West Springfield Town Council scraps plan to make Cedar Avenue one way

Nov. 16, 2017 | Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.com

WEST SPRINGFIELD – After hearing spirited opposition from residents, the Town Council elected not to act on a proposal to make Cedar Avenue a one-way street.

The proposed change to Traffic Rules and Orders was developed as a potential means to ease traffic woes on Route 20 near the intersection of Westfield Road and King’s Highway created by the Dunkin Donuts in the area.

Councilor David O’Brien, who chairs the council’s Traffic and Safety Committee, said the committee had voted 3-0 to take the matter to the Town Council for a public hearing and vote.

“However, because of the procedural aspects of this, the public hearing and the vote were scheduled in the same night, which was not my indented consequence,” he said. “Therefore we heard the strong opposition to Cedar [Avenue], which we hadn’t heard prior to this evening, so it is my intention to vote ‘No’ on this motion when it’s made and send this back to committee or to eliminate it.”

Several residents spoke against the change, citing safety and the potential for increased traffic on other side streets, among other concerns.

At the suggestion of Councilor Brian Griffin, O’Brien moved to send the matter back to committee. The motion was unanimously passed.

O’Brien, explaining the background of the plan, said easterly moving traffic in the right lane on Westfield Road backs up as the queue of patrons attempting to enter the restaurant extends back onto the roadway. Simultaneously, he said, those exiting the lot often attempt to turn onto Cedar Avenue, but westerly traffic prevents it, causing blockage of the left lane as well.

By making Cedar Avenue a one-way street, left lane traffic blockages, in theory, would be alleviated.

O’Brien expressed his frustration with the current process for these matters and that through that process his committee had made a decision without enough input from the community, but added he was glad so many came to the meeting to speak.

“I’m very happy we had a public hearing on it, I’m not happy that we were going to vote on the same night,” he said.

Councilor Jill Fortier-Withee, who lost a hotly contested District 1 race on Nov. 7, voiced her agreement with O’Brien’s sentiments.

“That’s my disappointment in how the process works. You can’t have the open communication that we want sometimes. It’s not always easy to get people to our committee meetings, so I’m very happy they’re televised now,” she said. “This, we didn’t know there was any opposition to it and it obviously wasn’t wanted by that many people.”

She also urged people to attend committee meetings.

Councilor Bruce Gendron said he was shocked by the public reaction at the meeting, but also noted something would still have to be done about the traffic concerns in that area.

“I’m not sure what the process was, but this went through the approval of Police, Fire, that sort of thing to, so I don’t know if the residents weren’t talked to as part of that process, but we thought this was a win-win and it’s kind of surprising tonight to come to the meeting and find out about the opposition,” he said. “We had talked about this several years ago and obviously we’re not moving Dunkin Donuts, so we need to figure out a way to deal with that traffic.”

Council President George Condon said it was his impression that negotiations between Dunkin Donuts and a neighbor had yielded another plan, which would make the Cedar Avenue discussion moot.

O’Brien confirmed that the owner of the restaurant and an abutter had developed another plan.

“Presently what’s happened is they were able to strike a deal with the homeowner that lives on the property, which allows them to cut a new entrance, which will have more sweep and more space to allow more cars the queue up, which should clear Westfield Street,” he said.

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