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Williamstown Board Asked to Restrict Parking on Lee Terrace
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
02:23AM / Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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The east end of Lee Terrace, with the Mather House (65 North St.) on the left. Neighbors are asking for a lengthy no-parking zone on Lee Terrace.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A group of Lee Terrace residents on Monday asked the Board of Selectmen to prohibit parking at the east end of the dead-end road.
 
The residents raised the concern in light of a new mixed-use building the corner of Lee Terrace and North Street.
 
The business and apartment building, a reuse of the historic Mather House, has rankled the Lee Terrace neighborhood for months.
 
Their current concern is that although the building has the required off-street parking (accessed from North Street), the residents feel it is inevitable that visitors to the downstairs office space and five apartments upstairs will park on Lee Terrace.
 
"Parking blocks a lane of traffic, and you're pushed into the oncoming lane," resident Howard Carter said. "We're concerned about having to avoid a [motor vehicle] accident and instead hitting a child on the street.
 
"We see a blocked lane pushing us into a lane of traffic as a concern."
 
Members of the board expressed sympathy with residents, although Selectman Ronald Turbin asked whether the board should have a conversation with the town planner and/or chief of police before creating the no-parking zone.
 
"The police chief's position is whatever regulations the Selectmen impose, he'll enforce," Town Manager Peter Fohlin advised the board. "But you're welcome to talk to him."
 
Based on the residents' initial contact with Town Hall, Fohlin had apprised the board that it would be asked to institute a parking ban for about the first 200 feet from the North Street intersection. But on Monday night, Carter and the group who attended the meeting asked for a prohibition covering "300 to 400 feet."
 
That led Turbin to ask whether the larger no-parking zone, which would cover the roadside in front of several residents' houses, might create more problems for them.
 
"Where would overflow parking go if we did the 400 feet?" Turbin asked. "If you had guests, had a party?"
 
Carter told the board that there was adequate parking at the bottom of the street, where it ends in a cul de sac.
 
Chairwoman Jane Patton asked the residents whether they were concerned they'd see more cars parked in front of their houses if visitors to 65 North St. were forced to park farther down on Lee Terrace if and when all the off-street spots at the property were full.
 
Carter explained that the residents did not think the problem would be lack of parking in the off-street lot but rather that visitors/residents to 65 North St. would find it more convenient to park on Lee Terrace, especially since there is staircase leading to the apartments on that side of the building.
 
At Fohlin's suggestion, the board decided to revisit the issue after the town had a chance to measure the exact length of the proposed no-parking zone.
 
"Maybe 400 feet isn't what you want," Fohlin said. "Maybe you want 410."
 
Carter, who said he did not expect the board to create the restriction the first time it was discussed, agreed that it made sense for the panel to take it up in August or early September.
 
In other business, the board approved the request of a North Adams resident who was born and raised in Williamstown to purchase a burial plot in Eastlawn Cemetery and, in a joint meeting with the Housing Authority, elected Mark Reinhardt to fill out the unexpired term of Joan Burns.
 
Howard Carter addresses the Selectmen on Monday evening about parking on Lee Terrace.
Reinhardt, a longtime member of the Housing Authority, resigned earlier this year but said he decided to come back and fill out Burns' unexpired term because the authority has some big decisions coming up, including the appointment of a new executive director.
 
The board also addressed a concern of Selectwoman Anne O'Connor, who plans to attend Tuesday's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hearing on the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline.
 
O'Connor sought her colleagues' input on whether she could or should or identify herself as a member of the board and whether she could say she spoke for the town in light of the May's town meeting adoption of a resolution opposing the pipeline.
 
The consensus of the group was that she could mention her position and the town's vote but make it clear that her other opinions were her own.
 
"You can always speak as a [selectman]," Fohlin said. "That's who you are. But you can't say you're speaking on behalf of the board."
 
The board did endorse the non-binding resolution at town meeting but has steered clear of taking any town action on the proposed pipeline, which is not proposed to go through the town.
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