Park Street split still on the table
Published on December 20th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - The proponents of a Home Depot along Fallon Road reiterated their confidence on Monday night in a new traffic mitigation that would shut down Park Street near Mosley Park.
Convening a private, but open-to-all meeting in Town Hall this week with a handful of some reported 300 or so invited south Stoneham neighbors, Richmond Company representative David Armanetti sought additional support for the proposed traffic improvement, which would block-off access to Park Street near its intersection with North Border Road.
According to Armanetti, before traffic engineers pressed forward with additional analysis of traffic reviews of the Park Street cul-de-sac pitch, he wanted to ensure that abutters were in general support of the idea, even if they had their doubts about whether such a roadway alteration would work. However, the Home Depot applicant emphasized that initial traffic counts - prepared by tally tubes placed in the area by the petitioner's traffic consultant - had proven that of the new plan appears to succeed in prohibiting a significant portion of the purported commuter traffic from traveling into Stoneham from Winchester.
"In the interest of getting started, we wanted to get some additional input before we get started with that study. If Park Street was closed and some of these changes were made, which way would I drive and how long would my detour be," said Armanetti.
Wilmington's The Richmond Company, which purchased the 225 Fallon Road property from A.W. Chesterton last spring for $7.4 million, plans to renovate the 16.2 acre parcel into a 133,000 square foot home improvement store and a three-story, 15,000 square foot office park. The site, located near the I-93 north on-ramp adjacent to North Border Road, which meets Main and South Streets close-by the Friendly's Restaurant in south Stoneham, is zoned for both office and retail uses. However, according to the town's bylaws, the Planning Board must grant a special permit to authorize the applicants to exceed a 75,000 square foot retail use limitation in the area. During those Planning Board deliberations on the petitioner labeled, Stoneham Crossings plan, an army of South Stoneham neighbors, primarily from the Park and Marble Street areas, have staunchly opposed the project by arguing that the anticipated 3,200 daily increase in vehicular trips haven't been adequately addressed. At last month's meeting before the elected board, the proponents, lead by Riemer & Braunstein Attorney Mark Vaughan, formally suggested the Park Street cul-de-sac proposal, which apparently was well-received by Planning Board members - although the group admittedly was skeptical of where the traffic would be rerouted. However, according to both Vaughan and Armanetti, the Planning Board's cautiousness seemed to be unwarranted according to initial estimates, as at least 84-percent of all traffic traveling into Stoneham through the Marble Street overpass connecting to the town to the neighboring municipality of Winchester comes from out-of-town commuters during peak-hours. The project petitioners further insisted that an estimated 70 percent of all vehicles traversing Marble Street during rush-hour commuting times took a right turn down Park Street to access North Border Road - albeit to traverse different ultimate routes. By closing off Park Street just by Mosley Park, thereby preventing vehicles to cut-through to North Border Road, the applicants suggested that a large percentage of those commuters would be encouraged to detour their normal trip to larger-capacity roadways such as I-93.
"I think you're turning Marble Street into Main Street and you're going to have absolute gridlock," said one invited guest. "I'm not trying to give you a hard time Dave. I know you're trying to come up with a creative solution to keep [the numbers] of cars that come through our neighborhood."
"I just don't want to solve one problem and create another," the area resident furthered.
Subscribe and get Home Delivery of The Independent
Save 36% off the newstand price — that's like 18 FREE issues!