This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Seeing that we have a quorum of the council present. I'm going to call the meeting to order We have now been told we are on the air We we're starting this meeting early tonight in hopes of getting several things done before we have our Posted hearing at 630 I just want to note that on your agenda Are the times for the school committee? candidate interviews and selection I Also want to note and ask that you join me tomorrow at 10 o'clock a.m. For the Tibet Day Free Tibet Day Frank flag raising proclamation and March. I don't know that I'll March, but I'll be there otherwise and also just note our upcoming meetings on March 21st 23rd April 6th and April 27th, and those are in addition to the meetings for the school committee We are going to try to pack as much as we can into this first half hour So we've concluded one and two. We're moving on to general public comment. Is there anyone here who would like to make general public comment? Okay, I may come back to that later because I It's normally a 630 item The second thing is our proclamation for Tibet Day Please come forward and Introduce yourself Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak before the town council My name is thundered siring and I'm the president of the original Tibetan Association of Massachusetts Today, I would like to give you a quick update on the situation on Tibet As many of you may well be aware Inside Tibet the occupation and repression continues to this day The recent 2020 Freedom House report for the fifth in a row plays Tibet as the second least free region in the world after Syria The 2019 World Press Freedom Index published by the reporters without borders list China at 177 out of 100 countries next to Eritrea North Korea and Turkish minstead The 2020 human rights watch reports highlights the threat to Tibetan language as China forcibly Forces are politically motivated by lingual education policy in Tibet in 2016 Tashi Wang Chuk a Tibetan language activists was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison on January 27th of this year nearly a thousand writers linguists translators and language Activists signed the open letter issued by the pen America calling for his immediate release Since 2009 154 Tibetans have self-immolated The latest being a 24 year old Yunten from the Ngaba region who passed away on November 26 2019 The situation in occupied Tibet is grim to say the least Outside occupied Tibet the support for Tibet But the right of the Tibetan people to live in their own country and be able to practice their culture and way of life is Growing steadily as you may recall two years ago The first standalone bill on Tibet the reciprocals to Tibet Act was passed with bipartisan support and Became a law on December 19th 2018 This bill was sponsored by congressman Jim McGovern and takes direct aim at the Chinese government's unfair treatment of Americans Including Tibetan Americans from the Amherst region In October 2019 During his official visit to the Ram Sala US Ambassador Brownback reiterated the United States support for his Holiness and the Tibetan people Ambassador Brownback called on China to immediately release the 11th punch in Lama Who was forcibly abducted and has been missing for the last 25? years The ambassador also endorsed the resolution on the reincarnation adopted by the 8th International Conference of Tibet support group and the third special general meeting held last year The 14th Tibetan religious conference also stated that his Holiness the Dalai Lama Who's now a four years of age is the sole authority concerning his reincarnation? Both the Dutch and Belgian government have also expressed their strong support in this regard In a momentous event Early this year on January 28th The Tibet Policy and Support Act was passed with an overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States House of Representatives and this Bill again addresses and reiterates the fact that the Tibetan community the Buddhist world and the Dalai Lama himself Has the right to recognize the next Dalai Lama I on behalf of the original Tibetan Association would like to thank again congressman Jim McGovern for sponsoring this major landmark Tibetan Bill This bill is currently in the Senate and I'm happy to report today that both Massachusetts Senators senator Elizabeth Warren and senator Markey are both co-sponsors of this bill Locally here in the Poina Valley Tibet continues to receive strong support from the community and elected officials On behalf of the members of the local Tibetan community I take this opportunity to thank senator Joe Comerford Representative Mindy Dorm Representative Lindsey Sabadosa the Amherstown County Manager Amherstown Council Northampton mayor and the Northampton City Council for their continued strong support for Tibet I want to thank the town council for supporting the Tibet Day and thank you Dalai Lama ear proclamation We invite you to join us either for the flag raising ceremony or for the walk from Amherst to Northampton starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. Thank you very much. Thank you GOL do you have a report? GOL met on February 26th and Declared the proclamation to be clear consistent and actionable by a vote of four to zero with one absent Is there any council question or discussion at this time? See none then Could I have a motion to adopt? the 2020 Amherst to bet day proclamation as voted at GOL 2020 on Dash 20 dash 26 in other words February 26 clean and second Okay, is any for the discussion then all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye Opposed Abstain Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you Athena do I give him one coffee? So I'm gonna go on to Discussion item six Which I anticipate being very brief and then we'll come back to public comment. Okay So in your packet you received an updated Set of information regarding the School committee vacancies this continues to be an evolving document. We did release the announcement last Tuesday and I am in the process of collecting questions even since you received the questions In your packet I've received one more those questions as you see them are Just as people are giving them to me. They are not the final questions It is a suggestion of questions and the school committee chair and I will get together Come up with a proposed final set of questions for you and bring them forward to the council Are there questions about the process to date? Yes, Mandy jump I had questions about how when you get together with the school committee chair How you're choosing the questions how many you might be choosing things like that We're certainly open. Are we gonna know them in advance which ones you have chosen things like that? We would we would come up with a set of draft questions and bring it back to this body at our next meeting and My sense would be that we would follow Pretty much what Oka has done with a sense of you know, seven or eight questions that kind of thing I did try to group them to give you a sense of the General areas of the questions and so as you continue to give me ideas for questions If you feel there's other areas that we should be raising questions in please Tell me that in your emails Okay We want to make sure that the questions are stated without bias and also without a preconceived notion and Also, so they're not just yes and no questions that we get a sense of the candidates Okay, any other questions about this? Okay, then moving on The Now are there people here who are here now for general public comment general public comment in this case Does not apply to the hearing that's coming up on Lincoln Avenue to item 7c on the agenda or 7g It's just general public comment. Please come forward state your name and where you live and Also, keep your comments to three minutes. Thank you. Maybe two make gauge district one I was clearing up some of my Charter Commission things and came across a really important memo That Mandy wrote and I've got her permission to share this with you One of the things the Charter Commission struggled with and talked a lot about but weren't really able to fully Resolve was what is meaningful and authentic participation? And Mandy did this amazing nine-page memo that is Characteristic of her work ethic her open-mindedness and her attempt to find middle-ground solutions And I am sending it to you since I know your paper free As soon as I get home and so you can see it. It's got a lengthy bibliography at the end and particularly interesting I think is the Archon Fong's Democracy Cube where he takes three different there are many different axes So I don't want to get into too much detail because there's a lot of research on participation but he looks at the combination of Communication and decision-making is one grid the second is authority and power and the third is who participates and All the all of those intersect with each other. So I think you'll find that and he's created the concept of a Cube so three-dimensional There are she talks about participatory budgeting about Deliverative polling 21st century town meetings. I would add jury citizen juries and study circles And these are all approaches that are very well established and there's a lot of information on them And you've done such a great job this last year Putting this whole new government together Maybe Now in your second year, we might all think together about what meaningful participation and how what we might do We have three fabulous community participation officers who triple the value that we put into the charter And they're very eager to help. So I'm just wanted to you'll get this in your box And thank you for the opportunity was that three minutes. Thank you Appreciate that any other public comment at this time Okay, then we're going to move on to the consent agenda which is item 7a and Before we do the consent agenda. I just want to make sure that nobody wants to remove anything from the consent agenda So let me just go ahead and read this and then we'll move on The following items were selected because they were considered to be routine and it was reasonable to expect they would pass with no Controversy to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting Asked that it be removed when the president lists the consent agenda items The request to remove an item from the consent agenda does not require a second So the various items in this are to move the following items and printed motions They're under and approve those items as a single unit 7e to suspend town council rules of procedure rule 8.4 for agenda items 7e audit engagement letter To authorize the town council president to execute the audit engage lever letter indicating Acknowledgement of an agreement with the arrangements for melons and health health audit of This of the town's financial statements and compliance over major federal award programs for FY 2020 as recommended by the finance committee Okay To 7f to suspend count town council rules a procedure rule 8.4 for agenda items 7f Mullen rule zoning board of appeals and local historic district commission Yes, I Don't know why that we are doing that. So I guess I would Want that not to be on the we will remove that okay? That is now officially removed from the consent agenda and we will take it up later as listed in the agenda And the approval of the February. I'm sorry Yes to the approval of the February 24th 2020 town council minute minute meeting minutes Any questions on that? Okay, so The motion then is To move the following items and the printed motions they're under and approve those items as a single unit To suspend town council rules of procedure 8.4 for agenda items 7e audit engagement letter 7e to authorize the town council president to execute the audit engagement letter Indicating acknowledgment of an agreement with the arrangements for melons and health's audit of the town's financial statements and compliance over major federal awards programs FY 20 as recommended by the finance committee and the third item is 7 I'm sorry 10a approval of the February 24 2020 town council meeting minutes as presented That's a motion is there a second Any further discussion all those in favor raise your hand and say aye aye opposed Abstain no, okay We will then Believe it or not Go on to 7b Okay, I'm sorry 7c. Thank you. We will go on to 7c since we will not start the hearing until 6 30 This is your lucky Day mr. Sawyer dr. Sawyer It's a lot of excuse me Okay, Evan would you please go ahead and present the amendment as you have in the past? Yes, so you've heard me talk about this now twice amending our open containers by-law to create the opportunity for the board of Licensed commissioners to promulgate regulations to allow for the sale and distribution of alcoholic averages with a permit on Public land I don't think I need to elaborate on that But I do hope that given the discussions that we've had in the past two meetings And since then we have seen letters of support from the Amherst Chamber of Commerce and the Amherst Business Improvement District two organizations that I think Stand to benefit from benefit from this as they plan their events and festivals on the town common So I hope you all will support this tonight Yes, Dorothy Well, I initially did support it, but I had thought it was only for large public groups in the community to do something on the town greens and When I was just in through discussion It was revealed that this could mean in the parks individuals families I then began to think the whole thing was going to be like letting the genie out of the bottle and it was going to be too difficult to follow so Unless it gets and I've been told that the licensing board will do the limiting But I don't want to vote on something now that I don't know what the true dimensions are going to be Also, I had brought up that there need to be some standards and maybe deposits or something so that If there were any damage or pickup or policing of any kind that that would be paid for by the groups So but in theory I do like your proposal But it's it's the details as to who gets the permit for what and where and Under what conditions that has me at this moment not able to support this Would you like to come forward? Thank you. This is Doug Slaughter who is the chair of our excuse me? License commission. