The Mayor and Concord's Main Street

Mayor Jim Bouley is, once again, asking for public input for the redesign of Main Street.

Why?

To date, he hasn’t listened to the publics’ or the business community’s input. If he had been listening, the grant would never have been accepted. Yet the mayor gave the city a Hobson’s choice. My way or no way.

So now, we have a design and consulting firm that thinks we should build a wall to close off Phenix Avenue from Low Avenue. Install sprinklers in front of the Statehouse. And plant 153 trees at a cost of $5,000 each.

Eliminate 16 parking spaces on North Main Street so we can have sidewalks 18 to 22 feet wide. Raised planting beds with irrigation. And here’s the kicker, depending on whether Concord Steam will remain viable there’s a good chance the sidewalks won’t be heated. The road being heated for snow melt you ask, forget about that.

And once this is built with free money.... Oops that’s a federal grant, that we pay for. And let’s not forget the 40 percent the city pays for. Where is the money to maintain this fiasco going to come from. Will it come from increased values of properties on Main Street? Those values only increase if the buildings are improved or business in those buildings improve.

And let’s assume those values do improve and the buildings are assessed at a higher value. The city recently expanded the Capitol Commons TIF District from 11.5 acres to 21 acres. So most new taxes will go to pay for the improvements for Simcheck, Duprey and CATCH projects. 

Wait, it gets better. Not all the new taxes from the TIF District will go to the TIF District. Why, you ask? Because some of the buildings have received a tax credit under RSA 79:E, that allows property owners to not pay taxes for up to nine years. The Smile building isn’t paying taxes for five years, and the CATCH Endicott Hotel project when completed won't pay taxes for seven years on the first floor retail space and 9 years for the apartments.

To understand how poorly the city takes care of day to day maintenance on their current properties, all one has to do is take a walk through Eagle Square. We are told that it will cost more then $150,000 to repair the square. So over the 20 years or so the square has deteriorated, had the city spent $7,500 a year, Eagle Square wouldn’t look like a disaster area. 

Water fountains need to be drained and winterized. Pumps use electricity to run. The city’s water department meters and charges for all water usage. Streets need to be cleaned. Planters need to be watered. And if the planters have irrigation they will be charged for water use and will also need to be winterized. 

And if there is no snow melt system how much longer and how much more will it cost to clear the snow from the sidewalks with all the new sidewalk clutter (that’s streetscape elements in consultant talk).

So once again where is the money going to come from to pay for the upkeep of this grand scheme. That’s right you and me and if the city can swing it from the Downtown building owners. Because as we now know, increases in building values will go to pay for the parking garage catastrophe or go back in the pockets of those with special connections.

The Concord Monitor reports the mayor wants your opinion. No, the mayor wants to say you had an opportunity to voice your opinion so he can continue to cram his opinion down our throats while emptying our wallets.

So brace yourself Concord property owners. The Complete Streets Project is the gift that will keep on giving. It will keep on giving you higher taxes, to pay for a project that as a community we know has no value in improving our downtown. It will only be useful in padding resumes, so city officials and outside consultants can move onto higher paying jobs or charge more for their next consulting project.