Option for creating 12 new parking spaces in response to spots eliminated in East Milton Square – Letter to the Editor

It was recently reported that the Hudson Stein Hudson design improvements for East Milton Square eliminated fifteen (15) parking spaces.

The Board of Selectmen’s design for the traffic “roundabout” closing the Adams Street bridge over the Expressway lost three (3) spaces on the Adams Street bridge and also eliminated two (2) additional preexisting parking spaces from the Boulevard St. bridge, for a total of twenty (20) lost from the business district.

The attached draft sketch suggests that twelve (12) new parking spaces might be located on the site of the old Fire Station, which is scheduled for closure by the recent Town Meeting vote. Interested parties might ask the Select Board and Traffic Commission to study this option now. A traffic light trip to allow a safe egress may be needed. Amending the existing traffic light contract now may avoid digging the streets of the Square again two years hence when the new station opens near Saint. Agatha Church..

A East Milton Square “Working Group” led by consultant Judi Barrett recently recommended that the Select Board study possible reorganizing and consolidating the several separate private parking lots to increase the total capacity.

-Contributed by by John Cronin, retired Town Administrator

Drawing by John Cronin