I am a resident of Hope Street. I walk by the former parking lot at 53 Hope St. — now a downtrodden parcel filling with weeds and trash — nearly every day. I am excited by the prospect of something being built there. Housing sounds great to me, but I’m not writing to argue the merits of adding housing. I’m writing to make sure readers are clear on what it means if we prevent the mayor from selling the Hope Street parcel for development.
If the city can’t sell the parcel, it has to keep it — and keep it off the tax rolls. If the city wanted to return the parcel to its former state as a parking lot, it would cost more than half a million dollars just to resurface it, let alone the costs associated with reinstalling parking kiosks and other maintenance. Since recent studies have found an overabundance of parking in downtown Greenfield, it’s unlikely that parking revenue from a restored lot would be significant. It would be a net loss for the city.
Some have suggested that the city could turn this lot into a park or other public facility for the community. That is a nice idea, but based on what I can see in the city budget, there are simply not enough funds to build, create or maintain much of anything in that space. It might even be a stretch to afford resurfacing the parking lot. The school budget was underfunded this year, and many departments are running on very lean budgets. Let’s not extend the city budget any further by investing taxpayer dollars in asphalt. Instead, let’s allow the mayor sell the parcel so it can be developed into something that represents the Hope-ful future of Greenfield. Vote “No” on 1 on Nov. 4.
Nikki Garrett
Greenfield