Town: Action Needed to Continue Biz Growth

Residents, business owners and community officials praised the progress of downtown Hampton during a recent session about the town's future, although many emphasized there is a need to start eliminating traffic problems and other concerns this year in order to avoid letting the growth "stagnate," according to the Hampton Union.

Many ideas were shared at the Experience Hampton- and Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce-sponsored public forum — including moving Route 1 powerlines underground, according to a recent report by the paper. Also reportedly mentioned was the oft-discussed idea of converting downtown into a one-way loop by turning the existing two-way Route 1 into two lanes of one-way traffic and converting the nearby abandoned railway into two lanes of one-way traffic going in the opposite direction.

The paper also reported that Al Casassa, attorney and former owner of Colts News Store, was one of the many individuals to state that traffic is the main issue facing the business district. Casassa reportedly said steps need to be taken to "solve" the traffic problem in 2013 because all other ways to improve downtown are "just fluff" by comparison.

The forum was part of the public input-gathering process for a grant-funded economic revitalization vision plan project, Experience Hampton has previously told Hampton-North Hampton Patch. The meeting was facilitated by Mettee Planning Consultants, the firm hired by the town of Hampton to establish initial strategies focused on the downtown area. Other public sessions will be held in the future to continue gathering local input.