COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Because many of the residents of the Plains neighborhood had no knowledge of the Emerging Pathways report, the student team aimed to engage this area specifically by first sending out targeting mailers to almost 1600 residents in the Plains and nearby neighborhoods (see map on left). These mailers contained a brief description of the project, a link to an online survey, and the date of an online community meetings. This survey was posted online on June 1 and was available through June 15. At the same time, a description of the project was placed on the Easthampton website, with links to the winter project. In the week before the community meeting on June 6th, the team received almost 140 survey responses. That amount increased to 177 total by June 15. The majority of respondents (83%) heard about the survey through a postcard in the mail, 13.6% heard about the survey through the Easthampton Planning Department Facebook page, and 3.4% heard about the survey from another source.

The community meeting, held on Saturday, June 6, had 30 attendees. The student team gave a presentation about the project and three preliminary design alternatives, and participants were given the opportunity to respond through several polls as well as typed questions. While the additional engagement with the community was valuable, the results matched the survey well enough that the team decided to continue to use survey responses as the primary marker of community opinion.

Both the survey and the community meeting presented three design alternatives (see map below). The first followed the original route as proposed in the winter Conway report, through several open space parcels and town easements. The second proposed a side path on existing roads and sidewalks for the entire route. The third proposed a bike lane or sidewalk on a dead-end street and then passed through a portion of Nonotuck park and a town-owned parcel. The responses to these alternatives showed that the original route was the most popular, followed closely by the side path. The combined route was least popular.

Left: Routes where survey mailers were sent are shown in blue.

Primary Concerns

Throughout the survey three topics came up repeatedly as concerns or important issues for residents. These were: safety of path users (especially children), the potential impact on wildlife, and questions regarding path maintenance, particularly in the winter. Another repeated comment was concern about the ability of users, especially those with children, to access the trailhead, due to a lack of sidewalks or other pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure on Plain Street.

Examples of comments from the survey that indicate safety concerns:

“For travel to and from school it would be nice if there were monitors on the path, just as there are at the crosswalks and intersections. If my child was traveling independently I would like to know that someone else is also keeping a watchful eye.”

Examples of comments from the survey regarding impact on natural areas:

“Please protect the native vegetation and animals that use the conservation areas for refuge and safety.”

Examples of comments from the survey that indicate concerns about accessing the trail:

“I walk on Strong St., Plain St., and Hendricks St. every morning and some evenings . . . It is a very vulnerable position to be in as a pedestrian without the slight protection that a sidewalk provides. This is such a wonderful idea and will be great for everyone, especially the children getting to/from school. THANK YOU!!!

Community Support

Overall, the community feedback was quite positive. A few of the many supportive comments:

“This is an amazing idea and would really enrich the city.”

“I think your proposed shared-use nature path is brilliant and very much support its development.”

“I live at the end of Holly Circle. This path would be very beneficial for me. I need to drive approximately 5 miles to get to the soccer fields at Nonotuck Park which are probably a half mile from my house.”

“We love Easthampton and walk and bike as much as we can! Thank you for your advocacy and vision.”

“I love this idea and hope it can be connected to the existing Manhan Trail and the Cottage Street district.”

“This would greatly improve the quality of life for me and my family, and encourage us to stay in Easthampton. Right now the busy roads make us consider moving to a more rural setting, this would fix that.”

“The more people in different parts of town have easy access to paths and trails without driving, the better!”

“LOVE THIS PLAN!!!!”