Survey asks residents about downtown shopping
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The Ashburnham Village Center Zoning District Study Committee is about to embark on the first steps of their own market analysis so they can use a grant they received to create a marketing plan.

The first step in the market analysis will be showing up in residents' electric bills this month as committee members try to determine what residents use the center of town for and what they wish they could find there, said Town Planner Eric Smith.

"Everybody has their own ideas of what the Village Center is," he said.

Smith said of the more than 2,800 surveys they are sending out they hope to receive at least 10 percent back. He said anything over that will give them a true view on what residents are looking for, but he isn't sure what less than 10 percent will say.

"Hopefully, people care enough to return them," he said.

The survey asks people to rank the services and store types they use or wish they could use in the center of town. It also asks them to identify why they don't use the stores in the center of town and what would need to change for them to use it.

He said he thinks the next step in the analysis might be to do a survey of the business owners. The committee is already trying to create an inventory of the property in the center of town.

Part of the process is going to be looking at how much business a town of Ashburnham's size can support.

Smith said the committee has been reviewing the existing zoning bylaws for the center area of town, as well as the potential areas of town that should or should not be covered with the same zoning.