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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE - STM 2018-1 Warrant Article Analysis and Recommendations Article 2018-1.3: Appropriate for Center Streetscape Design Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation $6509000 1 GF Approve (8-1) This article seeks an appropriation of $650,000 from the General Fund to complete the design work for the Center Streetscape project. The Center Streetscape project addresses pedestrian and bike rider safety issues, as well as accessibility problems in the Center Business District stemming from roadways, sidewalks and lighting designed and constructed over fifty years ago. The Town anticipates that design work would be completed in time to support a request for appropriation of the construction funds necessary to complete the project, the total cost of which is now estimated at approximately $9.4 million, at the 2019 Annual Town Meeting. The current Center Business District roadway and sidewalk configuration was the result of a revitalization project designed by prominent local landscape architect Hideo Sasaki and constructed in the mid 1960's. While this project created an attractive Mid -Century Modernist atmosphere that for years made our center stand out, the aged infrastructure now has many shortcomings including: a high number of accidents where pedestrians and bikers have been injured (or even killed) by motor vehicles; sidewalks and crosswalks that do not meet current accessibility standards; deteriorating brick sidewalks that are uneven and have created stumbling and mobility hazards; and a roadway surface that needs regrading and resurfacing. At the 2012 Annual Town Meeting, $240,000 in design funds were appropriated to study Massachusetts Avenue, from the Woburn Street intersection to the Meriam Street intersection, and to address, among other things, the deficiencies in the current layout that contributed to these accidents. At the 2014 Annual Town Meeting, $600,000 was appropriated to bring forward a 25% design for renewed roadways, sidewalks, lighting and amenities on this stretch of road. Beta Associates was engaged for this work and, about halfway through the design process, initial designs were presented. Beta's proposed design met community re- sistance, in part because of a perception that it disregarded the historic aspects of the center's Mid -Century Modernist design. The Board of Selectmen subsequently convened the Ad Hoc Center Streetscape Design Advisory Committee to develop community-based acceptable design standards for sidewalk materials, lighting, trees, signage, furnishings, and accessibility. When controversy concerning the signalization of the Woburn Street intersection arose, the Board removed that intersection from the project. The updated 25% design incorporates the standards developed by the Ad Hoc committee and covers work that will affect Massachusetts Avenue from the Police Station driveway to the front of Cary Memorial Library, and Waltham Street from Vine Brook Road to the Massachusetts Avenue intersection. Estimated construction costs are detailed below.