LYNN — Mayor Jared Nicholson shared upcoming priorities for the city at a government affairs meeting on Wednesday at the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce.
During the discussion, Nicholson highlighted key initiatives affecting local businesses and neighborhoods with a focus on downtown, waterfront, and school projects.
He emphasized the importance of Vision Lynn, a comprehensive plan adopted in 2023 by the Planning Department that captures its 20-year vision for the city to guide future development and investments in infrastructure.
One of the key accomplishments from Vision Lynn was rewriting the City’s zoning code to allow for more construction to be buildable by right, reducing the need for variances.
“We’re encouraging growth in housing. We have lots of opportunities for that, but only a certain number of parcels that are a strong fit for industrial and commercial (use). That’s something we codified in the zoning ordinance,” Nicholson said.
Vision Lynn divides areas of the city into three categories: transform, enhance, and maintain. Downtown currently falls under the “enhance” category, while the waterfront falls under the “transform” category.
Nicholson said that “a key part of the downtown strategy is making it more walkable.” This includes adding sidewalks, wayfinding signage, and art projects.
“The idea of making downtown more walkable includes giving people reasons to walk around, and arts and culture is a big part of that,” Nicholson said.
It also includes installing lighting, community cameras, and enhancing police presence to increase public perceptions of safety in the area.
Nicholson highlighted the Lynn Calm Team, an unarmed, community-based crisis response program that started this summer and focuses many of its efforts on the downtown area.
Meanwhile, downtown commercial investments will include two to three businesses at the corner of State and Market Street.
At 144 Market St., construction has begun for 35 affordable ownership units, which Nicholson said will give residents a “really important opportunity to build wealth and invest in the community.”
When it comes to transforming the waterfront, Nicholson brought up the South Harbor Implementation Plan that aims to create job and housing opportunities in the area.
He described the waterfront as something that has become “the receptacle of the City’s undesired uses that needs to be rethought.”
A recent major step with this is the establishment of an urban renewal authority that will continue the momentum of the City’s waterfront redevelopment projects.
Nicholson also mentioned potential improvements to the Lynnway, such as building street grids to reduce traffic and increase access to nearby parcels, which will encourage investment and “create more of a neighborhood.”
“For this growth to happen, we need to have the right infrastructure in place to manage the number of people and trips and to encourage investment, and transportation is a big part of that,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson also spoke about achievements within the Lynn Public School system that will improve the quality of education for students and prepare them for the workforce.
He commended the progress that has been made with constructing the new Pickering Middle School building, which will expand capacity for secondary schools to remedy overcrowding.
“We didn’t give up. We kept pushing, and now we’re going to solve overcrowding at the middle school level and give those students a state-of-the-art facility,” he said.
He also mentioned Lynn Tech’s new biotech program, the Lynn Workforce Collaborative, which focuses on youth employment programs, and added that the City obtained career technical initiative grants to fund vocational training for adults.
“When we talk about our hopes for growth, we’re really focused on our people. And so we really tried to center workforce development and thoughts around how to grow our community,” Nicholson said.
He added, “The projects will come. The investments will come. In the meantime, we can be preparing our residents for good jobs and that preparation also encourages investment because employers need to have a prepared workforce.”