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone You probably received in your packet literally within the last hour or so because we met this afternoon And we're crafting a letter and I still found a couple of things. I'd like to change relative to references In that letter, but I think the the idea behind the letter that you received today was to provide some opportunity for An alternative approach We're certainly you know if you pass your A minute by-law as is where it essentially falls completely to the board licensed commissioners to to handle the licensing on Public spaces that's certainly fine with us but what you see in this is memo from us to you is An alternative approach that allows the council to be more actively engaged in the process of setting the limits and parameters of What might go on in those in those spaces and some of this articulates a little bit of what we've had as far as conversations about How we'd want to proceed moving forward anyway But I think it it Potentially could retain some some authority in the in the council that might make everyone a little more comfortable moving forward But again, it's it's your call either way one other thing that I was Required by my colleagues on the on the board on the commission to say is that it really ought to be a License and not a permit So if you change it you should make a license and not permit because it's a short-term license And this would fall into our short-term licenses, so but I think in general, you know, as I said, we're we're open to Sort of fully taking this on if you go with a more simplified version, but also In the in the letter We're trying to articulate a middle ground that might allow the council to continue to to go back and forth with us a Little bit about what the community standards need to be around this kind of a change Additional council discussion questions Kathy I'm just reading the letter now. Thank you very much for sending it My concern which I expressed last time was how broad this was and not given a sense of Under what conditions and where would we put this and I think this starts to address some of it I'm not sure how much of the wording you're proposing would be in the bylaw But I wanted to say that this to make it clear this permit is going for an event rather than a person You know, so it wouldn't be Each person could come in and say today I'm gonna open carry and then we had and this was well you could do that in your protocols and Then we had a discussion on should we start small for example the Commons downtown Before we think of going up to Mill River or Groft Park should we you know start and see how it works in terms of an Ability to oversee it and so rather than writing it can happen anywhere at any time So the question would be how much we write in a bylaw To give that kind of guidance and then the protocols would be developed that would follow that Rather than leave the bylaw so general and I'm used to seeing more in the legislation to give at least some sense to the people That are then doing protocols and regulations as guidance So that's if I may You know, I think our thinking with regard to having protocols and sort of working with the council in regard to setting those up Allow us some flexibility without necessarily fully amending the bylaw every single time you want to make a change to it And so it it's an attempt to you know strike a middle ground In in general however any short-term license has to have a responsible person or entity And even with an entity, there's still a responsible manager if you think about a liquor license generally There's a responsible manager. So any any type of of license we would grant Regardless of how this plays out would would be and would require it to be a an individual Expressly in charge and responsible But I think the idea was to keep the bylaw as broad as possible But yet reference the protocols and then the protocols have to be in place for anything to happen and the protocols would be something that would be worked out between as we suggest the subcommittee one of the subcommittees of the of the council and and the border license commissioners and then Essentially enacted on and worked on with with counselors. We'd review on a periodic basis like once a year to see if those work or don't work Without the need to necessarily continually amend the bylaw Could since we did receive the letter Could you kind of in your own words explain what it is you're looking for from the council? Based on this letter from the commission so again, I think if you if you take the the proposal just as is which is Very broad more fine with that but as as an option to you the idea would be that you would amend the bylaw To have open container but reference a set of protocols that had to be Authorized by a subcommittee of the council and the license commissioners those protocols And on the back of this Document, you know particularly it's a few things that that might be included there might be a whole lot more and then And any other you know if you wanted to put particular conditions in separate from the protocols Then you obviously would have that option as well if you if you saw that and of course we would want any license of this sort to To be reviewed by police and fire chief So there you know the idea with additional conditions is that a particular circumstance maybe a time of year? You know where let's say someone has to want something in the winter. We might consider you know conditions of You know snow and ice as part of what we want to factor into what would conditions or constraints We might place on on a licensee whereas in the summer it may be something different So you want to have some latitude to add additional constraints to folks in in these circumstances So that's one aspect The idea with the protocols is there's a general base frame of Requirements that people are going to need to meet and and limitations that we may collectively set as to locations You know whether we keep the the service area completely cordoned or not or to what extent what kinds of other? facilities amenities or Security staffing might be you know something we want to have Explicitly identified in the protocols and then see how those work. I think we'll know a lot more later And of course the idea with the having the police chief or fire chief and or fire chief way in is that? When you think about crowd control or crowd size the viewpoint that each of those folks bring to Their review whether it be a regular full alcohol license or a short-term license Is different so you know one's concerned about Crowd management one's concerned about Safe, you know fire safety and people being able to exit safely So those are different sort of views and that's why we wanted to include them as well in the conversation as we As move ahead and use their expertise to our advantage So those are really those sort of three pieces a set of protocols that work out with you guys to Frame the constraints that we're going to operate under a baseline set of things We're absolutely going to require every single time limitations on locations. Maybe hours Days a week whatever it is that we decide Potentially other conditions that that we might impose on a specific license based on the circumstance the type of events the time of year any number of things I could I could imagine there and then of course coordinating with our police and fire chiefs Shalini This is regarding the venue and venues and I believe At least I'm aware that there are many UMass events that take place at the mill river Park and And many of those are not many of the ones that I'm aware of are all family events And I believe they would be in livened if alcohol was allowed That's what I've heard and so these are all family events and if we have protocols in place and I think it would make sense to Allow it in and not restrict where this is applicable Are there other comments? Yes, Sarah So since Shalini already brought up mill river and I live close we go a lot So in the summer and spring especially a place is packed with families and I will say that there is already some Enlivening of family events and often there is a lot of imbibing in a couple of different substances that are legal in Massachusetts So for me it makes me wonder if starting a process where we are, you know Licensing things and maybe we're thinking a little bit more about you know Maybe just checking out what happens there and I think it might actually be more constructive to things that are already happening Make them safer. So that's just something that I thought of Additional comments or questions Dorothy I Would like to suggest that we start small before going big and if we're going to do this open container thing limit it to the downtown parks and to Organizations and not to small individual groups and families And I had originally been very supportive because I thought it was a way to encourage local beers But I'm really not that interested in encouraging just random drinking Yes, Evan So our board of licensed commissioners has been in existence for a little over a year now And I think we've seen them act in every instance in a way that should instill confidence In them we have seen them promulgate new regulations around BYOB and around Food service at alcohol-serving establishments. We've seen them react. I think very appropriately to a Situation in which rules were not being followed and there was concern within the community We have someone who's serving on that committee who has Licensing experience from his previous role on the select board and so I'm finding it hard to stomach This desire to micromanage the board of licensed commissioners I think here what I've presented is a clean and broad bylaw that leaves a lot of deference and discretion to the board And I would hope that we would not try to Pick and choose what are our favorite parks that maybe we do or don't want service in and let that up to them I appreciate the board's Memo and their attempt to address our concerns. I have a lot of concerns actually with what's being proposed I don't want counselors brought into promulgate regulations. We don't do that for any other regulations For the board of licensed commissioners or for any other regulatory body And I'm especially concerned about any idea that Regulations could change from year to year and that they would only exist for a one-year time span I think that creates uncertainty for organizations trying to plan in advance and for businesses who might be looking to do this so My proposal from the beginning and what I stand by is open the door for the board of licensed commissioners Let them decide what the regulations look like they have a great tracker track record thus far And so I think that the best approach here is for us not to spend time trying to figure out where or who or when We want to see this but instead give it to the appropriate body who has the authority to come up with that Okay Yes, Alyssa, so you all know that I have pretty strong feelings about this and as this continues to evolve I'm trying to look at it a variety of ways I had no idea mr. Slaughter was going to have this memo written and so I was like, ah now I have to think about change in my mind So yeah, so because I didn't know this was coming I do want to push back just a little bit though and I colleague stating that they have Experience they do have a great track record so far, but they've never had to choose They've never had to choose who gets a license or who doesn't from the standpoint that the only one-day licenses They've had to give out or do you mass who gets them all the time? They've never had to choose if a new purveyor of alcohol is up to snuff or not And one day licenses luckily for the Board of License Commission ABCC gives a lot of discretion to the local body which actually makes me happy because ABCC has a lot of dumb rules So it's actually good that we have that but they although they have done really good things and I totally agree with that They've not yet had this experience. I appreciate that they tried to put on paper Hey, we're we heard you saying we're concerned about some of these things One of the things that still isn't on here is how you pick and choose between Applicants and that's something you haven't had to do yet and that is where things get sticky, right? What's this family event? Allegedly, that's a family event versus some Hartford Road Race or the taste of Amherst that we all know So that's where it gets stickier. I also understand what you're saying about Do we really want to insert the council in this process officially or not? I the yeah, that's complicated, too so I don't think we can resolve this now because Obviously we want to move on to our hearing and I don't think we want to expect mr. Slaughter to come back four hours from now when we're ready to talk about this again, but One of the things I want to just clarify is although you I believe you'd indicated that with this protocol suggestion that in theory one could add some reference to the protocol to the bylaw itself just as you suggested that rather than using the term permit We might as well use short-term license because that's what it is is that on the other hand I'm actually saying this we could authorize the current bylaw without any mention of said protocol Then if you don't actually do any of that like you don't it doesn't come end up being a council committee It doesn't end up that we like the protocols. We just changed the bylaw again I mean when it comes right down to it that is one of the advantages to being a town council is that after you go through The couple of readings and you put it on the bulletin board if they make a mess out of the situation Which I have no reason to believe they would but if it starts making us uncomfortable in terms of the choices They're making we can change the bylaw back so that is actually That actually in some ways feels better to me than trying to wordsmith the bylaw to the point of saying The guidance that we're trying to give you that you've obviously been responsive to so far is something We have to try and codify within the bylaw itself because I'm just not sure how to do that Is there any further? Discussion at this point Is it the wish that we move the question or that we refer this to a later time? Yes, I make a motion that we Move the move it move it quick. Okay. It's a later. So to a later time We could after the hearing then but I don't think To the next meeting it's either gonna go to the next meeting or is another motion to Move the bylaw. I would like to make a motion to move the bylaw. Okay. Would you please read the motion then? It's to amend general bylaw The chain right With the change with the change of wording, okay I can read it just because I have the motion in front of me So I moved to amend general bylaw 3.17 open containers of alcohol by adding the words unless a License therefore has previously been secured by the Board of License Commissioners so that the bylaw reads No person shall consume any alcoholic beverage No possess or transport any open can bottle or other container containing any alcoholic beverage Outdoors on any town street sidewalk way or public property including parking lots parks schools playgrounds Recreation areas and conservation areas unless a license therefore has previously been secured from the Board of License Commissioners Any further discussion and all those George But to speak in support of it if I may just briefly if that's all right, please um, I I hear both Evan and Alyssa I like the idea of I think the Board of License Commissioners is best suited to make these Decisions and as Alyssa's pointed out if things don't work out we have the power to change it So I think we're in a good position here to move ahead. So I'd urge my colleagues to vote for this Is there any further discussion at this time? I'm just quickly um, but I'm reading the memo is Suggesting that we in the bylaw reference protocols that will be developed And I don't see why we couldn't add that that we want would you please to be developed So to conform protocols developed to govern such short-term licenses. Would you please put that in terms of emotion? okay, I Make a motion to add to the sentence at the end So it would read I think it is a short-term license license therefore It's been be previously secured from the Board of License Commissioners that conforms to protocols developed to govern such short-term licenses Is there a second? The motion dies for lack of a second. We're back to the original motion Any further discussion?  