A walk with the Wesleyan corridor committee

(This report is based on information provided by Lucy McMillan)

On Thursday June 26, the Wesleyan corridor committee met and walked Williams Street to discuss its potential transformation as a corridor linking Main Street in Middletown to the Wesleyan campus. The group focused on Williams Street because, although it is only one of several parallel streets which could be called corridors between Main and campus, it is the one, in the assessment of Wesleyan staff, and Wes Pres Michael Roth, in need of most help.

The group, which included members of Aware (a group of residents formed to interact with Wesleyan) Joan Hedrick, Shannon Brown, Melissa Schilke, Lucy McMillan and Jennifer Alexander, representatives of Wesleyan including Joyce Topshe, Brandi Hood and Middletown Town Planner Bill Warner, Tom Nigosanti from the Public Works Department and Michiel Wackers of Middletown's Planning Department.

The group walked down the street and examined each parcel of property discussing the ways in which the buildings and ground could be improved to make travel on the corridor safer, and more aesthetically pleasing.

Some of the parcels are held by Wesleyan, some by the Middletown Housing Authority, some by commercial establishments, and some in private hands.

The consensus was that there is much need for improvement, for while some private housing was nicely maintained, other properties featured hideous additions, or were in need of maintenance, and while some commercial buildings added nicely to the corridor, the newly remodeled offices of the Connecticut Humanities Council on the corner of Williams and Broad, for example, others need help.

Some good suggestions were made:

- Improved landscaping at the Wesleyan power plant
- Erecting two small buildings
- Narrowing of traffic lanes by allowing parking on both sides, and widening public walkways
- Closing the street completely to traffic
- Making street a one-way street
- Suggesting fence improvements on the CRT property
- Removing blacktop and planting lawns and landscaping between sidewalks and residences at Traverse Square
- Removing the blacktop parking on the corner of Hamlin and Williams
- Removing parking behind Wesleyan campus safety offices
- Improving landscaping in the parking lot behind the Wesleyan bookstore and Humanities Council

There are opportunities to make improvements including money to perform environmental cleanup at Forest Street Laundry if it is maintained as a laundry, block grants for fence renovations at the CRT building, adaptive historic reuse fundings for some of the privately held buildings, brownfield bundling by Weston Solutions for some of the affected properties.

Still there are challenges. Didato's Service Station on the corner of William and Broad is currently for sale. The Wesleyan Power Plant roof allows only minimal landscaping or construction. Some existing parking lots are still used regularly. Private property owners cannot be forced to make changes. Traffic changes will need public approval. And perhaps the biggest challege - where will money come from to make changes, and who will begin to take the initiative to create a plan to get the job done.