Adams Park Street Renovations Nearing Design Stage
.jpg) Director of Community Donna Cesan said she will hold another informational meeting near the end of the month. |
The Department of Community Development and engineers asked for public feedback before drafting a preliminary plan and before the town seeks additional federal funding to renovate its downtown.
The crowd of nearly a dozen raved about most of the ideas until the planners said they wanted to add bump-outs and raise two crosswalks three inches.
The two crosswalks, one at School Street and the other at Armory Court, could be raised three inches but residents opposed it calling them unnecessary "speed bumps."
Proponents said raising the 10-foot-wide crosswalks - which would incline to a height of three inches over a six-foot area and decline the same - would slow traffic.
"We have a severe safety problem in this town and we need to slow traffic down," Arthur "Skip" Harrington, Board of Selectmen chairman, said.
The raised crosswalks are intended to keep traffic between 15 and 20 miles-per-hour, said Project Manager David Loring, of the engineering firm Tighe & Bond. Faster than that vehicles will bottom out.
Town officials discussed the possibility of purchasing plastic, removable bumps that could be laid down on the street so residents can have a chance to get a first-hand experience of it before project begins.
"I'd like to feel it. I'd like to get input from residents," Selectman Michael Ouellette said. "I like the concept but 3 inches is a big bump."
Selectwoman Paula Melville said that the raised crosswalks were unneeded and a nuisance to the residents that will have to drive the road every day.
Bump-outs at those intersections would extend as far as the parking spots but give the appearance that the road is narrowing and reduce the distance pedestrians would need to travel to cross the street, Loring said.
Loring and architect Craig Okserstom-Lang, from Okerstom-Lang Landscape Architects, will take the input and craft a preliminary design that includes a cost estimate. Currently, the project is estimated to cost about $800,000 that the town will seek funding from a federal Community Development Block Grant. The cost estimate will determine how many of the concepts actually go into the final plan. The grant application is due on Dec. 15.
Loring said he will continue to flesh out the crosswalk idea while he crafts the preliminary design. The rest of the project, which includes some diagonal parking, widening of the sidewalks, additional signage and planters, was well received by the crowd.
"The idea is to capture some of that through traffic and have them spend their money here," Loring said. "One of the goals is to widen the sidewalks."
The ideas call for widening the sidewalk on the east side by two feet, which will reduce the travel lanes to 12 feet. Not only will that help slow traffic but it will give businesses more sidewalk room, Loring said.
On the sidewalks, planters and benches can be installed to improve the scenery. Also to improve the aesthetics, Loring suggested removing some of the trees that block the view of the architecture and planting trees along the bump-outs.
The plan would call for a reduction in parallel parking spaces along the street but additional spaces would be gained by expanding the parking area in front of Town Hall and creating head-in diagonal parking.
Additionally, the ideas included replacing the parking meters. Most of the meters that are current there are broken. In the diagonal parking areas, the engineers kicked around the idea of trying a parking kiosk but voiced opposition to using kiosks for the parallel spots.
"One of the thoughts was to try it and see how it works," Loring said.
Pictures of the concepts that were presented are on display in Town Hall and should soon be uploaded to both the town's web site and iBerkshires. Director of Community Development Donna Cesan said she expects to hold another public input meeting toward the end of the month.
