Newburyport: Evolving a Village

Well established New England towns tend to approach growth with the defensive posture that's necessary to preserve their built heritage. Development becomes either/or, or win/lose. Th following proposal takes a new direction, seeking to enhance life in a newer edge area by helping it evolve into a second village center.

"Here's a little urban development fantasy of mine. What if...

The commercial area of Storey Avenue was able to evolve into Newburyport's second village center? What would it look like? Why would we want it that way? What would be the upside/downsides? Here's how it might look:

I'm talking about the residential condos and apartments behind Duncan Donuts as well as the residential areas along Ferry Street, Low Street, and Storey Ave itself as being the 'catchments' area of the new village, supplying the foot and vehicle traffic to support 'village life'."

"It's not an especially architecturally significant section of the city and we could see some 21st century ideas as well as inoculating against too much change in the historic downtown area."

Thanks to ron martino