Select Board lends support to urban renewal grants

May 16, 2023

At its meeting on Tuesday, May 16, the Select Board unanimously voted to provide letters of support to three urban renewal grant applications, which Director of Planning and Community Development Ken Buckland plans to submit to the state One Stop for Growth grant program.

Select Board Chair Judith Whiteside was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

The grant applications are for a potential fishing pier, kayak launch and coastal pathway on Merchants Way; the possible rezoning of the segment of Cranberry Highway from Depot Street to Red Brook Road; and improvements to the intersection of Kendrick Road and Cranberry Highway. 

Buckland said that the town is “looking at significant investment” in the 1.6-mile stretch of Cranberry Highway, taking advantage of the ongoing construction project which is making the road wider and more walkable. 

This construction, Buckland said, will make Cranberry Highway ideal for mixed-use development, the kind that Town Meeting approved for Main Street in April

Improvements to the intersection of Kendrick Road and Cranberry Highway will include additional signage. 

“They’ve been asking for signs for eight years now,” Select Board member Jared Chadwick said of business owners who operate on Kendrick Road. 

“Right now, [the intersection] needs some safety improvements,” Buckland said. “We have a lot more customer-oriented businesses in there now, and they need more access when you have tractor trailers coming out and passenger cars coming in.”

The One Stop for Growth program provides grants to projects which would attract private investment and economic development in communities.