Mansfield, Massachusetts

MANSF I ELD , MASSACHUSETTS Dumas: “We have an incredible team in Finance and Planning at Town Hall. One of the projects we’re working on now involves looking at how we move people, in particular, the busyness of the commuter rail system. We have over 1,100 vehicle (car) trips, morning and night, leaving the train station, but we also have people who take the bus, or are dropped off by alternative modes of transportation, whether it be bike, or Uber, or Lyft. We’re looking at doing major traffic improvements along that business corridor, from the downtown and Route 106, out to Interstate 140, because we’re dealing with so much traffic in town, seven days a week, in addition to an extra 1,100 cars coming into and leaving the station. So, we’re doing a corridor improvement program, which we funded for fiscal 2023, for construction purposes. Beta Incorporated has been hired to do the traffic engineering necessary before construction. “The train station is located in our existing downtown (North Main, South Main, and Chauncey Streets) on Route 106, but across the tracks is about 14 acres of undeveloped land, most of which is surface parking on either asphalt or dirt. We’re developing a new TOD (transit-oriented development) updated overlay district called Mansfield Village over that acreage that will include retail and housing components with a multi-story parking structure to free up the current surface parking lot areas. The aim is to sustain a mixed-use, village environment with increased density that supports development for a retail, commercial sector on the south end of Mansfield Village, as well as housing, and mixed-use business development on the north portion. “When I came on board a year ago, I formed a Town Manager’s Strategic Development Committee. Our first project was this overlay district; making it more advantageous for developers and to have a higher and better use of the property. At the same time, we’ve embarked on a $100,000 appropriation to update the town’s master plan. It will be a multi-month process that happens every ten years in Mansfield, and Massachusetts, as well.”