Would you please tell us what the vote was? It's ten in favor one opposed and two abstentions. Okay Thank you for joining us this evening. You're welcome. Thank you, and we'll try to do our best to do it, right? And we'll be hearing from you. I'm sure We are now going to move on to the public hearing on the proposed parking regulation changes to Lincoln Avenue and Let me start by Finding my script So let me just provide a little background here. This hearing is governed by a couple different sections one is by the fact that by section 2.14 of the Charter the Town council is the water is both the water Commission sewer Commission and public ways in other words We oversee those the second piece is In our general bylaws section 3.14 on parking and delivery Prior to the adoption of the regulations of any subsequent amendment there to the town council should conduct a public hearing notice of the Time and place of which and of the subject matter sufficient for identification shall be posted on the town bulletin board for not less than 14 days before the day of the public of the hearing and notice shall also be published in a Newspaper of general circulation in the town once in each of two weeks the first publication to be not less than 14 days before the day of The hearing and then finally from our council rules. We actually have a process by which we conduct this hearing I'll be using that process. Let me state that the The notice of the public hearing was on the town bulletin board on February 13th 2020 or as of February 13th. It was in the Daily Hampshire Gazette from February 17 to 20 and 24 on 2020 the notice was sent to a butters on February 12th 2020 and written public comment was received and is in the packets We received one set of packets that was dated February. I mean Friday March 6 2020 and we have received an updated so the general format for the hearing as follows there will be a presentation of the proposal Then there will be questions from the counselors Then the public may ask questions Not speak in favor or against but just ask questions to clarify Then the public is asked those people to speak in favor and you will be limited based on the number of people who plan to speak You will then ask those people to speak in opposition again You'll be limited based on the number of people who plan to speak and then we will end with questions of the council We will not make a decision during the hearing We will then go back into our regular meeting and at that point We will make a decision that decision could be to grant whatever the petition was It could be to modify it. It could be to continue the hearing to another time or it could be to refer the Decision to a committee of the council. We could also decide not to grant it So we have a variety of different decisions that we can make but that will not be made during the hearing However, when we return to our regular meeting is when we will make that decision So let's begin with mr. Valkerman Thank You madam chair or president Parking on Lincoln Avenue has been visited and revisited by the town through the select board several times and it's it's back again tonight the Concern has been based on public safety concerns in terms of a safety for cyclists and drivers on the street We met with a group of neighbors and with it with two district counselors who asked us to look into this further I met with the superintendent of public works and the police chief to review the situation And we developed the proposal that's in your packet tonight. So tonight. We have the superintendent public works He'll for gilford mooring and police chief living stone who if you want to come up to the table We also have assistant fire chief Olmstead Jeff Olmstead here if there are questions about public safety in terms of fire trucks or ambulance service So our goal tonight is to make the presentation to you Answer any questions or concerns you may have develop any additional information you feel that you need to Make an informed decision And then oh listen to any other comments that you choose to make so I turn it over to mr. Mooring Good evening. So this is probably the Fourth this time we've done Lincoln Avenue since we've been here and we've been here a pretty long time so There's always been little changes have been made always adjustments always a couple years five usually at the least Years go by and people want to make some more changes. So this is about the right about the right time That being said and we have a lot old information and we have a lot new information for you so I Just push the button So we come up with some proposals to make some changes What you see on the left side is what is there now and on the right side is what we're proposing And you have to read a little bit to make sure you Legend a little bit So right now there's basically no parking on Lincoln Avenue north of Amity Street on the west side and north of Amity Street To fearing there's parking no parking from 8 a.m. The fire Wait, sorry From McClellan Street to Fearing Street. There's no parking from 8 a.m. The 5 p.m. And there's open parking from McClellan Street back to Amity Street on the east side So we're proposing the change that to make it no parking From 8 to 5 on the east side all the way from Amity to Fearing and to keep the no parking on the west side So that's what the basic proposal is we also do some tidying up There's been a lot of discussion about from the people We've talked to that it's hard to see when people are parked or even when there's not people parked coming out of McClellan Street and Elma Street and actually when we talk about Some of the crash data we'll talk about a little later a little blue area That's basically where all the crashes are on the north side of Lincoln Avenue They're between Elm Street and McClellan Street There's not a lot of crashes There was three years of data looked at this year was our 19 was not looked at it was 1817 16 is my understanding So we looked at The total of 29 crashes on the whole length of Lincoln Avenue But this is probably the cluster between these two streets We'll talk more about that later But we make some adjustments at McClellan, so there's no parking on both sides of McClellan Street at Lincoln So people have a better sight line coming out of McClellan Street We're also proposing making a better sight line clearance at Amity Street There's a lot of people who park at Amity Street very on Lincoln Avenue very close to Amity Street It's mostly seems to be people who are staying in some of the housing near that intersection Or it could be people who are working In town and walk up to this or a town We did kind of scope out the people who are parking The parking tends to be probably grad students who work five days a week at the University they're not really students because Students tend to have Schedules where they jam all their classes on Tuesday Thursday try to have Monday off and Friday off But these people are parking consistently on five days a week So there's probably a majority of people or Our grad students who actually are employees as well So they're people who are not parking on campus to avoid Parking on campus or they haven't been able to get a permit to park on campus because I understand as a permit system For graduate students who work there as well So this is the like I said, this is a little crash cluster right there at between McClellan and Elm Street We're not proposing anything different on the south what we call the south end of Lincoln, which is from Amity back north Hampton Road So this is the accident breakdown that people were talking about asking for there was 29 accidents Six on the south side 12 on the north side and in that cluster between Elm and McClellan We have one accident a ton unaccounted for the description of where it happened wasn't really clear on the accident report We also have a couple of those little oddities in the accident report some of the addresses on Lincoln Avenue don't exist But if you add a zero or add a number to it, they fall into line with some of the existing at addresses You have seven accidents that were at the Amity Street intersection and three at the North Hampton Road intersection We we pull this data and actually we have the ability to pull this data from a state file now Which the police department submits their records to the state and then it's put on this system We just need a little more time if we want to pull more information off because there's also information about types of accidents So we didn't weren't able to pull all that information together for you So if they were all rear-end accidents, that's indicative of people who aren't really paying attention and people stopping fast and someone rear-ending it if they were all head-on Intersection head-on accidents. That's another indication of something another different problem if they're all glancing or side impacts That's another indication another problem. We weren't able to break that down So I can't answer that question because I know someone's gonna ask that Follow the errors with the state level. I believe Well, it is a lot of It's a lot of data to go through and I imagine whoever was entering the data because it's all Hand entered into the system. There's a quick clarifying question Steve This is three years eight 19 no 18 17 16 Thank you Clarifying question on this one. That would be take more time to feel it figure that out This database actually it's just been made available in the last six months to us And we're still just trying to play around with and get all the information off of it And there's no it might be misleading In terms of the number of accidents elsewhere in town. It may Darcy, did you have a question? That was that was what I was gonna ask. Okay, so I think This data ends at 19 to 2019 And there's been a strong feeling that's been a great increase in accidents in the last year Would we be able to get a comparison of the more recent years with these other years? The chief says he can pull that up. We can pull that up within a matter of a day or so So this is the breakdown of accidents We have one accident with an embankment which I assume was doing the one or they probably ran to a snow bank Two people hit parked cars 26 collisions with moving vehicles and there are no pedestrian or cyclist accidents So that we actually did get our we actually had to go get new traffic counters But we put traffic counters out and we did a quick traffic study and this is sort of the This overall time period and the view of how the traffic flows you'll see there's distinct pink peaks The morning the peak happens going into campus and then the afternoon the peak is coming out of campus The average daily traffic is 1960 vehicles a day That's down a thousand vehicles from we did that when we did counts in 2005 So before we put the speed could the speed tables in the speed cushions the speed humps speed bumps Before we put the vertical speed control measures in that's the better word for it We were getting around 3000 vehicles a day and the speeds were pretty high Jason the town engineer wasn't able to pull that data up what the speed was but it was over 35 miles an hour at that time So this is the we've cut about a thousand vehicles a day out of the half and That could be because what we did or it could be a cause of changes at the university and Then this is a quick breakdown of Speeds if you look on the right the speed limits 30 miles an hour The average speed was 19 The fastest speed was 47 the lowest speed was seven Out of that this this device we're using now is actually kind of geared towards enforcement people So it actually tells you how many violations were probably enforceable So there were only 10 people who were over to 30 miles an hour and then so what they would rate as a low-enforcement Area because of the these characteristics In the time period we did that it we got 5700 vehicles passed through the the time area We started after 10 o'clock on Monday, which as you can see is 956 and we finished before a little after 10 on 5th, so we actually didn't get the morning rush on one day and we didn't get the afternoon rush on another day so what we're proposing again is a change basically between McClellan and Amity Street to make that no parking from 8 o'clock in the morning to 5 o'clock in the afternoon and Mostly it's the deal it probably will help with the accident cluster. It's happening between Elm and McClellan We also had a lot of reports from cyclists who ride up and down Lincoln Avenue saying that It's very difficult to ride with the park cars and the traffic traffic that's out there during the day So if you remove the park cars bicycles would only have to deal with the Moving cars and we'd have a little more room to do it Personally this would not be a road that I would actually put parking on it's too narrow I would leave parking off one side But then again, this is a residential street. It's not meant to be a commuter route to the University and If it was a residential street just a residential street, there would be parking on one side So that's my my personal opinion and how I would personally look at this Any further comments from either chief or you Okay counselor questions at this time Mandy Joe So my first question Just has to do with the map because when I read the regulations and when I look at the Nelson Nygaard downtown parking report It disagrees with the restrictions that you've depicted specifically between Amity Street and Elm Street on the west side the Nelson Nygaard report that was just completed four months ago says that that is Unrestricted parking right now on the west side and the memo we got that has Regulations to be repealed doesn't say anything about Westside parking between Amity and Elm other than 30 feet south of Elm to Elm being Restricted as a no parking zone. So I have I'm curious What that regulation actually is because if it is as you say then the Nelson Nygaard report is wrong And all of their statistics are wrong then because they counted parking They are as part of the downtown parking and if they're right then What we've got in front of us is a change and some of the statistics about what parking we would be losing are wrong So if I could get some clarification as to whether between Amity and Elm on the west side is Currently actually a no parking zone. It currently has a no parking zone. We went back through the regulations We pulled some things up. There's actually some conflicting data