “Envisioning Sustainable Northampton.” This is the book prepared for our City by the Notre Dame Graduate Urban Design Studio as a result of their visit to Northampton last fall. The event will have two components. It will begin with a brief introduction to the book itself leading to a general discussion of how planning and design relate to the City’s sustainability goals. Joel Russell (former chairman of the Design Forum and a member of the rezoning committee) will moderate this portion of the program. It will include comments by Wayne Feiden about this topic and be based on the “10 Principals of Good Neighborhood Design” from the book. There will be ample time for comments, discussion and questions.

After a short break, Aaron Helfand, who is a Northampton native and one of the members of the Graduate Urban Design Studio, will use the Notre Dame group’s vision for the parking lots along Hampton Ave. and the old Mill River bed as an example of the type of thinking that could help us imagine what we would like our City to be in the future. Wayne Feiden will talk about the City’s ideas for this area. This portion of the forum will be moderated by Bob Reckman, who is a member of the City Council member and the NDF. There will be ample time for questions and discussion. We will project a large image of the plan at the front of the room. It is important to remember that this is simply a vision rather than an actual proposal.

Printed and electronic copies of Envisioning Sustainable Northampton are available at both Forbes and Lilly Libraries. They are also available for purchase in either printed form ($40) or on a CD ($5) at Paradise Copies, 21 Conz St. You can also learn more about the Urban Design Studio at http://sites.google.com/site/northamptoncharrette/Home. This site describes their visit and includes all the drawings that they produced as a result of a week of intense charrettes here and a semester of drawing.

It is our hope that this forum will provide an opportunity for the members of the public, the Mayor, the City Council, the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission and the Rezoning Committee to talk about these important issues in a productive and collaborative manner. It purpose it to begin a community conversation about our future, rather than to express support or criticism of the Notre Dame plan. We have invited all the members of there groups to come as citizen rather than a representatives of anhy particular board or organization. These community leaders rarely have an opportunity to meet in this kind of informal setting and talk to one another and the public about their visions of our future. The meeting will last no more than 2 hours.

The Ward 3 Neighborhood Association is an enthusiastic co-sponsor of the forum. Councilor David Narkewicz is also supportive and involved. Questions should be addressed to Bob Reckman at 413-695-0281. We encourage everyone who is interested to join us on March 11, 2009 at 7 PM at Bridge St. School.