A map of the town showing the Complete Streets projects to be prioritized to be eligible for state grant funding.
Photo credit: Town of Longmeadow
LONGMEADOW — Roadwork, including the installation of sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks, is a never-ending challenge for municipalities. Longmeadow is asking residents for their opinions on which roadway projects will help make streets “complete.”
Complete Streets is a funding program from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that helps municipalities improve their roadways for the use of all modes of transportation — walking, biking, transit and vehicles — and for people of all abilities. Cities and towns create Complete Streets policies and develop a roadway project prioritization plan, often with the help of MassDOT funding.
The municipalities can then apply for up to $500,000 in construction funding over a four-year period. In fiscal year 2025, 230 of the state’s 351 municipalities are eligible for partial or full grants through the program.
Longmeadow last created a Complete Streets prioritization plan in 2017. Simmons said three or four of the 18 projects identified at that time were funded by MassDOT. A Town Meeting vote in 2015 approved Longmeadow’s Compete Streets bylaw.
In January, Town Manager Lyn Simmons put out a call for residents to serve on a new Complete Streets Committee. By late winter, she had interviewed candidates and selected five people from different areas of town, along with representatives from the Police Department and DPW. Using the existing plan as a framework, the committee, with help from consulting firm BETA, carried over some of the projects and added new ones that had become necessary since the 2017 plan was created. The draft of the resulting plan can be seen in a Powerpoint at tinyurl.com/bdfp4bm2. There are 24 projects on the draft, with most of them addressing pedestrian safety and ease of movement.
Now, it is the residents’ turn to voice their opinions. A survey available at tinyurl.com/4rxa2wrp asks people to prioritize the projects that have been identified by the committee and suggest additional projects that may have been overlooked.
Since the survey went live on Aug. 20, more than 400 people have responded.
“Anytime we talk about transportation, whether by pedestrian, bicycle, or car, it generates a lot of interest,” Simmons said.
Those who would like to answer the survey but do not have access to the website, can contact the town manager’s office and they will be provided with a hard copy version of it. The survey will close for responses Sept. 18.
After the survey data is reviewed by the committee, the plan will be sent to MassDOT for review. Longmeadow is eligible for $315,431 from the program to complete projects, having previously spent $184,568 of its’ current $500,000 allocation.
Simmons urged residents to answer the survey, saying, “Their feedback is critical in helping us prioritize the projects.”
