Leveraging Resources to Foster Positive Change through TAPS

Wareham Village Technical Assistance Panel (TAP)

An Interview with Form + Place Principal, Michael A. Wang

Written by Gillan H. Wang

Presentation Diagram, ULI TAP, Wareham Village 2020

The term “TAP” may be unfamiliar to people outside of the A/E/C industry.  What is a TAP and how does it work?

Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) are essentially a day-long problem-solving charette facilitated by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and often sponsored by MassDevelopment. The TAP process involves engaging a panel of a diverse professionals to evaluate a particular challenge(s) that a town wants to address. The panelists offer informed and unbiased recommendations that can often provide a road map for a community to attract targeted private investment. Panels typically include architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, real estate developers, land use attorneys, as well as representatives from MassDevelopment, who bring expertise in financing and implementation strategies.

To be considered for a TAP, towns submit an application to the ULI Real Estate Advisory Committee, which determines whether the issues in fact merit exploration.  For example, a town may want to address economic development challenges (vacancies) in their village center brought on by large format retail development on its periphery that draws people away from downtown, or a city might want to reconnect its Main Street with a potentially desirable waterfront area that has been cut off by modern infrastructure.  Each case is unique. 

Once a TAP is approved, co-chairs are selected and the Committee works to assemble a diverse group of panelists based on the nature of the problem (e.g. transportation, parking, zoning, blight, environmental issues, lack of density, etc.). Ultimately, a panel of 7-8 people is identified, which collectively provides a rich range of expertise. 

Panel of Experts, ULI TAP, East Milton 2019

What are the advantages to a town of utilizing the TAP process?

While development can follow many tracks, building community consensus is a key piece of the equation. A proactive town can work diligently to put forward a clear vision for redevelopment by holding community outreach meetings and developing an implementation strategy. Alternatively, a developer may see an opportunity and attempt to build buy-in from community stakeholders. But, both of these approaches can take considerable time and resources, especially if a municipality does not have consensus regarding its priorities.

The TAP process is unique in that it allows communities to solicit neutral professional advice from outside experts, which town leadership can then use to help focus priorities and expedite implementation.  This can be advantageous when towns find themselves “stuck” on a particular issue.  In a recent TAP in Wareham, MA, for example, the town’s Redevelopment Authority had been utilizing considerable resources on the redevelopment of a former mill site that was outside the core village area. While there was a clear vision to provide a community meeting center, the location was not conducive to driving revitalization of the Main Street corridor and waterfront, which the panel determined to be the necessary focus. So while the town had identified the need to proactively pursue the redevelopment of a catalyzing project, they were not putting their time and resources into the most critical effort.

What sparked your interest to participate in the Wareham TAP?

When the issues were introduced at a Real Estate Advisory Committee meeting, the questions about how to revitalize a struggling Main Street corridor spoke to me – and the unique community building issues that Wareham has identified strongly parallel my professional interests, and those of Form + Place. Helping communities to vision how to reinvent themselves through targeted mixed-use development and placemaking involves understanding their challenges and figuring out how to leverage their assets – it’s a big puzzle! In this particular project, zoning was a critical piece of the equation, as it was determined that bringing more residential density into the center would be an underlying driver of redevelopment opportunities. And while density can be an important building block, there also need to be usable public spaces for community events and gathering – another component clearly missing in Wareham’s village center.

Describe the Wareham Village TAP

For the Wareham TAP, I was a co-chair with Jim Heffernen, a land-use attorney and real estate developer.

Wareham has a Main Street corridor lined by 1-3 story shops, some of which are vacant.  On one side of the street there is a reasonably continuous facade, and the other side of street features mostly free-standing structures/businesses (a post office and a bank with a drive-through). On the side of the street with the continuous façade, there is an unattractive back alley and train tracks that separate the Main Street shops from a potentially attractive waterfront area. Essentially, the challenge Wareham faces is how to connect Main Street to its waterfront asset and create a vibrant village experience.

A large part of the recommended solution was to focus on the back alley (“Merchant’s Way”), including making a one-way street with thoughtfully designed and landscaped parking, allowing for the redevelopment of a buffer zone along the back of the main street buildings. Ideas included promoting a pedestrian-friendly environment through outdoor dining, accommodated on terraces and decks overlooking the water. In addition, changes to zoning could promote denser residential development, both on town-owned lots and on the upper levels of existing Main Street buildings. A multi-faceted approach to placemaking was seen to be another critical ingredient to address, including making improvements to streetscapes, providing a significant public space and rethinking pedestrian mews to create attractive connections to a more accessible waterfront.

Walking Tour, ULI TAP, East Milton 2019

How did your panel arrive at this solution?

The typical TAP requires a 12-hour day, and some preliminary base documentation is assembled by the municipality for review by panelists ahead of time. Here is a typical schedule:

• Meet town leaders over breakfast meeting (1 hour)

• Tour of the site / town (1 hour)

• Stakeholder interviews (2 hours)– residents, business owners, property owners, neighborhood associations, etc. (not including town officials or staff)

• Panel brainstorming session (5-6 hours) distillation of feedback and impressions of assets and challenges; Develop recommendations and implementation strategies; Prepare graphics and power-point presentation

• Presentation to general public and town leadership; Q&A (2 hours)

• Final report published (at a later date)

How often do TAPs produce built results?

ULI recently commissioned a survey to determine the effectiveness of the Technical Assistance Panel program. This report, which will be released to the public shortly, shows that many communities have followed recommendations put forward through the TAP process and that implementation strategies identified have helped unlock opportunities and led to considerable economic development successes in municipalities across Massachusetts.

What have you learned from participating in this process?

Each municipality has its own set of unique variables, but there are a surprising set of common themes found across all communities. People are wary about increases in density and, instead of perceiving it as an economic driver, often fall back on fears of adverse impacts to their lifestyle, including on schools, infrastructure and traffic.

Many towns lack a diverse range of housing options, particularly reasonably priced product for young professionals and housing for the over-55 demographic, who want to downsize but remain in their community.

Strong leadership is a key component to implementing positive change in towns. Having a strong planning and community development staff can certainly help as well, especially when it comes to helping to develop a common vision, securing layered funding resources and being proactive in making key sites development-ready. The TAP program is a unique tool available to communities, not only for helping focus priorities, but for identifying implementation strategies.