SOUTH HADLEY — Smack in between the lush pathway along the Hadley Falls Dam and the stately Old Firehouse Museum — in the town’s newly designated historical district — sits a heaping pile of bricks, metal and trash loosely enclosed by a wire fence.

The brick building on the corner of West Main and Carew streets in the “Falls” section of town has continued to crumble since it partially collapsed a year ago.

After its previous owner died in October 2023, the property sat in probate court limbo for nearly six months, preventing the town from cleaning up the smelly mess just down the road from the town’s esteemed library.

In May, the South Hadley Falls Redevelopment Authority decided they had enough of the eyesore, and asked Director of Planning and Conservation Anne Capra to speak with the property owner — who was named by the courts in January — about cleaning up the brownfields, a term for developed industrial land containing hazardous pollutants.

While the Carew property is, by far, a worst-case example, many aging buildings in South Hadley Falls share its challenges.

The cost of clean up would need to include abatement of all the asbestos-filled materials used to build what was once a Clydesdale horse barn. The plot is too small to meet modern zoning bylaws and too close to the riverfront to meet current federal floodplain regulations, preventing any new construction. It’s privately owned, which excludes the property from state and federal grants that often ease the cost burden of these projects.

These challenges are examples of why efforts and enthusiasm to revive the Falls neighborhood continue to be hindered, to the dismay of many Falls enthusiasts.

“It’s no one person’s fault,” said Diane LaRoche, a governor’s appointee to the South Hadley Falls Redevelopment Authority. “It’s not bad acting on the administration. It’s evolution.”

One project at a time

Residents and municipal governments, however, remain determined to overcome these obstacles, one project at a time. Whether it’s continued outreach with landlords, building a beautiful new library or even simply planting trees in environmental justice neighborhoods, South Hadley is making small and steady efforts to turn the neighborhood into the thriving community center it once was.

While the Falls haven’t been “revived,” so to speak, several efforts to spur redevelopment have successfully beautified the neighborhood.

While waiting for new construction projects to get through permitting processes, smaller efforts aim to create a more inviting atmosphere.

The Frank DeToma South Hadley Falls Memorial Fund, named after a passionate member of the South Hadley Redevelopment Authority, collects donations for a myriad of projects, from supplementing construction costs for redevelopment projects to fully funding recreation improvements.

Additionally, the Planning and Conversation Department has planted 15 trees in the Falls residential neighborhoods to expand the urban canopy, which are the first of 400 trees set to be planted all over town, many in the Falls, over the next two years.

After dropping off during the pandemic, the South Hadley Falls Neighborhood Association has slowly regrown and continues to hold trash cleanup days in spring and fall.

“The things that go on, not everyone sees,” Capra said. “It may seem like they’re not happening fast enough or it’s not obvious, but we still are investing in the Falls and hope that it inspires private investment as well.”

Capra adds that the town maintains the municipal buildings in the Falls to keep “a civic heart of municipal government.” Recently, the police station underwent a major roof repair and Capra said both buildings had significant renovations to meet department needs.

While there were plans to turn the South Hadley Electric Lighting Department building into a mixed-use development, the project remains in indefinite hiatus until the organization locates a new property that meets their space needs.

Accomplishments to date

Not every redevelopment effort is small. In fact, the area has seen a handful of successful efforts. The South Hadley Library, built in 2014, continues to serve as a busy community center packed with meetings, youth events and reading hour with Duchess the Terrier. The building overlooks the biggest asset to the Falls neighborhood, the Connecticut River.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have access to the riverfront,” said LaRoche. “I think if the riverfront were more easily accessible and not locked up for half of the year, people would love to go.”

The Old Firehouse Museum offers families a look into South Haldey’s history, filled with relics from the Colonial, Civil War and World War eras. As a newly approved historical district — the first one in South Hadley — the hope is that residents and visitors will flock to the towering building.

