Placemaking design process moves forward

NEW LONDON – The New London Economic Development Committee agreed to have the city of New London enter into an agreement with Ayres and Associates for the next step of the design phase for a placemaking project for a portion of land on the south side of the river.
The decision was made at the committee’s March 24 meeting.
At that meeting, Ginger Sowle, director of the New London Parks & Recreation Department, told the committee that she has been working with Ayres and Associates, who did a workshop with the city, on an implementation study proposal regarding a SPARC placemaking report.
“What we did at the workshop was kind of the first step,” Sowle said. “This is the next step in a five-step process. This isn’t just giving engineering and design, but this is the first piece of that, which is really only about 25% of your design and what you’re looking for in spatial organization, programming, costs, funding opportunities, just kind of what you’re going to be working with.”
Spaces being considered for a placemaking project are the empty lot next to Longevity on Pearl Street, as well as Anchor Park and St. John’s Park.

“This would be just an initial design phase,” Sowle said. “This would be enough to get us to be able to do some grants, especially the Vibrant Spaces grant.”
Sowle said it is important for the city to do an initial design phase to get an accurate cost estimate in the design development portion of the project. The cost for this initial design stage is $25,000 and this phase would take 4-6 months to complete.
New London City Administrator Chad Hoerth added that there are a lot of elements involved in the process, including considerations for utilities, stormwater, and traffic flow.
“One of the most important things is public participation, public input,” Hoerth said.
He said the city would want business owners in the area to be part of the planning process.
Ald. John Faucher said the city should commit $25,000 for the design phase.
“We should probably at least earmark $25,000 for this initial phase to get things going on the grant process and just to get us to a point where we can make better decisions knowing that we’re most likely going to spend another $25,000 for the second 25%, and then we’re going to know exactly where we’re at,” Faucher said.
Depending on the city’s budget for the project, Sowle said the project can be scaled back to fit the budget. One option would be to focus on the south side of the river project because that is where it is needed the most.
Hoerth said the city is not obligated to hire Ayres and Associates to do the first stage of the design process. He said the city could send requests for proposals to several consultants. Since the request would be for engineering and not construction, the city is not obligated to bid the project out.
“For engineering and consulting work, we can use whoever we want,” Hoerth said.
Ald. Tim Roberts said it would be wise to see the costs from other consultants.
Hoerth said that would extend the timeline of the project.
Faucher said he’d like to proceed with this placemaking project before the 2027 budget.
“I think that it would be good to move this along and get us to a point where we can make better decisions,” Faucher said.