2008-07-30-PB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Page 2 Minutes for the Meeting of July 30, 2008 *************************HARTWELL AVENUE AREA STUDY************************** Traffic Engineering Study - The Board continued its discussion from the last meeting as to how they thought the limited traffic engineering money could be best utilized in their study of commercial development in the Hartwell Avenue area. Mr. Canale said that at a minimum he wanted to look at two scenarios – a build out at .35 FAR and an area-wide FAR of .9. To help limit the scope he said the traffic plan should assume the number of automobiles to be equivalent to what is generated by 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of building and that the rest of trips would be by foot, bicycle, or transit. He wanted to see controls on Wood Street to limit the traffic to 10,000 vehicles per day as well as capping the number of vehicles on Eldred and Winter streets to roughly current levels. The consultant would be asked to propose how to make that happen, and to do some models using Synchrosoftware. Ms. Manz thought the best use was to get suggestions for physical configurations to limit traffic, assuming there will be aggressive transportation demand management required of the landowners. She would want to limit traffic on Wood Street but was not as familiar with the situation on Eldred and Winter streets. Mr. Hornig said that there were four categories of roads to consider. The first are the roads within the commercial areas of Hartwell and Maguire. As that traffic won’t directly affect the neighbors, it is not his first concern. Then there is Wood, Westview and Massachusetts Avenue by the Minute Man National Historic Park. These carry a fair amount of commercial and residential traffic and are the areas he would put resources into. He was not ready to state an absolute cap but did want conditions to limit impacts as much as possible. The state highways in the area, 4, 225 and 128, have regional problems that we did not solely cause and cannot solve by ourselves. While we should continue regional efforts to address their issues, it is not an area to expend our limited resources on. The last category he saw was the other streets in the area and he did not want to see any significant increase in traffic on those streets. Mr. Canale said looking at the Battle Road Scenic Byway would be helpful. He felt that there was a need for a better definition of the role of streets in the area - collector, arterial, etc. He wanted to ensure there is adequate pedestrian, bicycle, and transit access in the area. There is currently a study of the 128/95 capacity issues. Mr. Hornig felt that with the limited funds they don’t need to look at 128 or Hartwell Avenue and that the