Most weeks that Traffic Council meets mean a lot of talk about parking.
To give this some context–any time the MBTA changes the rates on its lots (as it did this July), the folks who used to park for free (or who got used to paying $4 a day), move their cars to a cheaper–or free–spot on our streets. Usually, the next street over. The residents get fed up with all-day congestion, go to Traffic Council to restrict parking, and the parkers move another street away. And so on.
This week, the Planning Department is taking a giant step away from that kind of ad-hoc development and is presenting a neighborhood plan. In this case, it’s around the new North, which makes sense since students now want to park east of the school, where before they tried to take spaces west of the school.
So this week in the LWV Newton’s digest you’ll find three nights either devoted to or dealing with parking (Land Use has been granting waivers to businesses in village centers). Enjoy!
The move from ad-hoc development to comprehensive neighborhood planning is a welcome and productive development and it will be instructive to see what Newtonville comes up with.
The Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council just completed a proposed parking management plan. Among other things, this scheme would designate 150 on-street parking spots throughout the village that would be permitted at 50 for commuters and 100 for village businesses. Most other lot and on-street parking would be restricted to 2 hours or to time of day to discourage commuters from clogging on-street parking.
Bob – that sounds like an excellent and much-needed plan.
@Mgwa and others. I hope I didn’t come across as critical of the City’s Traffic Council or the very able people that serve on it. It’s just that what they try to do becomes ever more difficult as demand for parking increases while the number of available spaces decrease or stay the same. It’s like controlling a Rubik Cube or a blivet, actually a kind of intermodal blivet if the effects of parking for trolley, bus and rail connections are factored in. Blivet is a term I learned in the Navy. Check the dictionary if you don’t know.
Bob, I learned about blivet on my great grandfather’s farm. Same definition, I am sure.
Just googled it. Never knew the optical illusion had a name. Either way, it’s a good Scrabble word!
Materials have been uploaded on the City webpage in advance of Community Meeting. The Community Meeting will be held this Wednesday, December 12, 2012, at 7:00 PM, in the Lecture Hall, Newton North High School.
Here is a link to the materials:
http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/planning/current/transportation/nnhs_parking.asp
Please follow this link to preview the materials, which will also be available for distribution at the meeting on Wednesday.
Thank you,
David Koses
Newton Planning Department