Town awarded grant to fund Neponset St. upgrades

The town of Canton was recently selected as one of 30 capital grant recipients under the state’s Housing Choice Initiative. The program provides funding for infrastructure improvements to those communities that have shown a commitment to advancing sustainable housing production.

Town Planner Laura Smead (right) is pictured with Lt. Governor Karyn Polito and Tom Loughlin of BETA Group, Inc., the consultant for the Neponset St. infrastructure project, at an event in Brockton to announce the Housing Choice grant winners.

Canton was awarded $150,000 and plans to use the funds to undertake preliminary engineering design for the reconstruction of part of Neponset Street from Washington Street through Chapman Street, including the Walpole and Neponset Street intersection. “These infrastructure improvements,” according to a press release announcing the grants, “will directly support the development of the Paul Revere Heritage Site, a planned 272-unit multi-family transit-oriented development project.”

Town Planner Laura Smead said the work will “seek to improve conditions for all modes of transportation, including pedestrians and cyclists.”

Appearing before the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night, Smead noted that Revere Street is already receiving road paving funds and she felt that Neponset Street and adjoining streets could also use improvements in light of the impact of the Revere project, especially with a new bridge and traffic light coming at Neponset and Norfolk streets. Smead added that this grant could lead to a much larger roadway grant application next fall.

The Paul Revere Heritage Site also received a fair share of action at the January 14 BOS meeting. The board accepted the recommendation of Canton Copperworks, a subsidiary of Thorndike Development, to switch lot sites for some of the condominium units in light of some contamination found on one of the lots. As a result, lot 8 will now be reserved for commercial development while lot 9 will be used for residential development. In addition, Canton Copperworks withdrew its interest in building three-bedroom units after hearing the concerns of selectmen and decided to go forward with one- and two-bedroom units. Canton Copperworks also decided to reduce one building of townhouse-style condos from 19 to 16 units and increase another building from 36 to 40 units. Both of these changes were accepted by selectmen.

The board also decided to forward special legislation to the State House establishing a nonprofit group to manage the museum component of the Revere Heritage Site. Over the last few weeks, Selectmen Chairman Chris Connolly worked with Revere Heritage Commission Chairman and former Selectman Victor Del Vecchio and Town Counsel Paul DeRensis to amend a previous agreement that revenue due to the town from the restaurant in the rolling mill and future museum receipts would first finance museum costs and if excess funds exist, the money would go towards rolling mill and open space costs. Connolly said the nonprofit group would submit annual budget requests to selectmen, who will administer the budgets for the museum, rolling mill, and town-owned parkland …

See this week’s Canton Citizen for more highlights from the January 14 selectmen’s meeting. Not a subscriber? Click here to order your subscription today (also available in digital form).

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jan 17 2020. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.