by Frank Schroth

At a hearing last night held at the Council on Aging a crowd of about 25 residents listened to a presentation from Nate Cabral-Curtis of Howard/Stein-Hudson, a transportation planning firm working with the town on a final design for the project. Along with Bill Clark, Milton Planning Director, Mr. Cabral-Curtis reviewed the current status, goals for this next phase, the steps required, and a tentative timeline for completion.

The final design will be a revision of what is referred to as the Weiser Plan which consists of a parking lot and green space. There are two versions of this plan; one with a slip lane and one without. The slip lane is the roadway currently in the square that drivers take to head north on Granite Avenue as they head east into East Milton. An open issue to be resolved in the final design will be whether or not that lane will remain. Removing it will allow for more parking spaces, more open space, and a slightly more symmetrically aligned layout. However, there is concern that large trucks will not have the space to adequately navigate the turns required to head northbound (i.e.. right off Adams at Post Office, the left on Boulevard, then left again on Granite).

The goals for the project outlined by Mr. Cabral-Curtis included: maintaining the vibrancy of the square, enhanced bicycle and pedestrian amenities, and improved traffic operations (e.g. signalization) and wayfinding (e.g. signage). The goal is to have a complete design within FY15. The firm will perform slip lane analysis, a detailed survey of the square, compile new traffic counts, a functional design report and collect crash and other data from the town.

A second public meeting will be scheduled for June and the hope is to have a Mass DOT hearing in November. The design will then be advertised to contractors. Howard/Stein Hudson believes that the work can be completed within a single construction season. Bill Clark added that because it is a federally funded project that federal requirements needed to be met. There are also Mass DOT guidelines for the Healthy Transportation Directive which concern addressing bicycle and pedestrian needs.

Several residents and local business owners spoke. Cindy Christiansen, a town meeting member and nearby resident, voiced concerns about drivers using the parking lot as a cut through as well as pedestrian safety, especially school children, during construction. It was explained that the lot will have a one way pattern and will the effort of getting through it to avoid traffic would be unlikely to benefit drivers. Consequently, using as a cut through was unlikely. The construction will be phased and managed to have as minimal an impact on pedestrians as possible.

Paul Traverse and Dick Burke, both members of the Master Plan Committee, raised a number of questions regarding the parking. Mr. Taverse asked if there was an option was being explored to put diagonal parking in between the Shell station and the Post Office. It is an idea that had previously been discussed. Cabral-Curis and Clark said all comments would be considered and evaluated. Somewhat related, Mr. Burke asked how many spots the proposed lot would provide and if they would be sufficient to address merchant needs. Clark said there would be 32 spots if the slip lane were preserved and 40 spots if not. He acknowledged that 32 was probably not sufficient but “it’s what we have” and added that other measure that are being considered could also relieve parking pressures. There are currently a lot of parking spaces that go unused because either they cannot be found or people aren’t comfortable walking that distance. Changes might encourage use if there is better pedestrian access and the comfort level of walking the square is improved.

John Spatola of Wyndmere Street asked what could be done about traffic volume. He said people avoid the square due to traffic volume. The traffic volume issue is not within the scope of the parking design project. It was mentioned that the town specifically controlled the traffic signal at Granite and Adams to create a bit of a wait time on Granite heading north to discourage drivers from exiting the expressway to bypass traffic. Clark said that the delay was only during the morning commute. There is also the notion percolating of closing the ramp off the expressway into East MIlton Square and putting it further north.

You can find the East Milton Parking Project Design web site here.