North Andover Gets $215K In Grants For Downtown Improvements

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — North Andover recently received over $200,000 in state grants for downtown improvements, town officials told the Select Board.

The town received a pair of state grants for work on the Mills to Hills Trail and downtown zoning consulting. The board accepted the grants at their Nov. 29 meeting.

The Mills to Hills grant funding came from state legislative earmarks and totalled $140,000, according to a memo to the board.

• $65,000 will go to building the Osgood Pond boardwalk and trail.
• $75,000 will go to designing, engineering and permitting a boardwalk and trail connection the Mills to Hills trail from Main street and around Osgood pond in the town of North Andover.

"We asked the house and senate for slightly different amounts and got both," Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues said.

The other grant came from the state's Housing Choice Community program and will provide $75,000 for consulting on downtown zoning.

The consultant will work with the planning department "to create a new base zoning district for downtown that encourages and incentivizes reinvestment addressing by right uses, setbacks, parking requirements, density and the ability to encourage the highest and best uses along Main Street and throughout the downtown."

Both grants fund work included in the town's Downtown Improvements Master Plan, the memo notes.

The full meeting is available here from NorthAndoverCAM.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.