DANVERS — A revitalization project now is in the planning stages to make downtown Danvers a more welcoming, accessible, and safer place to be, according to town officials.
Representatives from several town departments appeared before the Select Board last week to outline the key focus points, boundaries, design elements, and potential schedule of a downtown revitalization from Maple Square to Danvers Square.
The project is set to include sidewalk and roadway paving, lighting replacement, new street furniture and signage, improved crosswalks, and the creation of public community use areas.
Such improvements would follow significant infrastructure upgrades carried out over the last two years, which were done largely to accommodate the upcoming Maple Square project, a new 147-unit mixed-use development.
“This is a key point in time that we think would be a good point to introduce a new kind of revitalization to the downtown area for Danvers,” Town Engineer Stephen King said. “We recently decided on a major upgrade to the natural gas infrastructure on downtown Maple Street. We’ve also made significant improvements to our existing wastewater collection system and replaced our water main.
“Our existing lighting fixtures are past their useful life; we’re looking to upgrade those and bring them up to be more modernized, while still having that classic downtown look and feel.”
The Danvers Electric Department plans to replace all lighting fixtures in the downtown by the end of next summer. These will be moved slightly and updated with slightly new designs that incorporate previous elements of the last fixtures, such as banner poles for holding flags.
“We’re going to try and emulate those same locations (for the lighting fixtures) so as not to change too much. But we’re waiting on a final photometric plan to make sure that we have the proper lighting in place for the quarter,” Director of Land Use & Community Services Aaron Henry said.
By the end of 2024, the Maple Square project is expected to be complete with new paving, sidewalk curving, upgrades to the sewer main, and new conduits for power and communication. By this time, the National Grid gas main replacement is also set to be complete.
The rail trail crossing at Maple Street will also be addressed by Summer 2024, using the Chapter 40R Downtown Fund to install a new crossing right on the rail trail by Maple Square, where the town has observed that pedestrians typically jaywalk to save time. To the east toward Domino’s, the current crosswalk will likely be removed to recreate the parking that will be lost from this new addition.
“The rail trail is a huge asset that we’d like to keep for the town of Danvers, so we’re basically trying to create an accurate crossing at Maple Street, right by Maple Square,” King said. “Right now we’re partnering with a lot of different entities to help us work through those different iterations of what we can think to do to make it a more safe and accessible crossing for all users.”
In the summer 2025, additional sidewalk and roadway paving will be carried out using funds from the Chapter 90 Program and the American Rescue Plan Act. In addition, newly designed signage and street furniture will be created, using the Chapter 40R Downtown Fund.
All the improvements to town infrastructure will culminate in the creation of new community use areas, which the town is making a concentrated effort to incorporate downtown in areas like the space in front of New Brother’s Restaurant & Deli.
In addition to transforming the cement area in front of Brother’s into space for community gatherings, the town is also considering a hybrid approach in front of CVS where people can gather during community events, but could otherwise be used for parking. A private civic space is also planned as part of the Maple Square development at the freight house.
“From here, we’ll plan a meeting to discuss this with the downtown businesses, and follow that up with a community meeting probably late February, early March,” Henry said.
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202