Conflicting regulations and but this is no parking. It's always been no parking One of the other issues we have in this area and throughout the entire town is we have a high a high Incidents of sign theft so signs vanish and then things get left open and when they're left open and not marked They're interpreted being one thing when there's a when there's a conflict in the regulations But the town engineer went back through everything and he's pretty confident And we went through it several times that there's never been parking allowed on the west side of Lincoln between Amity And and the college University Okay I'm actually glad that that Mandy brought that up because I actually had three phone calls from my precinct Which is very far away about people saying that they actually parked There and that they felt that it was like some of the only unrestricted parking there is and that they were able to do it without Getting a ticket, so I'm wondering if people are parking there that they do think it is and then maybe because it hasn't I Don't know not enforced or people think they can then does that change some of those to just know no They were parking on the west side of Lincoln a we would have been called by a resident and they would have been ticketed and towed It's just there's no way you could possibly park on both sides of the street and adapt to traffic Steve So for me this shouldn't be an issue of this particular street, but this should be an issue regarding The town policy on parking of streets based on the curb to curb like how much roadway? There's available for parking, so I think it's to me. It's a problem that this has become sort of a Lincoln Avenue issue because I I I think that this issue exists many other places, and I'm happy to provide I Think this issue exists many other places, so to my knowledge this is 23 feet curb to curb. Yes I think it's 30. We were just trying. That's what we were just talking. I think our citations say 30 feet Yeah, yeah, but so I would so I become a Citizen traffic engineer, so I've started measuring rights of way on Churchill Street where the police? Parking lot exits is to my knowledge 30 feet it is and it has parking on both sides So I've never heard complaints about that Smith Street. I think is 20 feet or even less and has parking on one side So to me to me we need More of a guideline on what the expectation is on town streets And I think the town needs to be aware that we're street may have these restrictions coming on in other words to me This is kind of precedent setting if we if we change this that That means that every street of this right away might have parking on one side or on no sides because of their concerns about traffic flow Kathy um, I I think this is a Type of follow-up on Steve's question. It's I'm looking at the existing and proposed If I move one street over from Lincoln Sunset, you know Thinking of if we move cars off of one street Do they end up on another street and sunsets got? At least what we've seen so far no changes. There's no parking on either side Up until Elm and then it's green Going over on the way to Amity So, you know, I know we only asked you to give us your recommendation on Lincoln, but thinking about this surrounding set of Is this also does this become the new through way or is it? So narrow Would you do no parking on one side of that at least? You know where you can park on both it looks from the map You can park on both sides of sunset. It's just down the hill a bit So people probably prefer Lincoln Depending on where they're going. So it's it's the overflow issue of Where else you might want to if you were trying to get to you mass? I Think that's logical. I think we'll expect that'll happen Sunset is the only place that people who are displaced from Lincoln can really go to have a little stretch of sunset The parking on sunset has not been a problem in a while It may become a problem like you think but it's it doesn't go all the way through the Amity Street for one It's a little bit harder to get on the sunset If you want to go from sunset and drive straight through to campus It's a little more difficult when we were doing a lot of studies and earlier on sunset was not the preferred Travel route to go to the campus. So people didn't really even think about driving Driving down that way. I agree with Gilbert I don't think it necessarily would become the new thoroughfare to UMass because of the problems Down through the dormitory area But it's likely it would become a parking area. Yes Am I correct? Am I correct that there are speed bumps on all of sunset? Sunset in Lincoln. Yes. Yes. Okay, Mandy Joe. No, I want to follow up with this size and if the cars move Sunset is probably no wider than Lincoln. So Would we be facing in another three months or six months a Request from the town to say well We need to now completely limit one side on sunset and no 8 to 5 on another because we now have a safety issue on there And if we wouldn't be why is it a safety issue on Lincoln? But not on sunset and a similar question is why is it a safety issue on the north side of Amity on Lincoln? But not on the south side of Amity on Lincoln where those cars are parked in front of those houses Closest to Amity on the south side on the east side of Lincoln on the south side of Amity to go to town so I'm I'm trying to figure out where your Decision on what a safety issue is and what it is not false. So we were given a We were given a small area to look at so no we did not go look at sunset We did not go beyond sunset we can do that and to tell the truth to actually come up and say We need to change some parking regulations on a lot of streets downtown would make life much easier for many of us Who do things in this town? There's several streets which are parking on one side.  You cannot have parking in two-way traffic There's another one Selling Dickinson has already mentioned. I mean Sure chill. Yes, so there are streets in town But in the past and what we're seeing is even when we talk about this We you're gonna get one soon for Kendrick place which is shown on this one here Kendrick place has no restricted parking Kendrick place It's the one down off Northampton Road As all of a sudden become the primo parking spots for some people. There's parking on both sides of the road there now It's it's hard to get through there sometimes so There is no I have not since I've been here found a rhyme or reason sometime why a place is a key parking area And then stops being a key parking area It seems to be the preference of the people who are parking there. They think they they like it. They will park there There was a parking problem over by the high school and they thought it was the high school students Well, it wasn't it was UMass students who were actually Students who would park there and walk to the bus stop and that walk from the high school to the bus stop Was shorter than going to Lincoln Avenue and walking in or any of the other ones and it was more convenient for them But then that group of students laughed and the parking problem went away again Now the parking problem is just the high school students again, which is a nicer problem So the parking in this town changes and moves around constantly I guess I have a Yeah, I want to give Evan a chance to ask his question Many Joe largely asked what I had Curious was curious about so okay Pat I just had trouble with what you said in terms of the college students and having the high school students doing the same thing Is a nicer people or nicer kind of problem and I don't get that and it really bothered me Explain that yeah, I do the college students start as soon as school starts the high school problem Doesn't start as soon as school starts because you get a new group of students at the high school They're all under age. They can't drive and as the school year goes on they start getting more and more drivers So the problem builds at the high school. It's not really a nicer problem But the problem starts out minor and then as the school year goes on it gets more intense because now more people Turn 16 and a half and they can drive their car to school and because they don't want to pay for a parking permit for a full school year When they only using it for half a year they park on the side streets in the neighborhoods So the parking problem for the high school is far different than the parking problem this UMass students The UMass student comes here the UMass students 18 years old usually UMass students been driving and will drive That's why there's a little difference between the two populations between a UMass student or Amherst College student and a high school student Yes, please but There's still parking there and we actually do allow them to park on those side streets, right? I know we have at least one counselor if not two living in that area by the high school So I guess I'm still struggling with what's the difference between Those side streets where we allow parking during the day for those going to the high school and Lincoln They're really there really is only The desire of the residents at the time to try to correct a problem. They think they have There are times when it's more of an issue of safety and we Can sometimes see that but it is really sometimes the perception that the problem has gotten worse And that needs to be addressed There is no one on staff who goes around and does traffic counts routinely and looks at the neighborhood Streets routinely to see how things are changing that is not done Can I can I just take a moment and say the hearing is about Lincoln Avenue what I'm gathering from this conversation of and questions from the council is a set of much larger issues that Pertain to parking in and around both the University Amherst College and the high school and Where it is safe and not safe and perhaps that leads to a much larger question However, that is not the question tonight before the council, okay Lynn that feels like a Artificial limit because we have to reference other streets to do some comparisons We're talking. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't reference other streets But what we can't do is make this hearing a hearing about parking in all kinds of places We can reference other streets. We can ask about it and what I think we're referencing parking on other streets Right, but so what it is doing is identifying a much bigger issue That we may want to have a much larger recommendation come back to the council for That but tonight this hearing is about Lincoln Yes, Andy So following up on that I Think that the concern that I have and maybe some of my fellow counselors have is making a decision about one street in isolation of a series of policy questions one of which is the nature of the parking on the street, but one that I had identified before and I think that I Steve had talked about earlier, which is what's the relationship between the width of streets? and the nature of safety concerns I Think for example of a number of streets and that are within the permitted parking for downtown parking area Some of which are one way and some of which are two way Prospects Street North and South Sealy Street as being two examples that are extremely I think that they're probably narrower streets than the one that we're talking about and To the extent that the question comes up about making sure that large public safety Equipment particularly fire trucks can get through. I think that that's Can be true in all the streets So it's not about trying to broaden it to all areas is as much is a question of Whether we make a policy a street at a time or whether the wiser thing is to ask one of our committees to develop a broader based policy that would set a series of standards in which we could Judge this street and other streets Thank you Shalini so on the one hand. Oh, there are serious concerns, right? I mean as I was reading the emails it was scary to see the turns that people need to make and the danger that Raises for these people as well as when they back out of the driveway So those are two serious concerns. I was hearing and then on the other hand I'm seeing the public parking as a free resource for the community and So is it fair to take that away from people from students and workers? so and then hearing the discussion right now where We have to look at the bigger picture of how you know, I really appreciate the residents raising this important issue because I think This is an issue in other places and we got to address it looking at the bigger point of view But in the interim is there something that can be done to? Mitigate the effect the dangers, you know, like when they're Cutting into like from Elm Street if they're going on to Lincoln could there be more Space left so people can see the cars coming in a driving and so forth. Is there some interim Instead of making the whole street not parkable. You could you could back up and make maybe a hundred feet Across link Elm Street. No parking sort of the same thing is we're doing on McClellan Street where we're actually Widening out the site distance triangles where you're turning you just want to actually create a buffer across from Elm Street So there's more swing room. You could do that you can It's um, yeah, it's not hard and fast if you want to leave some things the way they are or make some changes or Dorothy I Have a question about and this is really for the fire department Talking of starting with the what shallony was saying about More space at the intersections, which is part of your plan. I notice that the Parking which seems to have increased and I will say this year over previous years That I notice I live on Amity. Is that on the court from Amity on Lincoln just so that when you're trying to turn Onto Lincoln from Amity either direction you can't see where you're going It's you're blocked with cars on both sides that are parked up to almost up to this the edge of the street every day At least every weekday And I know that Lincoln is seen as a major road to the university and that would be a road for the fire department What do you think is necessary to do and on Lincoln to make it? a Place where if you got a call to go to the university you could get there without hitting cars So we need about 12 feet of clear width Mirror-to-mirror to travel pretty safely with a fire engine What you do with the other part of it? And we leave to you but we need 12 13 feet of clear space and to travel down the road so we can get our trucks Where we need to go So would we have that if we had parking on both sides? I don't I don't think so I doubt you could create right we'd have to measure it pretty sure But I don't believe looking at it and certain looking other streets where if you had parking on both sides that we get 12 to 13 feet But we can confirm that because we often do have parking at both sides and we have two-way traffic So if we had parking on one side Which is how many 12 feet and you need 12 feet and there was no parking at all on the other side. It would be safe Let me just check the dimensions with go further you're talking about the south side of what we call south side