Arlington, Bedford And Lexington Awarded Local Rapid Response Planning Grant

Press release from the Town of Bedford:

March 8, 2021

In a joint regional partnership, the Towns of Lexington, Arlington and Bedford were recently awarded a Local Rapid Recovery Planning (LRRP) grant by the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative (MDI). The goal of the LRRP program is to give every municipality in Massachusetts the opportunity to develop plans tailored to the unique economic challenges and immediate COVID-19 impacts that have affected downtowns, town centers and commercial areas throughout Massachusetts. To that end, the Town of Bedford teamed up with the Towns of Lexington and Arlington on how they can leverage the traffic on the shared asset of the Minuteman Bikeway to drive more customers to their business districts as a recovery strategy from the pandemic. Arlington Heights, East Lexington, and Bedford Center will be areas of specific focus.

"Arlington's commercial districts are a key part of our community and our identity as a Town. Partnering with Lexington and Bedford on this project will leverage an important regional asset in the Minuteman Bikeway, with an average of 3,000 users per day, to our local business' benefit," said Adam Chapdelaine, Arlington's Town Manager.

“Our communities have a long history of working together, and we look forward to our continued partnership with the Towns of Lexington and Arlington to leverage the important regional asset of the Minuteman Bikeway to benefit our businesses and community. We hope to encourage both residents and visitors using the Bikeway to bike and shop locally,” stated Sarah Stanton, Bedford Town Manager.

“This joint effort will allow Lexington, Bedford, and Arlington to work towards creating a recovery plan that will help local businesses increase foot-traffic and support a sustainable economic growth strategy post-COVID-19 leveraging the local assets that are the common links between the three communities,” said James Malloy, Lexington’s Town Manager.

The project will kick off in mid-March and will include a thorough analysis and exploration of COVID-related challenges and barriers. The technical assistance is focused on developing a marketing and branding plan based on the Minuteman Bikeway for the three communities and the identified business districts including the businesses and cultural assets in each district. It will generate an action-oriented plan to help the towns develop immediate strategies for short-term recovery and conclude with a set of projects and strategies necessary to address COVID-19 recovery needs. The Towns will be working with Finepoint Associates to develop the plan.

The plan will provide the three communities and their stakeholders with a concise road map for project‑related investments that support alignment with existing public resources as well as the potential to leverage additional resources from other partners and funders.

This press release was produced by the Town of Bedford. The views expressed here are the author’s own.