It’s a second chance for Medford Square. Thanks to a $90,000 award, the city has another opportunity to study the underdeveloped central business district with a look toward revitalizing the area.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) awarded Medford $40,000 toward a new study aimed at revitalizing Medford Square. The city then received another $50,000 for the same purpose from Boston-based Barr Foundation, a private group supporting arts, climate and education efforts.

Using the $90,000, Medford administrators will spend the next year working with MAPC on a project to reinvigorate the Square’s economic base by attracting new types of retail, improving traffic flow and walkability and possibly recommending zoning changes to guide future development.

“I think what we’re seeing right now is the zoning doesn’t fit with what the businesses and investors want to do, so they’re forced to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals,” said Mayor Stephanie M. Burke. “Instead of the city saying, ‘We’d like to see this type of business in this part of the city.’”

Previous efforts to improve the Square have produced few concrete results. Starting in 2005, the city had at least three studies prepared by consultants related to Medford Square — including two with the same purpose as the new study: revitalizing the area’s businesses and residential base.

Recent studies of Medford Square:

“Medford Square Master Plan”; November 2005; Sasaki Associates, Inc.“Medford Square and the Mystic River: Reconnection, revitalization, redevelopment”; Fall 2006; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning“Medford Garage Feasibility Study”, October 2011; MassDevelopment, Utile, Inc. and Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates

Despite hundreds of pages of analysis at the city’s fingertips, Medford Square has remained mostly unchanged, and underdeveloped compared to business districts in neighboring communities.

So why should business owners, residents and anyone else expect a different result with yet another study?

“We’re very results-driven,” Burke said. “So we wouldn’t put people through this effort if we didn’t take this seriously and think we could implement the plan.”

Similar to previous studies, the new project will evaluate economic, traffic, residential and pedestrian conditions in the area. It will also include recommendations for redevelopment based on MAPC’s analysis and community input.

“The last two comprehensive plans were 10, 11 years ago, so this plan I would say is a reasonable time to do it — it’s time to do it again,” said Josh Fiala, senior regional planner in MAPC’s Land Use Department, who is coordinating the project. “So it’s not just a plan on top of a plan. A reasonable amount of time has passed.”

Since the first study in 2005, similar business districts have seen major growth (examples include Somerville’s Davis Square and Malden Center) thanks in large part, Fiala said, to smart planning by cities and towns.

“Given the pressure that many Greater Boston communities are feeling with redevelopment, if you don’t create more comprehensive plans that look at mixed-use centers, then change will happen on a parcel by parcel basis — and maybe not in the way the city would want,” Fiala said, adding mixed business and residential areas have become more popular in recent years. “So I think [Medford is] seeing some of the latent potential in the Square and wanting to capitalize on that.”

Unlike past studies, the project will also evaluate the area directly across the Mystic River, on Main Street and Mystic Avenue near the Medford Police Department. The new study area is part of an effort to increase access to the river.

“It’s pretty unusual to have a river there as an asset,” Fiala said. “And it’s really unleveraged in a lot of ways.”

Another asset are the city-owned properties on the east side of Medford Square, including the surface parking lot next to City Hall.

Through the project, Burke said the city would look to redevelop the properties to bring more people to the Square, possibly with new residential developments.

“We own the land, so we can certainly do things on our own,” Burke said. “When you’re talking about the central part of the Square, you talk with the land owners about if they’re interested in doing something special with their properties.”

New planners key to efforts

Spend any time in Medford Square and you’re likely to hear complaints about too many types of businesses.

With the new study, Burke said the city would have a better idea about what types of retailers Medford Square needs.

“They’re going to bring a lot of economic indicators to the process, something we don’t do right now,” Burke said about MAPC’s study. “That will show you what is the real demand, what is the economy looking for, what can we handle. People can poke fun and say, ‘We have a lot of this or a lot of that,’ but that may be what’s needed.”

The city also hopes to be more effective in recruiting new businesses to the downtown area, which Burke said would be a focus of the two new full-time planners in the city’s Office of Community Development (funded through a $110,000 addition to the department’s budget).

“That’s really going to go part and parcel with this whole thing,” Burke said. “And that’s when we internally have to do a whole lot more to entice businesses.”

Moving forward

MAPC has begun its existing conditions analysis of Medford Square and plans to hold a series of stakeholder meetings and interviews later this summer. The organization and city will also host a public meeting in September to gather community input.

Fiala said MAPC plans to complete the study next spring, leaving Medford with a clear plan for improving its largest business district.

“They want some concrete action items that can come out of a study like this, some things they can really hit the ground running with,” Fiala said. “There’s a new mayor in Medford, and she is pretty energetic and wants to start getting things rolling.”

— Check back with WickedLocal Medford for more information about public meetings related to the Medford Square project.