of Lincoln Towards town No, are you talking about it's north? I'm talking about Lincoln That's north of Amity going towards the university, but right there at the edge of Amity as you get on to Lincoln We actually now have a restriction for 120 feet you can't park on either side 120 feet from Amity Street You mean proposed no Currently, there's a 20-foot buffer from Amity Street into Lincoln. That's not being observed It's observed. There's there's one car that actually likes to park right there at the sign the last sign And he I believe is a resident because I've actually called He or she The owner of that vehicle is probably a residence because I've actually called that car to be towed in during two snowstorms myself So it's a car that stays there pretty regularly and it's there at night But yes 120 feet in is no parking We've proposed in this to go 200 feet and that'll take you past that takes you to number 135 if you look at the map 197 is the house where it stops now, but 135 it'll take the park no parking all the way up to 135 And that should give you plenty of room to Turn in turn out Additional questions from the council Steve So no parking in eight to five is one option There are I know a number of other options were discussed parking meters alternate side of the street, but I just spent the weekend In Cambridge where I used to live and we stayed near MIT on a street that had unrestricted parking except for 8 to 10 a.m. So really clearly the point of that was to keep people from Driving to work and then walking from that street But have you has that been considered that we simply have you simply have no parking Some block of time well 11 a.m. To 1 p.m. Which would then keep the long term all-day parkers or even 12 to 1 or I? Don't think we've considered that You know one of the things we would need to do with that is make sure it's enforced our park enforcement officers are Mobile at some times during the day, but that's not normally their course of business. They're mostly restricted to downtown We would need to have discussions with the town manager about increasing increasing the Pat how often is the resident who parks illegally ticketed? I don't know the answer to that I know I've written tickets. I mean something that really bothers me is that it's a public way and residents and people who come to Amherst to work to spend money need places to park and What I'm I'm feeling like is This ban from 8 to 5 makes it okay for the residents to have as many people as they want on their street But no one else can use the street during the day because it's too dangerous That doesn't sit it doesn't make any sense so I'm really trying to understand why this street is Kudos to the residents who've brought it forward But there are plenty of residents and kudos to them as well who are saying this isn't necessary Including people who live on the street who talk about the fact that two cars Passing each other is more effective to keep the speed limit down than the speed bumps So it's my working class Okay, are there any other questions to clarify the presentation at this time from the council Okay, so we're going to move to the opportunity for people in the audience The residents who are here to ask questions about the presentation Please raise your hand if you have a question not a statement, but a question Statements will come later back there. Yes Please come forward. I'm sorry. Let me state the rules. You must come forward You must state your name where you live and you must stay within I'm going to say a minute for questions. Okay. My name is Louise Riley. I live on the corner of Gaylord and Lincoln I am in district four Most of these folks are in district three Mrs. Pam has been wonderful about helping me on my side get some attention But I don't know how many people here are aware that Lincoln goes all the way to route nine All the conversation I'm hearing today is from Amity to the University and we have no speed bumps I have written a letter several times starting in 19 I mean 2015 Suggesting that there be parking on the west side not on the other side because there are many fewer driveways There's a sidewalk and on my side. There are no sidewalks We have front walks that go to the street we cannot plow our sidewalks because of cars parking in front of them and People park Very close to our driveways. It's almost impossible to see how to get out And I've actually called and the parking guy didn't want to give a ticket and I insisted that he do because he he just Said okay, and I said no you need to give a ticket because it's more if he's over the line He's right at my driveway. Let me be so Again right now we're asking for questions to clarify the presentation. I guess my question is Are you aware that Lincoln? extends to route nine Thank you for that question Questions yes, mr. Gentlemen right here. Thank you Please sit down and use the mic and State name and where you live. Yeah Dennis Porter This is not the time for comments It is the time for questions about the proposal will have a comment period later either in favor or against Okay, I have a question. Okay. Thank you. I live at the bottom your name. It's Locate myself. Yes. Yeah, I live at the bottom of Gaylord Street to and so my My house is there and in order to go west I go to get to Lincoln and It's Like this. Okay. You arrive like this. You cannot see to the right or to the left Because there is parking there with a silly little settle, you know Space on both sides. So in plus a tree and shrumps So in order to see if anyone is coming from the north or the south You have to put your car right in the middle of the road and it is furiously dangerous Thank you all the time. So your question Your question the question is would you First of all cease to have the parking on that side second would you put in speed bumps and do what they do from Amity south and north to Amity to Northampton Road. Okay. Thank you Again, we're looking for clarifying questions about the proposed changes gentlemen in the back, please I'm going to try to ask questions. I Certainly hope so. My name is Jim Barna. I'm a Property owner here in Amherst on 34 Dana Place And I'm also an employee of the University of Amherst I park on that street and My question is would the council consider the rights of People that want to use this vital resource in their double deliberations and will they Actually get information about who parks there and will they perhaps refrain From discriminating against certain categories of citizens who happen to be students who happen to be employees Who happen to be working people who happen not to own property on the street in question? This town has parking issues and the only way to deal with it is to have as much parking available for as many people as possible and I would like the the government of this town to consider Whether they are doing damage to the future transportation needs of this town By considering ad hoc restrictions to parking. Thank you. Thank you Questions only questions about the proposed changes Yeah My name is Mattia Kramer. I live on East Pleasant. So not in this neighborhood. My question is about the proposal There's a hotspot between Elman McClellan Is there a consideration to just ban parking in that hotspot as opposed to the entire area? Thank you for your question Yes, please come forward ma'am. My name is Anik Porter. Please move move to the mic, please My I have two questions. Yes As somebody said of course you've been talking about The North End of Lincoln Avenue with a wonderful speed bumps. I am talking about Like my husband who's We live on Gallaud Street Now I have a question if and hopefully you will move the parking to the west side because it's Extremely dangerous to have it on on the east side Will you Maybe consider speed bumps because I can assure you that on Gallaud Street and on The south side of Lincoln Avenue people do not drive at 30 miles an hour. In fact, sometimes they They drive at 40 miles an hour and my other question is which I think pertains to the to the security of Going uphill on Lincoln Avenue when it says it's 30 but people to Rush to the top Why not consider a traffic light at Link beat in Lincoln and amity that to me would solve a lot of problems and Because people have to stop of course it may create Blocks and so forth but but I think it would you if you would you Be interested in thinking about it at least. Thank you for your question Are there other questions? Please come forward Julian Hines District 454 High Street. My question is we see that it's within 120 feet of an intersection on amity and within 30 feet of an intersection on Gaylord Street, so what I'm wondering is what about for all our other Streets in towns it streets in our town Which there are hundreds of I imagine I'm wondering what is the rule for those streets about how close you can park within an intersection And does it vary within every intersection or is there a hardened fast rule? No parking within 60 feet of an intersection or whatever. Thank you for your question Are there any other questions at this time? Questions regarding the proposal Rick Beltier 160 Lincoln Avenue. Does the council know how many children live on Lincoln Avenue in the area of interest? Thank you. Any other questions? All right, we're going to now move to the period where the public who is in favor of the proposal of That has been put forward by the town with regard to Lincoln Avenue Is to make comments? How many people would like to make comments? All right, let me just say once a comment has been made Could I also ask you not to be redundant in the interest of everyone's time? We'll start With our initial petitioner, please come forward And I'll give you three minutes, but if we go further than this I'm going to start restricting you to two minutes Yes, I could ask a process question. Fortunately, we don't have to do this very often. So thank you when Given the variations that are possible right because we've already talked about it was mentioned in our memo And it was mentioned again tonight that well, maybe one option would be sorry We're not talking about this outside yet. Maybe one option would be just to do around certain intersections So when people are speaking for against can they just speak for a change of some kind? Or do they have to be speaking for the exact proposal? I'm just not sure how we're dividing in between those two things because there might be people in support of some variation of the proposal So okay, the the hearing is on the proposal as made by the town if in speaking to that you have other ways you'd like to see Modifications certainly you might include those but we are really speaking about This part of Lincoln Avenue and the proposal for this part of Lincoln Avenue. Please introduce yourself I'm David sloveter. I live at 194 Lincoln Avenue Lincoln Avenue is unique in its function. It is the only street other than Pleasant Street That connects Amity with full access to the UMass campus and parking lots as As a result the flow of traffic is constant during weekdays when UMass is in session Many delivery vehicles choose to use Lincoln Avenue rather than deal with the traffic lights pedestrians and traffic on Pleasant Street The restricted travel lanes that exists throughout the day as a result of the row of parked cars has created a situation That makes travel on Lincoln Avenue difficult and unsafe There are delays near misses and difficulty turning on to link them throughout the day It is the combination of the volume and the loss of the full width of the street for transit that has created the problem If the frequency of near misses on Lincoln occurred in the airline industry the FAA would shut down airports until the problem was fixed The town manager's proposal deals only with a limited problem on one street and is not part of a townwide solution Nor should it be seen as one It does not in any way propose eliminating parking on any other streets the proposal recognizes the unique aspect of the volume of traffic on Lincoln and addresses the specific problem From which town residents are seeking relief from the only authorized body that can provide that relief This is not about a neighborhood asking for special treatment But rather a group of Amherst residents asking town council to protect them and all the people who use the street This issue should not be seen as a conflict between residents and UMass staff We recognize that UMass staff are under financial pressure like many others We have no personal conflict with their attempts to save money and in fact sympathize with the challenges they face We do not however feel that it is the responsibility of the town of Amherst in general Nor one neighborhood in particular To bear the burden of UMass's failure to properly Accommodate their employees and ask those residents to live in an unsafe situation We want to thank the town manager and staff for being receptive to our problem and Responding to fix it the current situation Benefits a few but it is a burden to many it needs to end Thank you for your excuse me. We don't I Must ask you not to demonstrate one way or another in favor or against. Thank you Who else would like to speak in favor of the proposal? Please come forward Nancy Gilbert 1966 Lincoln Avenue. I've lived on the road for 35 years and one thing that I don't know if all of you get is We're the major thoroughfare from root 9 to the university, which makes our road a little different There are several safety issues one that happened today today.  