SAUGUS – Business owners, property owners and residents are invited to come out and let their voices be heard as the Economic Development Committee sets it sights on Cliftondale Square.Economic Development Director Robert Luongo said a meeting will be held at St. Margaret’s Church aimed at getting input from the Cliftondale community and the community at large on how the town could make Cliftondale a more vital place to visit and do business.”We did it for Route 107 and Ballard Street,” said committee member Peter Rossetti. “Now we’ll do it for Cliftondale.”What the committee plans to do is a “SWOT” study: a look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, Rossetti explained.”We try and analyze the strengths of an area while understanding it could be a double-edged sword,” he said.A strength for Cliftondale could be that it connects Revere to Lynn, but that could also bring traffic, which could be a weakness, Rossetti said. Another strength is there are a number of businesses in the area, but a weakness could be that not many are open after 6 p.m.”The plan is to get business property owners that might not own the business, merchants, neighbors and some of the towns decision makers to go through the exercise and bases on that come up with a list of things that could be changed,” Rossetti said. “Everything is kind of on the table at this point.”Specific topics that will be discussed include rezoning the area for mixed use. Rossetti said there are a number of businesses with apartments on the second floor, but the area is not longer zoned for that, so if a building is torn down or lost in a fire, the owner may not be able to rebuild the same model.Rossetti said they will also look at what it might take to attract new businesses and exactly what kind of businesses they might want.”And there will be the perennial discussions about making it one-way and parking issues,” he said.Rossetti said he is hoping for a good turnout but he may be facing a little competition. Residents are also being asked to attend a Saugus neighborhood meeting on Revere development concerns at the selectmen meeting at 7:30 p.m. Residents are concerned that a planned development in Revere will severely impact residents in Saugus and want their voices heard.Luongo said he plans to attend the Cliftondale meeting but said he would likely have to leave early due to the second hearing.The Cliftondale meeting will be held in the lower hall at St. Margaret’s, 431 Lincoln Avenue at 6:30 p.m., “and anyone in the area should attend,” Luongo added.
