May Letter From Westfield Mayor: 'Our Post-COVID New Beginning'

Press release from the Town of Westfield:

May 19, 2021

Thank you to everyone who has prioritized public health by getting vaccinated. As of May 15, 84% of the Westfield adult population has received their first vaccination shot, and 73% are fully vaccinated. This past week, we reported only 16 new COVID cases, a marked decline from the high of 137 weekly cases reported in January.

Your collective actions are enabling our community to return to a sense of normalcy, with this week’s elimination of most indoor and outdoor gathering limits in New Jersey allowing us to finally celebrate important milestones with our loved ones.

In Westfield, Town Hall will be reopened to the public on June 1, Memorial Pool will be fully reopening with guests allowed (it’s not too late to join!), and the Recreation Department’s playground program will be operating at Memorial and Tamaques Parks. The DWC is bringing back Sweet Sounds music performances on Tuesdays in the summer, and has transformed Open Quimby into a charming pedestrian plaza with live music and numerous programs on the weekends.

Like many of you, I look forward to reconnecting with friends and family members I haven’t seen in over a year. In many ways, our reemergence from the COVID quarantine marks a new beginning for us as individuals and as a community.

Central to this new beginning is the revitalization of our downtown, a strategic and broad-scale effort for which we have been actively preparing well before and throughout the pandemic. Like so many Main Street downtowns across the country, ours is in the midst of reinvention necessitated by retail challenges that were driven initially by the transition to online shopping, further compounded by an historical lack of long-term proactive planning, and now exacerbated by the pandemic. The past year has underscored the need for bold action, and fortunately, with your input and support, we are well positioned to implement a transformative vision for our downtown.

Anticipating a potentially significant COVID economic impact, particularly on our retailers, we forged ahead with finalizing the Master Plan Land Use and Circulation Plan over the past year in order to maintain the momentum for our redevelopment efforts. This document, driven by the Master Plan Reexamination recommendations and your input, provides guidance on future zoning for our downtown, and addresses critical issues like building height, density, architectural standards, streetscapes, and more. The final recommendations are expected to be presented to the Planning Board on June 7, and once adopted, will drive the next stage of the redevelopment planning process, including a public and exciting new chapter with Streetworks Development.

As a reminder, Streetworks is a nationally renowned planning and development firm, whose parent company Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is the owner of the Lord & Taylor properties. In December, the Town Council designated Streetworks as the developer for their own L&T properties, as well as for both Town-owned municipal parking lots on the north and south sides of the train station. In anticipation of the adoption of the Master Plan recommendations, they have spent the last several months on a Zoom listening tour with over 25 community stakeholder groups, including the Westfield Historical Society, Chamber of Commerce, DWC, downtown property owners, the Recreation Commission, and more, asking for input on the future of our downtown. Assuming the Master Plan is adopted on June 7, they will incorporate that feedback into development concepts to be shared with the general public for additional feedback before any plans are finalized.

As part of the redevelopment public education and input process, I have been hosting a series of Facebook Live sessions around relevant topics, and invite you to tune in to our next session this Thursday, May 20, at 7:30pm. This session, entitled “Retail: (You Can’t) Just Buy It Online!” will feature a discussion about the current status and future of retail with panelists DWC Executive Director Bob Zuckerman, Richard Heapes from Streetworks, our redevelopment planner Phil Abramson from Topology, and national retail expert Michael Berne from MJB Consulting.

To stay abreast of future forums and additional public input opportunities, I encourage you to subscribe to my weekly Mayor’s newsletter at westfieldnj.gov/townupdates, and follow me and/or the Town of Westfield on social media.

While we look forward to an exciting future full of innovation and possibility, let’s also remember the 57 lives our community lost to COVID who won’t be moving forward with us. Let’s keep their loved ones in our thoughts and prayers.

I also hope you will join us at the Memorial Day ceremony at 9:00AM at Monument Circle to honor those service members that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. In a year marked by sacrifice and solitude, I can’t think of a more fitting reason to finally gather together than to recognize those who gave everything to protect us.

Thank you for your incredible support and commitment to keeping our community safe over this unprecedented past year. I look forward to leading Westfield through an exciting new chapter full of possibility and new beginnings.

Mayor Shelley Brindle

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