That's and he was coming pretty fast. I Stand there. I have my grandchildren three times week I have a four-year-old I hold his hand if he were to ever just look like that He might get hurt hit by a car because they they literally kiss the curb when their cars on the other side Twice in December when there was snow I pulled out I basically stopped another car was coming down quite slowly and both of our side rear mirrors clicked We also have trouble if there's oil delivery And if there's oil delivery parked and they're pumping out oil and there's parking across the street a fire truck a police car or an ambulance could never get down the street and We've had many accidents in the past at different spots on the street and they were sort of taking care of there was four-way stop And I'm fearing I just hope that there aren't serious accidents Especially if children getting hurt or injured or killed on our street because it's not safe to cross or even be within four feet of your Curb on your front yard on the west side Thank you for your comment additional comments Supporting the proposal Please come forward. I'm sorry. I can't really tell if this is in support or in opposition But what I will say is that I believe that it isn't an only a Lincoln Ave problem I guess I'm in support of fixing this issue on Lincoln Ave But I am in support of doing it as we fix the same issue that is occurring on many other streets in town and I share the woman's concerns who just spoke but I share these concerns about Most of the streets surrounding Lincoln Avenue. I share these concerns of many streets in town especially downtown Amherst and I don't want it to be where if a Group of residents who is active and outspoken enough to come to the council and petition a change like this or Where someone gets injured or killed because of these issues? I don't want it to be that that is what causes change on that one street What I want it to be is a townwide issue Where everyone comes together looks at the issue as a town and looks at how many streets need to be addressed And then we look into that issue put it as a charge on a committee and Go throughout that might be a little bit longer, but ensure safety for everyone equally as quickly as we can. Thank you Thank you for your comment Are there other comments in support of the proposal? Please the gentleman way back. Yes My name is Frank Myers and I've lived on Lincoln for 40 years and I'm gonna be very specific about my concern My concern is is about the safety of getting Ambulances and firetrucks, but the the ambulance is the big things. It's not so much that the The parked cars are the major issue The major issue is the volume and two other cars So you have basically three cars very close and most times not so one car stops Another one goes stops goes and it goes on all day long. My biggest concern Haven't been a retired physician This neighborhood has become very elderly Okay, and I suspect the the the nose. Sorry But the major problem though is ambulance is coming And getting there in a timely fashion Most of the things that I have seen because I've taken care of a lot of these people are Strokes heart attacks all of which are extremely time-sensitive This is not a question of just the parking. It's it's getting an ambulance when Cars are stopped all the way down the line if you have an oil truck that the street is closed Okay, and ambulance trying to come here and we're talking five minutes ten minutes is very important for treating certain illnesses Okay, and I've had the experience myself in my own house. Okay, my wife fell this down the stairs had a severe head injury Couldn't breathe was unconscious The ambulance came in about five minutes, which was fantastic saved her life Looking at the street right now at certain times of the day That is good the it will be delayed by 10 15 minutes at certain times and that is my biggest concern Okay, and it's not that it's all day long Okay, but when it happens It's going to take lives Thank you for your comment Yes, all the way in the back. Please come forward. Yes you I'm sorry. I don't know Please sit down to make your comments. All right, I Am certainly supporting any attention that my neighbors get on the other side of Amity Street I would like to know why I Understood that this was a hearing about Lincoln Avenue All of Lincoln and then suddenly I'm hearing that section of Lincoln Avenue So I'm a little bit Frustrated put it mildly especially since I've written letters without any acknowledgement for years about this issue So I just don't know what to do To get attention for my end of Lincoln Avenue for the people who speed down. We do not have speed bumps They are coming to go right onto Amity to avoid the light in town They're coming to go to the theater or whatever. They're gonna go up up Amity Street or left down Amity Street or straight So we got even more traffic on my end of Lincoln So I don't know what to do to get some attention For up my end and I'm only saying park. I'm not saying no parking I'm thinking just parking on the west side, please Thank you Additional comments with regard to this proposal This is in support of the proposal over here, sir We'll come back. Don't worry. Thank you. I'm Bruce Wilcox. I live at 191 Lincoln I've lived there for 37 years. I support the town manager's proposal I think he did a really good job of Talking with the different departments about the issue that some neighbors had raised I did not sign the petition. I was out of town But I support the petition because of the concerns that my neighbors here have raised So I'd just like to say three make three points. One is and This has been made I suppose it's really only on weekdays when UMass is in session and Particularly in the spring and the fall the rest of the time there is no problem So I take it that it's people heading to the university. I worked at the university for 32 years I bicycle to work most days, but I got a perking permit because in the winter and on bad days You know, I could I couldn't bicycle. I realize how expensive those permits are I sympathize with the students and the graduate students and the staff Faculty who would prefer not to pay those high rates on campus and here's the street. That's open. So I understand why People are parking there. I might well in the same situation, but it does seem to me It's created a problem in terms of danger point one point point two is that It's really just a recent problem as I said 37 years It's only in the last 18 months that this has happened My own theory is that by putting in signs that say no parking here to corner People took it look at those signs and realized. Oh, well, I guess we can park the rest of the street It's so pretty soon it filled up and that that led to the current circumstance and My third point and this was raised by one of the counselors Has to do with whether there will be spillover and to what extent though will be spillover into other streets Well, if you look at the map other than sunset and there is one section of sunset that might be in jeopardy But there's restricted parking or no parking on the rest of Lincoln on McClellan on Cosby on fearing So this is just one last stretch that parking is permitted on and As the neighbors were saying there's been a lot of concern about the safety issues. Thank you. Thank you for your comment Yes, please come forward We need you to sit down again and state your name. Thank you. Okay, I said earlier We live at the end of other West side of West end of Gerald Street This means that When I drive I'm the main driver When I drive either The left or right on Lincoln Avenue. I Have to contend with Sometimes very large SUVs Trucks or people who actually work for my neighbors our neighbors and so forth and have to park somewhere and There is absolutely no way Except to crawl into the middle of the street of Lincoln Avenue in order to make sure that left and right are safe I've been I've come close to Close collisions and it's very very difficult Because Galo Street is a very narrow street. We love the fact that we have a sidewalk but unfortunately the parking on the opposite side of our house, which is a south side is Very generous in turn. It doesn't take into account The the setback from the street from Lincoln Avenue No, does it take into account that those of us who live live on the North side. Yes on the north side of the street. I have driveways and Sometimes to get out of our driveway. We have to back out Which is where which is not our preference To be able to back in because it's safer both at any time any in a certain sense any time of the day and the and the temperature on the But the parking is and it's legal. It's legal But maybe I think it's two feet from the sidewalk across the street Well, so when I come out of my driveway I have I'm looking at at a car and If I Sometimes it's easier for me to to drive on the on the sidewalk Well, that is not how it should be and I know because ambulances have come and all big trucks Fire truck and they they actually drive on the sidewalk So I would like to have some kind of relief from Boat Lincoln Avenue and from the first Driveway on the on the south side and I'm sure they are my neighbors would feel the same way Although they are in the different very different situations and we have Thank you for your comment This is statements in favor of the proposal that the town has put forward yes, sir, please come forward David Ratner 199 Lincoln I've lived there for many years. I Wrote to you folks all but I want to repeat ever so briefly I was one who witnessed a fire truck stuck at the corner of Amity trying to turn down Lincoln heading north I was the first car Imposing it while I was trying to trying to drive south the fire engine managed to pull into the the first No parking zone, but then was absolutely stuck there I tried to back up to get out of the fire engine's way But that was not possible because there were at least two maybe three cars behind me So we were heading south now it didn't have its sirens on because it was the merry maple lighting So this was not a dangerous situation But had it occurred on another time for another reason namely a fire I think it would have been quite difficult it was impossible to back up and it's also impossible for the fire truck to To go past Other points. I would simply say it is so different the parking situation is so different this year from preceding years something has changed dramatically and Finally with respect to Sunset Avenue versus Lincoln although I live in Lincoln not sunset my wife And I walk on sunset regularly that traffic on sunset does not approach the traffic on Lincoln and Were there to be increased traffic on its parking once on said that would be unfortunate But it would not present the same hazard situation that heavy traffic and parking does on Lincoln. Thank you. Thank you Please come forward Dale Peterson two three four Lincoln Avenue Good evening counselors Clearly this hearing is the beginning of a very large and urgent issue before the town my wife and I happen to live in the hot center if There were a West mclellan Street. It would be our driveway and I want to speak to the clear and present danger that exists from route nine all the way down to fearing on Lincoln Avenue The problem is that at present Would the town is extremely fortunate that there has not been a fatality or certainly physical injury Because There are instances where it's necessary for a large vehicles to be parked on The west side of Lincoln oil trucks have been mentioned Tree work is done. The town itself brings in its equipment They can't park where the cars are on the other side of the street and the spectacle My wife and I watch it every work day. The spectacle is that you have bicyclists going both ways on Lincoln Avenue you have Pretty much a parking lot certainly from Amity up to McLellan You have runners high school runners college University runners going by Pedestrians occasionally trying to cross the street although I would be wisely advised not to even attempt it so my my plea to you is that There be fairly alertly and promptly a recognition of the clear and present safety dangerous hazards on the stretch of Lincoln And actually I would quite agree with my neighbors that the problem exists all the way from route 9 down to at least mcgallon There's a clear and present danger here, and I would hope that the council can find a way to elect Act alertly and promptly and not Delay much further regard this proposal as the initiation of Further action, but not an invitation for you to delay it, please. Thank you Thank you for the comment. Are there any other comments speaking in favor of the proposal? Please come forward Rick Peltier 160 Lincoln Avenue. I am halfway to 90 years old I Have called and emailed the parking office on a number of occasions on the order of six or seven times With complaints about obstructing the fire hydrants Parkers just park in front of fire hydrants or too close to them obstruct them Very often it's not ticketed because they are under resource And they don't have the capacity to come listen to a single complaint. That's a clear and present danger to Public safety and it is our charge as citizens to make sure that our town is safe for all It is a Problem that persists it happens all of the time, but it's almost always during the work week And that would echo what everybody said that this is a problem from eight to five But because the parking office is a fairly under resourced office I encourage you not to look at alternatives like parking meters Where it requires enforcement. They do not have the ability to enforce that kind of obligation Every morning I wake up and get my kids ready for school The number 17 bus comes around 815 We cannot stand by the road Because 815 in the morning that is the Lincoln Avenue slalom where cars are zipping in and out Avoiding park cars as they're late to work or late to class We have to stay back from behind the the roadway because it is unsafe my children are between six and eleven years old And to answer my rhetorical question from earlier there are ten children that live on Lincoln from Amity to campus That's roughly one child per accident that happens on Lincoln every year. Thank you Thank you. Are there any other comments in in support of the proposal? All right now We're going to move to that part of the hearing where we asked for comments in opposition to the proposal Please come forward Matia Kramer East Pleasant Street. I think that the question has to do with what kind of town we want to be Do we want to be a kind of town that? Allocates resources based on Private property ownership and an organized few or based on a larger group less well organized certainly and Probably not so well off I hear impassioned arguments about safety and Lincoln is also it's a lovely neighborhood and how lovely that that neighborhood can be so close to town. It's a it's a Wonderful location in terms of the safety concern though we heard we saw data tonight 5,700 vehicular observations and Only ten enforceable violations. I thought that was a vanishingly small rate of Violations and we also saw over a period of three years data that said there were zero accidents But for pedestrians and cyclists so I thought the the safety argument I and again understand I'm sympathetic to folks in the neighborhood and Ultimately, it's an issue of what sort of town we want to be Thank you for your comment. Are there other people who would like to speak in opposition. Please come forward Hello again, Jim Barna 34 Dana Place I've heard a lot of you know very interesting and insightful Concerns by the people on Lincoln Street And I I want to point out some ways that some of these things could be mitigated Without losing parking on that street As far as I know it is well within the ambit of this town to No longer allow commercial vehicles on that street That would and and you know, we've got a police force you You make it no commercial vehicles and then the first time a truck Driving up to UMass goes through there you ticket them We can resolve that it's not a it's not a difficult issue in terms of in terms of the street With regard to The traffic swerving this is a street I walk twice a day every day I walk it between 8 and 10 a.m. And between 4 and 6 p.m. Twice a day. I Invite you to walk this street And you know, certainly if my wife lived on Lincoln Avenue, she'd be you know banging her hand on on the The desk claiming that it's the most dangerous street in the world But if you were to walk this street It's a pretty normal street It already has Traffic slowed down Certainly there are problems There is definitely a problem on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Amity Street And