Planning Board Discusses Davis Straits, On-Street Parking, Worcester Court
Planning board members James Fox and Patricia H. Kerfoot gave an update on the Davis Straits Working Group at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, October 26.
The Davis Straits Reset project has been underway for some time now and aims to create a more livable and walkable neighborhood in the Davis Straits area. But after two meetings with the working group, Mr. Fox said that he still has some concerns about the discrepancy between what the state is looking to do with the roadway and what the town wants to do, specifically when it comes to the character of the road itself.
The update comes three weeks after the conceptual design meeting held by the Department of Public Works, during which they unveiled tentative plans for the Route 28 redesign. The designs introduced were created with traffic flow in mind, and are aimed to create the most traffic-efficient route through Davis Straits while maintaining the corridor’s integrity as a high-speed state highway.
“We have a major conflict [with] what the state wants to do on Route 28,” Mr. Fox said. “I don’t think we’re going to change Davis Straits into being a neighborhood street if it’s a superhighway where people are stepping on the gas trying to go 50 miles per hour and blow through town. I think it needs to be calmed down, slowed down just like Main Street and that’s going to be a hurdle for us to get to.”
Mr. Fox said that in a retail area, having easily accessible parking makes all the difference. He argued that street parking in this area would be an incentive for customers, as it not only promises easy in-and-out access but forces traffic to slow down while passing through the area.
“If you look at the value of retail space, it’s when people can stop, get out of their car, go into the store and not have to walk across 200 yards of concrete and pavement where they’re going to get run over or have to drive,” Mr. Fox said. “I mean, it’s a real conflict. When we zoned Davis Straits, we did it for cars and now we want to change it for people, and that’s a serious problem. I don’t think it’s going to work unless we make that change.”
Mr. Fox also noted that there is usually a sizable difference in rent between retail spaces with parking and those without of between 20 and 30 percent.
Chairwoman Charlotte Harris referenced street parking on Route 6, which she said she often takes on her way to Connecticut.
“That’s a state highway, it passes through a number of towns,” Ms. Harris said. “And in the towns, it’s just a little town road and people are parking on it and those are state roads, so I know there are instances of the state allowing it.”
Assistant town planner Jed Cornock clarified that there are instances in which the state allows on-street parking on state highway designated roads, but it is approved through a permit process.
“To Jim’s point, when you start talking about a type of environment that’s going to be supportive of retail and economic development but is also supportive of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, on-street parking is one of the tools in the toolbox,” Mr. Cornock said. “It’s a coordinated effort. The planning department has to work closely with the DPW to try to figure out if they’d be open to the idea and whether or not conceptual plans can be modified to include alternatives.”
Town Planner Thomas Bott added that this is the reason these conversations are happening in the first place: to get the ideas out there now so that they can be discussed by the right people at the right time and place later down the line.
“We just want to make sure that the conversation we’re having about the larger issue of redeveloping Davis Straits is incorporated into the road plans as part of a discussion to make sure that we’re not missing an opportunity now,” Mr. Bott said. “If they rebuild the road, there’s no inserting it at that point, so we just want to make sure that we notify our friends at the DPW so they’re aware that this conversation is going on.”
Another point brought up by Mr. Fox is a potential redesign of Worcester Court, which he thinks has an opportunity to become more walkable and populated with pedestrians, allowing it to capitalize on what he called the “boulevard feel.”
“You can change a whole neighborhood just by having people there,” Mr. Fox said. “I think that Worcester Court is the second key—Davis Straits is important, but the next major artery is Worcester Court.”
The board acknowledged that there are a lot of moving parts to this project and because of that, there is a lot more that needs to be discussed with the right people in order to move forward. Further discussion of this topic is postponed until after Town Meeting and likely take place in December.