PAWTUCKET DOWNTOWN DESIGN PLAN FINAL ... - VHB.com

VISION Existing Conditions
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
From the existing conditions, the PDDP team found a set of challenges and
opportunities to address in developing projects to improve downtown Pawtucket:
CHARACTER
The downtown could better express its character as a gateway.
The downtown Pawtucket area works like a set of commercial corridors
spokes into the centralized city hub, yet it is not only hard to make the
connection to the core of Main Street, but not clear when one has entered
into the downtown area in general. The downtown could likely get further
commercial support from recognition as a special area of density and growth.
The downtown could make better exchange points between its three
most important systems: the river, the rail and the highway.
These three systems are the most vital physical and infrastructural resources
in downtown Pawtucket and unique in the state. Pawtucket is the gateway to
the entire region of the Blackstone Valley. The highway is a critical linkage to
the eastern seaboard including airports. The rail line is the future of passenger
and freight investment. In Pawtucket, these all come together within less than
a third of a mile; access points come within two-thirds of a mile of each other,
but finding those access point and links between them are not evident.
Downtown Pawtucket’s historic buildings significantly contribute to the
organic, cultural and aesthetic sense of downtown.
When people first come to Pawtucket, they often react positively to the
remaining historic properties that are different in type, era, and style. The
downtown area is a commercial New England business district that was
developed primarily between the 1880s and the 1930s. The buildings are
substantial in mass, ornament and of strong institutional and public typology.
While it matches a type found regionally, this character is special, unique, and
important.
DENSITY
Downtown is disrupted by low density surrounding it and surface
parking in it.
The biggest interruption of the historic and retail character of downtown
Pawtucket is the large areas of surface parking, much of which is under used
and privately owned. There is a noticeable ring of low density around the center
of downtown that negatively contributes to the connections beyond.
Recent larger development has been housing; recent smaller
development has been commercial.
The real estate boom of the early 2000s enhanced the residential population
and tax base in the downtown area, particularly in renovated mill space.
The boom did not, however, improve economic conditions for commercial
properties in a major way as the residential growth was not significant enough
to establish a consumer base for local stores. Many of the people who moved
to the new downtown units do not work or buy daily provisions in Pawtucket.
TRAFFIC
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Main Street’s one way configuration disrupts its use as a center.
The core of Main Street, from Broad Street to High Street, is a visible center
to the downtown area, but can not function or connect properly to help it
be accessible easily from surrounding neighborhoods or cities because it is
confusing to find.
PAWTUCKET DOWNTOWN DESIGN PLAN