you're not gonna solve that problem by restricting parking there The problem is people come out of the town center on Amity Street going west and they suddenly think they're out of town And they speed up like banshees There needs to be a four-way stop there or a traffic light there or a cop cop park there Which I did see the other day and that was beneficial So you got the problem there? The curb cups on Amity Street are not uniform all the way across So a lot of drivers will swerve to the right So that it doesn't bump them as much and that's some of that swerving activity we get on that street Certainly, that's something that the town can look at and and you know that little bit of wildness would be resolved that way People Make rational decisions in their own self-interest about where to park and how to drive and You're chasing people's rational decision-making process now you can either make policies that take The whole group into account or you're gonna keep chasing them you put this parking restriction on Lincoln I'm gonna be the first one parking on Sunset and when you put that restriction on Sunset I'm gonna be the first person if there's parking on Amity Street on Lincoln Street South of Amity still I'll park there I Walk a half mile From Lincoln Street to my office. I only park on Lincoln Street when it rains Generally if I'm walking from my house, it's 1.2 miles The fact of the matter is everyone who parks there has a rational reason for parking there and You have done nothing to find out what those reasons are This town spends a lot of time abstractly considering Rules regarding parking and what people who park need or want But but and you know unless you're taking money out of their pockets. You don't care about their parking You're gonna remove a hundred parking spots from the town This is a hundred all-day parking spots that are free that's valuable property and I don't think it's in the best interest of the town to do that. I Need you to wrap up. Okay. Well, I've said everything I need to say, but thank you very much. Thank you This is comments in opposition. Please come forward Please sit down and start got it. We're on air and we like to make sure that I get to sit on this side with you Every other Wednesday. Ah, there you go So Fletcher Clark East Pleasant Street as someone who's on two-town committees who has to get here before the eight o'clock meter ends I voice opposition into this this proposal Thank you for your comment. Please come forward. Yes. I am Suki Krauss 163 Lincoln Avenue parking is a very very precious resource and I don't feel like I Have the right as just because there's parking in front of my house So there's parking on our street to make decisions that affect both civic and neighborly Have been civic and neighborly effects I It's been a busy street. It's been a busy street. We've my house that house has been in our family since 1962 and we were there before there was University Avenue and It's it is it's a busy street and I'm not going to say there aren't problems However, I don't feel that Displacing our problems onto our neighbors is going to make the answer. I think the problem is that we need a bigger Solution to parking in Amherst and You know, we see the map here that shows sunset, but it could be just as easily displaced To the east side of town because I think most of the people that are in front of my house are working downtown They're not they're not going down to the University. So I but I don't want to make that guess I just I just don't feel that This is the right thing to do for our neighbors Thank you for your comment. Are there other comments in opposition to the proposal that the town has made Okay, then we will move back to further questions from the council Alyssa so aside from the fact that we have so many different theories as to how many parking spaces this is Which I'm not really sure how to manage But I'd love to have something a little clearer on that I realize it's difficult when we don't When we don't mark them and we also have different lengths of parking spaces throughout town So it's all a made-up thing as we saw from previous parking studies one of the so I Can't put it in context effectively for people a more specific question I have in terms of the driveways and the fire hydrants So because we don't mark spaces right we therefore don't have the little markings that say don't park here Because there's a fire hydrant and we don't have markings for people's driveways which they have in some communities and we don't have here Even if we say this is only eight to five as some neighbors have indicated as a Compromise position on their part to not say never just eight to five weekdays So at night and weekends people are still I realize the volume changes But people are still going to be parking at the edges of their driveways and still gonna be parking in front of fire hydrants So do we have technical things that we can adopt from other towns that we haven't done here for various reasons? But because this is a high visibility street We would consider doing because that feels to me like that's gonna remain a problem whether we have parking there or Sometimes and even if we don't have it there from eight to five It's still gonna be a problem if we get all the economic development downtown that we want That's gonna be a great place to park on Saturdays and people are saying they don't have a problem with people parking there on Saturdays because for a lot of reasons that I won't elaborate on and At that time people are gonna park in front of fire hydrants and they're gonna park in people's park at the edges of people's driveway So I'm not seeing this as a big solution. I understand that it feels like it's something for people But it feels like we ought to be able to do something with all our amazing engineering skills and enforcement skills To make this easier for people who are parking in this random area to know How close am I supposed to be to a driveway? How far away am I supposed to be from a fire hydrant? Most people don't remember was in their driver book when they were 16 Do with the two of you like to come forward again in case there's questions That doesn't mean we don't have fire questions to okay Thank you Response to the question asked so I don't know I actually heard the question from a law enforcement perspective, but Well most for enforcement efforts with our parking enforcement people anything that's not downtown where their districts are broken up where they're actually very specific specific times patrolling most of the other outside of the center of town Ticketing is done by complaint So if somebody's calls up and says somebody's parked in front of a fire hydrant on McClellan Street will dispatch either an officer or a parking enforcement person there to handle those But yes, the hydrant areas are not marked. They're certainly not marked clearly and that folks is a problem sometimes Okay, thank you Steve Yeah, so I have a number of comments. So one is there's The safety comment to my in my opinion are a conflict with each other So on one hand or there's a desire to make Lincoln less desirable So I heard a lot of comments that there's a huge volume of traffic going down Lincoln So if I hear that my instinct is then let's make the make them make it As hard as possible to go down Lincoln and the answer to that is park on the street. So So the proposal before us So normally when you see No parking on Five or in that window there the reason is you want to make that a major commuter artery So if that's a desire, we remove the speed bumps make that a major commuter artery So it makes So I'm on Lincoln all the time I've ridden my bike dozens of miles on Lincoln is the safe way to ride my bike because my other options North pleasant and I don't even remember are very you know much less safe So Lincoln's actually the safe road for me to run And I feel unsafe right on the street, which I never do I can ride on the sidewalk So you can in Amherst you can actually ride your bike on the sidewalk I believe outside of the downtown area. That's right. Yeah So the third thing is the park streets actually make it much safer I'm sorry the park cars actually make it much safer for the sidewalk. So the sidewalk is on the east side There's nothing safer than a bunch of park cars I mean, we've heard about embankment runs and things like that But there's nothing safer than park cars to protect pest You know the pedestrians that we've heard about and I think it's very telling that there have been zero pedestrian accidents in zero bicycle accidents So another comment and somebody mentioned this earlier is that I actually think that the speed bumps are causing If there's any problem for bikes I think it's the speed bumps that are causing those problems because as we've heard a lot of cars try to veer around at the Speed bumps so they come it's like a solemn course. So they So they go very close to the car much closer than they should so so the concerns I think there is a Always had been an issue as long as I lived here in the desire line between Basically the downtown area and parts of the city that's always existed the university is growing. It's becoming more desirable I didn't I can see what the problems are Apart oh Their comment is safe on Lincoln The first Sirens blasting I assume and ours will find a way to get out of the way even if they have to go There's many narrow streets with parking on this map The prospect much The street Don't think that public safety is Over thought are there any other questions comments from the council. Yes, Evan right, so I guess I True question. So when we authorized us hearing a while back one of the things I said that I would be interested in seeing was Alternatives that were considered To this proposal the only one that I saw in the report was the potential for parking meters And so I'm wondering if they were alternative ways to consider Perhaps solving what many perceived to be as a problem without this And as as as open as possible So, I mean in theory you have two parallel streets that lead between Amity and Mass Ave Could you like you we did on North or South prospect make them each one way going opposite directions that would eliminate two-way traffic and Maintain that because that was brought up was North prospect in the presentation was that's not wide enough to have two lanes of Traffic plus a lane of parked cars. So we make it one way well seems like we have a similar situation here So that's question one is was there alternatives including the option of making Lincoln and Sunset opposite direction one-way streets Um, and then the second thought that Steve sort of touched on is I was actually The most surprising thing of everything that I've seen tonight was that the average speed on Lincoln is 19 miles an hour when the speed limit is 30 I can't imagine a street where the speed limit average is over 10 miles per hour lower then The the actual posted speed limit and as someone well, I won't get into my own driving habits So and to me that's a direct result of having these parked cars there. And so I'm curious Your thoughts on that speed and that's that average speed and whether or not there's an expectation that that could rise If that this parking is removed that that parking is removed. You want to go or do you want me to you start now? I Think there were a number of discussions Guilford and I hadn't in with the town manager as well. I Mean if we had a carte blanche master card gold We could probably fix all of the problems quite honestly and a lot of it involved one-way streets And it probably wouldn't be really it wouldn't make the residents real happy with the proposals that we had Being said and going further with some of your comments. I did not believe there was a speeding problem on Lincoln Avenue So I'm not surprised by the data If we go with the proposal, I'm suspecting we will have a speeding problem on Lincoln Avenue My own thoughts so I said that every once in a while we talk about Lincoln Avenue, so First thing is when I first got here First proposed roundabout in the town of Amherst was the intersection of Lincoln and Amity Street was proposed by the town engineer in about 2001-2002 because there were complaints about the intersection Not functioning properly and people were shooting across much faster shooting across from Lincoln South to Lincoln North across The Amity Street and there had been a few more accidents and so forth That's just one thought and as that transformed as I was here We did a great deal of analysis and this was what Cumulated from this was the actual installation of the speed bumps speed humps But what we proposed in that in many of those Discussions was actually one weighing one weighing Lincoln one laying sunset We also talked about just cutting off the inner set cutting off that neighborhood We talked about making it so that you could not go from Lincoln across fearing in the campus And we talked about making a sunset so you could not cross fearing in the sunset So basically made this neighborhood into its own little cul-de-sac And and that would one take care of this that take care of this beating and actually if you look at other Neighborhoods in town you'll find that was done in the old town Fair far far view far view It's called we call it struttersville used to be the strutters farm Struttersville area town this north side of campus that section of town was cut off from the campus Those roads actually connected to campus and then they were cut off and walking paths exist now So you can walk between the neighborhoods and campus So we had taken that same approach for the Lincoln Lincoln Avenue neighborhood It was vehemently opposed No one wanted to do that no one wanted to cut off neighborhood no one wanted to Well, actually some people did but the majority people didn't don't cut off the neighborhood Don't make it one way so we've looked at it multiple times And we really haven't gone back to it because we don't think there's an appetite in the community to make it one way although it would be You would be able to deal with the issues you can make it one way You could have parking on one side and if you wanted to you could actually even raise up part of the Roadway and have a travel lane for bicyclists. That's separate from traveling in the roadway So there's lots of options you could There is a lot of little things you could do but we were asked to look at a parking situation So we didn't venture much beyond it because we all has bruises from the last time we ventured beyond it So he didn't do it because we weren't asked Pat I'm listening to your call-the-sac idea in creating a little enclave and What's gonna happen to all the people who need to park and Walk to the university walk to the bookstore because they walk work there What's gonna happen to the people who are using Lincoln Avenue if you make it this called the sack And I know you're saying oh, there could be cute little pads, but Doesn't help in the snow if you made a cold if you made it into a cul-de-sac You would have the ability to keep parking on the street because you wouldn't have the volume