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June 10, 1957 Board of Selectmen ' Town Office Building Lexington, Mass. Dear Sirs: The Planning Board at a meeting held Friday night June 7, 1957, following the public hearing on June 6, 1957, decided that it could not submit to a Town Meeting a recom- mendation of favorable action on the amendments to the Zon- ing By-law, as proposed in the notice for the hearing. The above decision was based on information pre- sented at the hearing together with other data which the Board has assembled through its own studies. The shopping center as now .proposed presents certain basic problems. Un- less these problems can be solved, it is the unanimous opinionof the Board that it is not to the Town's best interest to have a shopping center located in the area pro- posed. The problems are: 1. Traffic. The extent of automobile traffic, cus- tomer and empfoyee, to and from the proposed shopping , center cannot be determined with certainty at the present time. The volume of traffic will depend upon the size of the center, as it developes, and the various facilities available there. Based on estimates, it appears that the major part of the traffic would use Routes 2 and 128. How- ever, it also appears that there would be substantial use of local streets not only by local residents but also by resi- dents in nearby communities. Under the traffic pattern as now proposed, some of this traffic may be expected to arrive or depart from the center via Spring Street, Lincoln and Shade Streets and Concord Avenue. The shopping center traffic on these streets would have to be assimilated with other traffic on these streets. At the present time, the Board is in doubt as to whether this can be done without overloading these streets, particularly if the center should be fully developed. It has been suggested that a system of one way streets might be established, but one way streets in residential areas are difficult to maintain in practice. There also is a question of whether, if the pro- posed center should be fully developed, our main local roads such as Waltham Street, Marrett Road, Massachusetts Avenue, Bedford Street and Woburn Street could assimilate the additional traffic without serious overloading at peak ' periods. The Board recognizes that some of these streets would have an increase in traffic if the proposed center should be located in a nearby community rather than in Lex-