by Frank Schroth

It was a brief coda to a long hearing but last night after a review of traffic impacts the Planning Board voted in favor of site plan approval for the restaurant development being proposed by the Falconi Companies at the site of the old East Milton Theater on Adams Street.

The board heard from a representative of Morris Engineering, a firm retained by the Falconis, who reviewed the traffic impacts the restaurant would generate. The analysis was done in consultation with Howard Stein Hudson the firm that provided a comprehensive traffic analysis of the square as part of their development of a parking solution to be built on the East Milton deck (Learn more here). In short, the restaurant was an anticipated use that would have a “diminuous impact.” The engineer stated that he believed the Howard Stein Hudson impact to be conservative.

In a letter to the Falconi Company dated February 11th Michael Santos, a traffic engineer with Howard Stein Hudson refers to a memorandum of 11/17/14 that:

indicated that the proposed restaurant could generate 540 vehicular trips on an average weekday and 566 vehicular trips on an average Saturday. During the peak hours, the proposed project would generate approximately 54 vehicular trips (33 entering and 21 exiting) during the weekday evening peak hour and 66 vehicular trips (38 entering and 27 exiting) during the Saturday midday peak hour. During the peak hour of operations, the restaurant could expect to generate approximately one new trip per minute.

He also notes:

The project-related traffic will be dispersed throughout the local roadways surrounding the restaurant. When the traffic is dispersed throughout the East Milton Square area, the number of project-related vehicular trips expected to impact specific intersections will be less than the total trip generation for the proposed restaurant.

With the traffic impact questions being addressed Chair Whiteside opened the hearing to any additional questions from residents. One voiced concern over the location of the MBTA bus stop. The board agreed to have Mr. Clark, Planning Director, communicate the suggestion to the T that the stop be moved up Adams Street in the vicinity of the East Congregational Church. It should be noted that Mr. Whiteside also apologized for unintentionally bringing the previous session of the hearing to close prematurely. It was not his intent to prevent people who wanted to speak at that session from doing so. He said, “I want to apologize. I cut people off at the knees and I am sorry. I did not know people were waiting to speak.”

Whiteside confirmed with the Planning Director that the Board of Appeals was waiting for the Planning Board’s decision before issuing their final ruling. (The BoA evaluated the proposal with regard to sufficiency of parking. They determined that the parking was sufficient but are waiting on the site approval before issuing formal finding). The board made some minor revisions to the approval and then voted in favor of it. In summary Whiteside said that the goal of the site plan approval is to work with the developers to make the proposal “as good as possible and I think they  [the Falconis] have.”