To the editor:
The City of Newburyport received a grant to fix up High Street. In 1998, the Massachusetts Highway Department (MassHighway, now part of MassDOT) came back with plans for High Street that met "robotic" federal regulations, which were "major alterations" for the roadway. (The roadway includes sidewalks.) It took a heroic citywide effort in 1999 to stop MassHighway from destroying High Street. These are some of the "highlights" of the proposed plan in 1998 by MassHighway:
The Massachusetts Highway Department considered trees to be a "safety hazard" because they were too close to the road; consequently, the future of many of High Street's trees were in question. (i.e. they were going to remove almost all of the trees.)
Close off Ferry Road and completely reconfigure the "Three Road" area up at Atkinson Common and put in a traffic light there.
Put a traffic light at Toppans Lane, by Newburyport High School.
Remove 10 feet of land along the side of the Bartlet Mall facing High Street that belonged to the City of Newburyport to widen the roadway.
Remove land from private property owners, from the area between Fruit and State streets along the "Ridge" side of the roadway, and put in retaining walls on their property to make the street wider.
Make High Street as straight, narrow and uniform as possible from one end of the street to the other.
Remove plantings and all historical elements.
Remove the statue of George Washington by Pond Street and the Bartlet Mall. There was no plan to relocate the statue of George Washington. Pond Street was completely reconfigured to be one way.
The Local Historic District (LHD) Study Committee has recently decided to put wording into the proposed LHD ordinance (that covers High Street and downtown Newburyport) that would protect High Street, the roadway (which includes sidewalks), if federal or state funding ever triggers "major alterations" the way it did in 1998, which would affect everyone's property values, especially the houses on High Street. If the proposed LHD ordinance does pass, we as a city would never have to go through what we went through in 1999.
At www.GoPetition.com, there is an online petition in support of Newburyport's Local Historic District (LHD).
Mary Eaton
Newburyport
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