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Fairfield was one of 14 Connecticut towns to receive a grant as part of the Main Street Investment Fund. Nearly $5 million was awarded in the grant package. The statewide program is designed to improve each town’s downtown shopping area, to help small businesses attract customers and to make areas safer for pedestrians.
“Main Street Investment grants play an important role in strengthening economic development initiatives on the local level,” Malloy said in a press release. “This program is unique in that it builds a working partnership between state government and the smaller communities that are striving to strengthen their commercial centers and attract additional business.”
The town will use the funding to expand its streetscape farther west along the Post Road. The plan calls for sections west of the intersection with Mill Plain Road to be renovated to match the Fairfield Center area to its east. The stretch of road could see new or repaired sidewalks, ramps, streetlamps, benches and bike racks.
The plan had initially called for the work to stretch from Thorpe Street to South Pine Creek Road, but it will most likely be scaled back without town funding. Fairfield had initially hoped for the maximum $500,000 grant through the program, but was awarded $250,000 by the state Department of Housing, which administered the grant.
Director of Community and Economic Development Mark Barnhart told town officials last year that private developers working on project in the area might also be asked to help with the improvements.
“If we had a plan in place, we might be able to work with private property owners and have them match or mirror the type of improvements that we’re looking for in terms of streetscape enhancements,” Barnhart told the Representative Town Meeting in September.
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