Here is the drawing of the Maria Street project, there are a number of issues that are clear from this drawing:
- The wheelchair accessible spot driver door is exposed to on coming traffic, there is no safe way for someone with a disability to get out of the car without being exposed to traffic.
- The path that leads to the post office (this is where all post office visitors currently and will ultimately continue to walk) is blocked by the wheelchair accessible spot.
- The angle spots are too close to the intersection and when backing out vehicles parked in the first two spots could be exposed to traffic travelling from Woodstock street south to Hope street east.
- Cars parked on along the post office side of the street are too close to the angle parking spots and there could be collisions as a result.
- Feed trucks heading to the Feed Mill on Maria street will have a difficult time navigating the tight corner and will create a safety issue with the limited space with this plan.
- There is no sidewalk in front of the angle parking, so the only option for folks that park there is to cross the street across traffic, which is now very tight with many blind spots because of the angle parking.
- The curb is being moved 18 inches to provide extra space for the angle parking. The angle parking however is still too tight for this to be safe. Moving the curb will require that they cut down a perfectly healthy maple that gives the downtown character.
Many of you might ask... why is it that we need all of these parking spots? And why now, is there an issue with parking.... well the short answer is NO, there is nothing wrong with the parking at the post office.... However, with the gift (... I mean sale) of the Tavistock Library to a group that is expanding it and turning the building into apartments.... there becomes a need for more parking in the direct vicinity of the Library and what better way of providing that then by putting in parking at the expense of the tax payer (again.... not only did we get ripped off on the sale price of the library but now we are funding a parking lot for them too) and at a cost of $600,000. Whew... we are getting taken by some bad decisions and it is now time that we as a community take a stand against this!!!!!
This comment came from Chad Breyer (the resident that lives on the corner of Hope and Maria)
ReplyDeleteJust a little more info for the Maria street parking. When the project is completed parking to the south of Hendershot street will no longer be allowed(this was the designated parking area for the old library, which is no longer needed?). No restrictions have been set out on the parking (does not really matter without any enforcement anyways). This all makes me think how much more parking are we gaining for the downtown businesses, when all the visitors to the apartments will be parking in this area.