BRATTLEBORO — Defending in an editor's note your reporter's assertion that the Elliot Street high rise is not technically downtown must have been a notion that occurred with the sixth cup of coffee and five minutes before going to press. A factual correction by “sources,” no less.
Technically, the reporter wrote “downtown.” The official zoning map indicates an Urban Center. The high rise is well within that. There is no official downtown as such.
There is, however, a smaller overlay called the Downtown Historical District. However, the Flat Street building is being built on a property that is not in the Historic District. Empty lots were not included.
But wait! The new building planned on Flat Street has one commercial space on the first floor. It isn't, in fact, exclusively dedicated to housing.
And if that is too picky, then we must take note that the Brattleboro Food Co-op is a new building - also with one commercial space and an almost identical number of apartments.
Interestingly, both properties are in the Urban District but not themselves in the Historic District. However, both properties abut a property in the Historic District, so neither can possibly be closer to it than the other.
At any rate, sources tell me that of the 846,212 people familiar with Brattleboro, only two do not consider the high rise to be located downtown.
Ask your sources if the parking garage is downtown.