Note: The 3/22 presentation can found here.

At the community hearing held on 3/22 Howard Stein Hudson, the firm retained to perform an analysis of parking in East Milton, presented a number of possible scenarios for relieving the issues.

The presentation HSH gave on 3/22 can be found  here. In short, they proposed:

• Light modifications to traffic circulation and pedestrian improvements. This is the lowest impact, would not require major reconstruction. The plan presented to BCAC included new parking where park currently is. One resident commented that people didn’t use the park that covered the expressway and they were unlikely to use the parking.
• Removing the light at Granite Ave and Adams street and putting in a roundabout (Traffic Circle). They insisted it was a roundabout and not a traffic circle. They emphasized that the size is much smaller than a typical traffic circle. This plan would also allow for some additional parking.
• Making Adams Street two-way. This plan also allowed for construction of additional parking spaces. However, as one resident pointed out not all the parking they proposed was possible. Keri Pyke of HSH agreed and noted that these were conceptual proposals.

Ms. Pyke also presented two options for increasing parking that involved property acquisition. These are separate from any of above proposals and could be done in addition to any of them.  One of the properties is at Franklin and Basset. The properties are assessed at $1.043 million.  Pyke noted that is not the market value. The property would allow for 49 spaces. The other property considered at Adams Court/Basset assessed at $1.2 million could add 43 additional spaces.

She also recommended consideration of “reverse angle parking” which has drivers back their car into angled spots. Ms. Pyke noted this was safer and easier than parallel parking and had additional safety benefits in that people could see better whan leaving the space rather than backing into traffic, groceries and packages could be loaded into the car and not require person to be against the lane of traffic and similarly children getting into cars would be further away from street. It is a concept that has been n practice in a number of states and been successful.

The next meeting of the BCAC will be April 13th. There will be a draft report in early April with a final report due in May.