Southborough has been awarded a “Massachusetts Downtown Initiative” (MDI) grant, covering $30,000 worth of technical assistance for a Branding & Wayfinding project.
The Town applied for the grant this summer through the state’s One Stop Grant application process administered by the Executive Office of Economic Development (EOED). Under the terms, the state will directly contract with a consultant to provide services to the Town.
According to Governor Healey’s office, MDI grants for 20 projects were awarded a total of $600K in the FY26 round. The news was part of an announcement on promoting 314 grants that had been awarded for a total of $179 million “to support local economic development projects in 190 communities”.
In an update to the Select Board this week, Town Administrator Mark Purple was happy that the Town was finally getting a One Stop approval after several years of “taking some swings, big and little, and coming up empty”. He gave credit to the work of Assistant Town Administrator Vanessa Hale and former Economic Development Coordinator Leah Emerson for pulling together the applications.
The $30K MDI grant was the only one Southborough received. That unfortunately means that the Town’s other One Stop applications didn’t get greenlit. (Scroll down for more on the grants we missed out on.)
Upon my request, Hale provided the application for the MDI grant that was awarded with more details on the planned project.
The Town’s application sought the “branding and wayfinding” effort to prepare for Southborough’s Tricentennial. “to welcome visitors and residents to the historic Downtown District.”
The Town will work with the state’s consultant to:
determine wayfinding signage types that should be included or consolidated, such as direction markers, street signs, gateway monuments, orientation kiosks, and boundary markers encompassing downtown spatial extents.
The work will be used to:
provide direction to shops, restaurants, medical services, historic sites & civic buildings, establishing the historic Downtown District as a central cultural, historical, educational, residential, & commercial hub.
A later section in the application further explains:
Wayfinding will unify and connect services and amenities within this roughly 1-mile area that many may not be aware of in proximity to Downtown. By providing orientation and context, wayfinding will assist visitors, newcomers, students and families, as well as residents in finding their way to businesses, historic and cultural sites, public services, recreational, medical and community resources, distinguishing this area as its own unique destination, bringing additional revenue, renewed interest, and additional investment Downtown.
The application points to the need for this work not only in terms of the timing of upcoming Tricentennial celebrations throughout 2027, but also to prepare for a new multi-family residential building “slated” to be built at 2 East Main Street, the corner of Newton & Main streets.
The applications pitches that “orienting & welcoming newcomers & area visitors is vital.”
In addition to working with a consultant, the Town plans to create a committee or working group to focus on the effort, referred to as “an appointed Wayfinding Project Management Group (WPMG)”.
The application breaks down the project into five main stages:
- Information Gathering
- Assess relevant studies & reports to evaluate the identity & branding needs of Downtown Southborough, including the recently placed Historic District signs.
- Identify user groups, specific needs & potential wayfinding challenges.
- Identify available Rights of Way, points of interest & develop initial design concepts for review by the WPMG
- Develop Objectives & Themes
- Facilitate & conduct a visioning session conducted by the WPMG to gather input from local stakeholders, Tricentennial & Historic Committees.
- Follow-up with stakeholders to present strategies, including themes, slogans & colors based on visioning session feedback.
- Develop Preliminary Options
- Review design of a brand theme, logo & slogan or tagline including color, font, placement, etc. to be reviewed by the Historical Commission & Tricentennial Committee.
- Creation of up to three brand options for wayfinding elements.
- Design Signage Elements
- Finalize branding, logo, type, slogan & wayfinding elements to distinguish Downtown.
- Submit final design drawings, including exact dimensions, letter heights & materials, color specs & material performance standards, with rationale for design choices for approval by the Select Board.
- Prepare Bid Specification Package – Once a Downtown brand & family of elements are approved & finalized, a specifications package will be prepared for fabrication/installation bids by qualified vendors.
You can read more details in the application here.
Grant Applications Denied
The Town had also applied for $400,000 to help with engineering services to assess potential sites for wastewater treatment and disposal to help attract businesses to Route 9. Given that Southborough is the only section of Rte 9 between Boston and Goshen without a wastewater system, Town officials had been optimistic about the Town’s chances. The Town will reach out to try to learn why that was rejected.
Another big grant request had been in partnership with two neighboring towns. A Boroughs application, with Westborough and Northborough, applied for a $175K Community Planning Grant under the One Stop program. It was intended to examine the situation on the Route 9 Corridor, including:
assessment of existing conditions, land use analysis, zoning analysis, market analysis, assessment of sewer/water/gas capacity, safety analysis, multi-modal transportation options (i.e. BWALT trail, transit opportunities), and assessment of environmentaI challenges.
Southborough had previously tried on its own to get a grant on similar Rte 9 issues in past years. The partnership was based on feedback from the state after past denials that a regional application would be more attractive to the state.
On Tuesday, Purple told the Select Board that Westborough is already reaching out for feedback on why the application failed. He followed that they’ll look at taking another swing at that one, and possibly others, next year.
