‘Park’ look sought for downtown

Makeover may give planters year-round appeal

Downtown’s beauty should have no offseason.

That should be the guiding principle as city commissioners figure out how to spend an additional $90,000 placed into the city’s budget for improved downtown landscaping, members of Downtown Lawrence Inc. told commissioners at a study session Wednesday.

“We want to present Downtown Lawrence as the park in the heart of the city,” Maria Martin, executive director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., told city commissioners.

Martin said her organization would like the approximately 150 planters along Massachusetts Street to have a larger variety of plants providing more color throughout the year. She also said that planters should be made slightly taller and painted a “terra-cotta” color so that they stand out more.

The main benefit of the improvements would be to give more people a reason to come downtown and stay longer. Martin said she would even like the plants to be labeled so that a self-guided garden tour of downtown could be created. She said DLI could print brochures about the different types of plants downtown and have master gardeners lead tours and give advice.

“With all of the gardening that people do at their house these days, we think that would be a real draw to downtown,” Martin said.

Mike Watson, forestry laborer with the city, waters a planting bed near 11th and Massachusetts streets Wednesday afternoon. Members of Downtown Lawrence Inc. think downtown's landscaping could become more of a draw.

City commissioners also were enthusiastic about the idea. They directed the Parks and Recreation Department to put together a specific plan to improve the planters.

Martin said that she hoped construction work on the planters could be completed this winter and that new plantings could be in place this spring.

Commissioners also said they were willing to consider in future years additional improvements that likely would require more money. Those projects could include an effort to remove newspaper racks and replace them with standardized containers that would be allowed at only certain locations in the downtown. Commissioners also said they would consider adding planters to New Hampshire and Vermont streets.

“Downtown is not just going to be Massachusetts Street over time,” City Commissioner David Schauner said. “If we could bring some unity to those streets, that would be good.”

Commissioners last month placed $90,000 into the 2006 city budget to improve downtown landscaping after hearing concerns from several merchants. In addition to the $90,000, the city spends $188,000 on parks and recreation maintenance and landscaping projects for the entire downtown, which includes work at parking lots.

Parks and Recreation leaders said they believed they could increase the number of plantings, but said it may require new employees to help care for the additional landscaping. Currently, the city has one full-time and three-part time employees caring for all the flower beds in downtown.