Portsmouth council hears Market Square master‑plan concepts focused on sidewalks, parking and flexible outdoor dining

Portsmouth City Manager Connor opened the Jan. 6 work session by saying the Market Square Master Plan effort is being driven by imminent infrastructure work and is an opportunity to rethink the streetscape while underground pipes are replaced.

Eric Galley, a landscape architect and planner with Beta Group, told the Portsmouth City Council the study is intended to “coalesce a vision that would guide future improvements” rather than deliver construction drawings. Galley and Jeff Max, a transportation planner with Beta Group, summarized ten months of public outreach including farmers‑market booths, two public workshops, an online survey and a working group; consultants said common priorities from that outreach were wider sidewalks, more public seating, better lighting and options to support outdoor dining while preserving Market Square’s historic character.

The consultants presented three concept families for Congress Street, Pleasant Street, Penhollow Street and adjacent corridors. One Congress Street option reduces the corridor from three lanes to two while repurposing the freed lane for parking, curb treatments and pedestrian space; another retains three lanes but sacrifices several on‑street spaces. Consultants said the study area currently contains about 134 parking spaces and that roughly a dozen spaces are converted during the summer dining season. They reported about 65 street trees in the study area and suggested techniques (expanded tree pits, linear planters, suspended soil cells) to add canopy without damaging sidewalks.

On specific tradeoffs, the consultants said parallel parking configurations could yield modest sidewalk gains (an order‑of‑magnitude increase of roughly 8–10% on Pleasant Street in one scenario), while converting angled parking to parallel could produce larger increases (they estimated up to about a 30% increase in sidewalk area in the most aggressive option). Several Pleasant Street concepts reduced vehicle lanes to a single left‑turn lane at Market Square to simplify driver movements and improve pedestrian safety; consultants noted delivery and loading needs would be preserved through designated flex spaces.

Councilors pressed the consultants on safety, seasonal flexibility and parking impacts. Councilor Bagley said the work is tied to aging infrastructure, noting, “The reason we're doing a lot of this is because we have 100 year old water and sewer pipes,” and supported reducing lanes on Congress and Pleasant. Assistant Mayor Taber and other councilors asked whether larger consolidated crosswalks or signals would be needed and how two‑lane options would affect traffic queuing; consultants responded they had performed traffic analyses and that clarified lane markings and curb tightening could slow speeds without materially reducing throughput.

Consultants described several approaches to managing event closures and outdoor dining: removable or crash‑rated bollards, flush paver surfaces that can serve as both parking and pedestrian plazas, and modular planters used as temporary barriers. Jeff Max said bollard solutions range from decorative to crash‑rated systems and must be specified to the level of protection desired; the team flagged maintenance tradeoffs for retractable bollards in a winter climate with grit and sand.

Public commenters and working‑group members prioritized preserving features such as the existing planting and Christmas‑tree area and urged the city to avoid permanent, visually intrusive concrete barriers for dining. John Singer, a Market Square working‑group member, urged the council to “ensure that the final Market Square recommendations include at least a goal of the total elimination of the concrete barriers in Market Square.” Resident Sue Polydura suggested that any splash‑pad or child water feature would be better sited in Prescott Park and said downtown retail access and winter parking must be protected.

City staff and the consultants said next steps are to refine alternatives, compile recommendations and finalize a master plan in 2025 that can guide phased construction timed with the required underground utility repairs. No formal votes or ordinances were taken at the work session; the presentation will return to the council with more detailed recommendations and quantifications of parking and sidewalk changes.