Chelmsford Committee Scales Back Spring Festival, Backs Two Town Meeting Articles

CHELMSFORD -- March 2, 2026, Chelmsford's Final Square Strategic Action Plan Committee scaled back its planned spring festival and unanimously endorsed two town meeting warrant articles at its March 2 meeting. The committee voted to abandon a multi-site May 7 event at Varney Park, the McKay Library, and the fire station in favor of a smaller celebration tied to the installation of a new tower clock in Final Square, tentatively set for May 16. Members also voted unanimously to recommend support of Article 25, a Community Preservation Act request for $74,000 in net town funding, offset by a $10,000 Rare Road Foundation donation, to install an all-inclusive, wheelchair-accessible merry-go-round at Varney Playground, and Article 28, which would rezone portions of the Middlesex Street corridor from industrial to residential and a new "CB Light" commercial-industrial hybrid district. Public Works Director Christine presented preliminary design concepts for a Main Street road diet, a $195,000 design contract with GPI Consultants that envisions $1.5 million in phased construction to narrow travel lanes, add sidewalks, and install pedestrian crosswalks along a corridor where 85th-percentile vehicle speeds run 37 to 39 miles per hour against a 30-mile-per-hour posted limit, funding for construction has not yet been identified.