Hartford 2010’s supporters last week outlined six neighborhood areas’ potential for new jobs, housing and retail – illustrated with pictures of happy, fictional Hartford residents strolling around the spruced-up streetscapes.
Now the city and the MetroHartford Alliance just need developers to turn those envisioned streetscapes into reality.
“We’re really passing from concept to execution,” said Ken Greenberg, an urban planner who presented details of the project at City Hall on June 5.
The idea is to add thousands of jobs, hundreds of residences and mixed-use space to put them in – and bring actual happy Hartford residents and visitors in those areas.
With the plans sketched out, the idea now is to market Hartford to developers, Greenberg said.
“This is all about an actionable plan, not just creating more paper,” he said.
Linkage
Improvements are meant to link the six main areas to the downtown, in addition to making them destinations in their own right. South Green, Terry Square, North Main Street, Main Street downtown, Upper Albany and Farmington-Asylum are seen as possible bridges that would connect different areas of Hartford to each other.
Traffic flow improvements are on the agenda for each of the areas, including improved signal timing and altered lane widths: Streetscape improvements such as landscaping and benches would ideally make the places more walkable.
But again, the issue is how to create places that all these future pedestrians would want to visit.
It’s far too early to specify the kind of retail, housing and office that might go into such spaces, but Greenberg stressed that the areas had plenty of room for such developments.
Developments along the Main Street corridor of downtown, for example, could add 2,100 jobs and 550 residences in its nearly two million square feet of potential space.
The wedge of land between Asylum and Farmington has a potential for 1.75 million square feet of residential, office, retail and hotel space. South Green could turn into a multi-ethnic meeting place to link with Park Street, South Downtown and Colt Gateway. An artist’s rendering of Terry Square shows it going from a deserted corner to a bustling strip of cafes and shops.
The key now is getting developers to join in.
John Palmieri, director of city development services, said now’s the time to start to reach out to private developers and proceed together on Hartford 2010’s plans.
“It doesn’t happen purely as a public effort now,” he said.