On Saturday March 6, nearly 100 residents showed up to attend a public meeting at Mt. Washington House to hear Project for Public Spaces present their draft plan for the future of the Hamlet.
Meg Walker, VP at PPS and the leader of the Hillsdale Planning Team, presented the major concepts of the draft plan, including:
I. Development of Key Destinations within the Hamlet:
a. Hamlet Park
b. Rail Trail Village
c. Cullen Park
d. Historic Row on 23
e. Anthony Street development
f. The Route 22 route 23 intersection
II. Traffic Calming proposals for routes 22 and 23
III. Sidewalk plan for Rts. 22 and 23
Norman Mintz, a PPS Main Street Consultant, discussed ways that current merchants could renovate their storefronts. He also reviewed business signage and made suggestions and stressed the importance of the town’s entry signs and the development of signs to lead motorists and pedestrians to our businesses.
Sarah Crowell, a PPS business development consultant, reviewed the demographics of the town as they relate to local business that already exist within the town and gave suggestions on the kinds of businesses we might attract.
The last 30 minutes of the presentation were devoted to questions from the audience. Now that the draft has been presented, PPS and the Hamlet Committee will set to work exploring the ideas further with this new feedback in mind.
Check back to this Blog soon as the entire draft plan will be posted here for your comment and review. It will also be available at town hall, along with a box to leave comments.
As always, your thoughts and suggestions are encouraged. Should you have any difficulty leaving comments here, check the link in the top right-corner of this page for a quick tutorial.
4 comments:
I was at the meeting. There were not 30 minutes left at end of meeting to discuss our comments. However my major comment is on the plan itself. You want to narrow Route 22 and Route 23 and narrow the intersection of these routes. This sounds like a disaster in the making. How are the trucks and cars going to be able to safely navigate through the town? There is a reason the intersection is so wide. The routes do not meet at a right angle so they need more room to make a safe turn.
Trucks and cars now speed through the intersection at 40 miles per hour -- and more! Narrowing the roadway, along with lowering the speed limit in the Hamlet,will slow traffic, allowing cars and trucks to make their turns safely.
I know it sounds counterintuitive--that narrow streets are safer. But drivers naturally slow down when a roadway narrows and it looks more like a town than a rural intersection. We also will have more prominent speed-limit signs and better enforcement. Consider South Egremont--how many people zoom through there at 40 mph? You know you're at risk of getting a ticket.
Seems like the roads are no narrower in S Egremont, but the speed limit is enforced there! Suggest you take that approach 1st and foremost. Limiting road space is much more dangerous for trucks and emergency vehicles!
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