I led MAPC’s work in Downtown Lynn, Massachusetts from November 2012-May 2014. This project was the largest single-municipality planning project funded by the MetroBoston Consortium for Sustainable Communities, a grant from the Obama Administration’s Sustainable Communities program, and was supplemented by a match from MAPC. Our project built on existing downtown and waterfront revitalization efforts by providing geographic data, zoning recommendations, and an assessment of the resources needed within the community in order for Lynn’s dynamic and diverse center to achieve its greatest potential. As the project lead, I sought to create a plan that would help move Lynn forward by employing inclusive community engagement techniques and by bringing public, private, and nonprofit leaders together to articulate feasible, forward-looking strategies for positive change. This project resulted in a web-based plan for action, dtl.mapc.org, which I personally designed using Adobe Dreamweaver.
Following the project, the city has undertaken critical zoning changes, established a Housing Development Incentive Program and District approved by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development with my assistance, and was awarded a MassDevelopment Transformational Development Initiative (TDI) grant and TDI Fellow for three years. For many years following the completion of this project, Lynn city officials, business owners, developers, advocacy groups, residents, and other planning consultants continued to check in with me regarding progress on the plan’s recommendations. Today, MAPC continues innovative work with the City of Lynn, building on relationships forged during this critical project.
The project included creative outreach and engagement techniques. My project team interviewed dozens of Downtown residents, business owners, real estate professionals, Spanish speakers, community-based nonprofit organizations, arts organizations, and others. We also conducted a fun public forum in May 2013 that included entertainment, food, and opportunities to actively voice concerns, ideas, and opportunities for Downtown. The presentation below is a recap of this public forum, intended to recreate the event. Downtown Lynn resident and Arts After Hours business owner, Corey Jackson, wrote about the public forum in his blog Downtown Lynn (the post is no longer available), and MAPC intern Tien Le posted about the forum on the Planning101 blog.
The project also included development of an interactive property database. In addition to reviewing City Assessor’s data, zoning, and demographic data, MAPC used a platform and geocoded data collection product called LocalData to conduct a field survey of property conditions, land use, vacancies, signs, sprinklers, and other physical evidence of current investment and maintenance needs. We used volunteers, including Downtown residents, business owners, and a high school youth group to collect the data.
Creative and Inclusive Community Engagement
These slides recreate the May 2013 Open House and Public Forum, which included many creative techniques for audience engagement.
Lynn has a large Spanish-speaking population, which had not been actively engaged in previous planning efforts. Our multilingual project team visited local businesses, put up flyers in Spanish and English at key locations throughout Downtown, conducted stakeholder presentations and outreach in Spanish and English as well as outreach to a variety of different ethnic and cultural groups, and made Spanish language interpretation available at our public forums.
Property Analysis