Main Street development

Both the museum and library buildings sit on Main Street, the road that happens to be the Redevelopment Authority’s next big project.

“A Main Street reconstruction is planned, hopefully starting next year,” said LaRoche. “Some traffic calming measures and changes to the way traffic moves through South Hadley Falls might be of benefit to the areas. It’s going to require a lot of public input.”

According to the Redevelopment Authority’s February newsletter, the Main Street reconstruction project is a full redesign and reconstruction of the road, including repaving, sidewalk expansions and a mixed-use road for cyclists and pedestrians. New lighting, better signs and landscaping additions like trees and benches will help travelers navigate the area, hopefully bringing much needed foot traffic.

“We really wanted that mixed-use path on the plan because we think that if you have a place that’s safe for pedestrians and bicyclists, it really invites people in to come to the stores that are downtown,” Capra said.

Currently, 25% of the redesign has been drafted. A public hearing will take place over the summer to gather input on the rough design before it’s finished, Capra said, after which residents can give more feedback at a second public hearing.

The project design is a collaboration between South Hadley, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. As part of the PVPC’s Transportation Improvement Projects program, MassDOT will fund Main Street’s construction.

“It really sparks a renaissance,” Capra said. “If you think about downtown Turners Falls, for example, they reconstructed their Main Street similar to what we’re thinking about and it really supported local business and the neighborhood.”

‘Government isn’t the solution’

Despite a handful of successes and high hopes for the Main Street redesign, not every project proposed to spur redevelopment has made its supposed impact. Most of the properties in South Hadley are private land, preventing public entities from improving dilapidated or vacant buildings.

The intersection of Main and Bridge streets, LaRoche said, has been eyed for redevelopment as the entrance to the neighborhood. However, the corner is made of three different plots, owned by three different people. Coordinating with three different people to create one cohesive look is quite the challenge.

“I think one of the dream goals of the redevelopment authority would be to consolidate those three pieces of land,” LaRoche said.

In April, Capra approached the Select Board about issues with the developer converting the old Bardwell Library into six condominiums. The project has made little progress since 2020, and while the pandemic slowed construction supply chains, the units remain unfinished even after labor and materials become more available. Developer Jesse Liu, Capra claimed, had been delinquent on property taxes, inspections and progress reports to the Planning Board.

Despite the struggles, Liu told the Gazette that he’d like to get the units finished by the end of the year.

With limited power, Capra’s strategy on private lots is to communicate with landlords about problems, needs and possible solutions. While some landlords refuse to collaborate with the town, Capra said, she receives calls almost daily from interested developers eyeing properties, many of whom are interested in collaboration.

“When the opportunities come up, like the change of ownership at Mill 6, we are really in touch with those properties and business and really in touch with bringing those resources to the projects and facilitating moving forward,” Capra said.

For instance, after years of silence from the owner of Mill 6, a large brownfield site that has been described as “the biggest eyesore in the Falls, the property’s new owner, with Capra’s help, received an Environmental Protection Agency grant for a brownfield assessment to investigate soil and water contamination. The empty lot across from the police station acquired a permit to develop a new mixed-use building, but the project fell apart once the plot’s owner could not fund the project. However, a new developer will pick up where the previous owner left off.

In the spirit of open communication, the Redevelopment Authority will invite all the businesses in the Falls on Sept 13 to discuss the goals of each business owner and resources the local government can offer to help achieve these plans.

“We’re going to be doing that outreach to local businesses to just bring them together and have a conversation,” Capra said, “so that we can chart a path ... to meet their needs.”

LaRoche, meanwhile, says residents who want to speed up the redevelopment of the Falls should start with community involvement.

“You hear it all the time: ‘Why doesn’t the town open a bakery on Main Street?’” LaRoche said. “You want a bakery on Main Street, you need a baker first of all, and you need to build a bakery. So I think it has to start at the lowest level, with the people who live here. [They] need to be informed and involved and to really understand the challenges here.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.