of traffic driving up and down the street but you have traffic traveling at about 19 miles an hour and There's no speeding problem on this street the way it is now with track parking on the east side So you have a volume problem is really what will sound the volume problem is in your is in the Imagination in it not you I know you can count the cars I know you can count the cars, but we have volume all over town and And I feel like because there are a lot of cars using the street Doesn't mean that it's unsafe and you what you say is completely true. We were asked to look at Lincoln Avenue We weren't asked to look at every street in town There's places where I can tell you there should definitely be no Parking on the street and they should be one way But you're opening up a bigger discussion than just Lincoln Avenue Dorothy Now I'm not forgetting what I was gonna say, but it's about if you did if you did the enclave You would be pleasing one group of parkers on Lincoln Avenue I read every single letter on both sides and The letter writing campaign that happened very recently of people against the parking change were basically from graduate students Who park there and then walk or bike to the university and they expressed that this allowed them and many of them come from out of Town okay, they come there and they park and then they're able to have this 20 to 30 minute whichever way you go Daily experience of fresh air and the whole thing was part of a more healthy lifestyle Which led me to think why doesn't the university make some really cheaper parking lots? Further away from the school for people to park and then walk a ride because many of them And we have pictures that were taken by people in Lincoln Avenue of people parking and then taking their bike out of the trunk And getting on the bike and biking to the campus So, you know that is the people would still be able to park as you say there would be a walking path They would get their exercise and we would not displace many parkers and it would not be cut off From the downtown it would be not cut off from Amherst cinema for evening parking and that actually might solve some of the problems Are there other comments from Councils? Yes, I guess it just for some people boils down to Only residents should be accommodated not all the people who come to town to use it for education for theater for walking in parks And I find that troubling Okay, me and Joe so I'm struggling with this because parking is a public resource and I In talking to the residents that believe this is a safety hazard They said it was because of volume and because there was a lot of commercial traffic yet Your traffic study showed that only three percent of the vehicles that go down that street are commercial And when I've walked the street when I've stared at the street cars can pass I'll be it slow and carefully, but fairly easily with a couple of feet distance So I'm struggling with why it's a safety issue when on the south side of Lincoln. It's not a safety issue on high Street, it's not a safety issue on sunset. It wouldn't be a safety issue and I'm also struggling with it's downtown. It is UMass We have a parking problem in this town at what point Do we say it's an urban area and Parking on streets in urban areas is normal And so I guess one of the questions I have is to those fellow counselors that were here when we limited parking on from 8 to 5 Between McClellan and Fearing and on Cosby. I assume Cosby is even smaller with wise than Lincoln Why did we do that and did that really just result in pushing a problem further south and What would we even consider possibly? Not limiting that parking 8 to 5 if we're not going to do it on the other part of Lincoln. What was the purpose? for that resulted in McClellan to fearing being limited 8 to 5 and fearing to North Hadley Road being completely No parking on the east side of the street. Can we get a history as to why those are even treated differently than the other parts of Lincoln? So they go back beyond me So so it's over 20 20 years old the changes that were made on McClellan page best in Cosby Nutting Phillips and Allen Street all came out of the work for the resident parking permits These neighborhoods were parked up pretty substantially and people were complaining and they said we would need Parking for you know parking for the residents. We don't have any So that brought about and you can read it in the bylaws bought about the permit parking for either Downtown or for resident-only neighborhoods, and that's kind of where that came from that was before me That's where it happened McClure Sunset at all the little section at the very Let me see if I can get this to work this time this little section in here Was very transient and That's how a lot of no parking happened in that area. It was a lot of rental properties and there was a couple of What do you call those fraternities aren't really fraternities Thank fraternities. Oh cool There was a lot of fake fraternities in the area and the parking was very it was it got to be really really out of control Almost many times in the day because they were parking on both sides and you couldn't get down the road So we actually that was actually made no parking both sides and that was also be for my time The parking is not there's no parking on the west side of sunset by the campus because the campus controls That sidewalk and they wanted it no parking and we had already the town had already made it no parking on the East side, so that's how that got to be that way. So there's a whole bunch of stories and they go back Pretty far. This is kind of the last area that is still got some parking left Kathy you had a question No, I was going to I was going to build a little bit on Dorothy's comment, but it says a question New York UMass does have outlying lots For Parkers, but what I look the cheapest is $270 so have we approached UMass to say make the outlying lots cheap So that the commuters and people who need to put their cars Can put them there because they're often empty and we've been here 30 35 years ago And that they used to be very cheap because they're outlying lots So they're not being used, but they're empty and I'm not sure how much the university would lose by making a $50 lot And so I'm just you know, so if the some of the pressure is an overflow and it's more recent And I know we were told by the university It hasn't gone up very much but fees have gone up and tuition has gone up So then when you add $270 if you can save that to 70 So it's it's looking at removing the pressure that isn't a worker downtown or a visitor downtown That's purely that someone's trying to come to school and needs to get there and put their car somewhere Especially the commuter kits that can't afford to live in the dorms I have a Comment so when we first started looking at Lincoln in the early 2000s We did approach the university about the fact they have these high fees The fees were actually less than they are now at that time They were still it was still around a hundred dollars for the outlying lots And if you actually buy a permit and the outlying lots, it's not a permit for a space It's really it's really a hunting permit and if you look at most colleges That's what they sell a hunting permit You have a permit to hunt for a space on campus and you get to have the closest one that you can find if you're lucky So that's kind of how the permit systems are on most campuses And they are this the fees that UMass is charging is about comparable to the other universities of their size. I paid Well, this was even farther back This was over 30 years ago the permit fee I paid to go to North Carolina State was a $200 fee And I walked a mile and a half from the lot to my school to my building So it's the prices are not that outlined are there additional comments or questions from the council Dorothy Well, I have two problems One is that the data that you gave us is not up to date because people are think saying Oh, it's really not that dangerous But it was just a few weeks ago that in one day within a few hours of each other There were two accidents at the corner of Amity and Lincoln that involved blazing cars and people were sending me photos And we went out and took a look Things and most of the people from Lincoln who have testified have said this is something that has really gotten much worse recently Then we've had general conversation here amongst counselors about the need for a whole parking program or plan Which I agree with however No one has mentioned that as part of our master plan We have a downtown zone where people can build big buildings and include no parking for their tenants The theory being you don't need a car You can use the bus and I think most of us know that it really you do need cars So the reason there aren't enough parking places is that there is a policy which is outlined Weekly or bi-weekly at planning board meetings, which said people don't need cars people aren't using cars They're using uber they can use the bus So there is a big need for a big rethinking of parking in town But I am strongly advocating that we do accept the proposal which has been put together by The people from the town you see sitting here people who've studied it who work in it who know what's going on and Understand that yes, we have to do what has been mentioned here a rational townwide Parking policy including increasing, you know as many people have said increasing the supply through a parking garage Which is discussed? But please pass this now for Lincoln and we can see what happens because what in the recent years Last two years or 18 months it has become very dangerous And we can then come together and talk and say did that work did the things that were forecast fall apart or You know shall we redo it? But I don't want the idea that this is going to be folded into this big huge Townwide parking plan that we're going to do which might not be ready for a couple of years Although it's really necessary for it to be done. So I really I urge you to think These people have put in a lot of time and effort in putting together a plan based on what they know about the town Let's support it and then walk forward for a townwide policy parking policy at this point Are there any more questions from the council? Because otherwise we will move to close the hearing is Yes, Steve. I Was wondering if the chief would mind repeating something Earlier which is that if we take away the parking on Lincoln has proposed then it's in your That then we'll have a speeding problem Problem I'm not sure but I believe the speeds will increase there on a regular basis Mean it's just one of the things and I think one of the counselors brought it up Having the two-way traffic with the parking Almost mandates that you go slow. Are there other questions from the council at this time? Go for it Before you leave that The actual traffic counter that when it was installed for this traffic count. Let me see if I can So the location of the traffic counter was between McClellan and Cosby It's in the section of the road that I now has no parking eight to five So there are speed on speed bumps along the road But it's already that that section where the counter is has no parking On that section Sarah I'm not sure if this has been answered completely So if it has just be like Sarah go back and look somewhere but as far as like safety goes So I'm wondering, you know, we heard from people that they are concerned, you know, because they're getting older So am I like and about safety vehicles being able to actually Get into a residence in a certain amount of time and also I'm thinking from somebody who drives a fire truck Like I'm just wondering Is what kind of what is really the the danger if there is to having cars parked at the Fire hydrants and is it is it an economical solution that maybe we could do even some painting, you know, just around the hydrants Delineating like hey, don't park right here. There's a fire hydrant Well, obviously the vehicles you drive are large and they are long They're wide and we need a certain amount of distance and whether you figure out a way to do it with Decreased parking on one side or limited parking. We use that opportunity to drive more safely If you squeeze that space in I'm more likely to have accidents, merpairs and downtime on vehicles So those things all happen when close proximity to other vehicles Especially we're trying to move in a quick fashion to get to an emergency So we're looking we will support Different ways to try to do it. We leave it to you to figure out the best way to do that But we are in need of space to get from point A to point B and Having options like painting around hydrants so people know word of park and not worth park. It's a great idea Wondering if they then we could follow up at some point Just maybe to find out how much that would cost and how feasible because that seems like a pretty good idea for me safety Is that I guess I would just put that to Linda We'll come to the issue of whether we're going to close or extend the hearing. Okay Steve you had a follow-on question, I believe Question to the superintendent So if the speed is 19 miles an hour or no park cars can one assume that the speed is actually less where there are park cars We only had one counter. I Have two now and we actually have a couple more signs we can use they're coming in shortly We could actually do more data collection along the whole length of Lincoln Avenue to get speeds that are more We used to have like six counters, but they all died. So we're slowly building our counters back up So we act the point now probably in a week. That's when your your signs come in our sign your Okay, our signs come in We'll have three signs that do counting and we have two actual counters that do counting and classification So there's five counters at that point. We could do more gather more information, but we couldn't do it and So yeah, it's a lot for spring break Okay, are there any other questions listen. Yes speaking of timing. So Mr. Moring will really appreciate this because he remembers me doing it all the time on select board So it's all well and good to make a change and it usually takes way Way way way longer to implement than any of us ever guesses it will So if we were to after we close this hearing and we talk about what we're gonna do next if we just accept it carte blanche everything you suggest here when Realistically not magically but realistically would you propose that the signage would change such that Everybody would see I mean it's all well and good for us to say effective immediately But when would the signage actually happen and when would we actually see these changes take place? Right now. We're probably looking at a month It's about two weeks to get the signs made and because we're doing signs that aren't normal We would have them made outside. We wouldn't we wouldn't make them ourselves And since there's gonna be a lot of signs we would buy them from a company So about two weeks to get the order in get the order back And then two weeks to put them all up So we would say if you make a decision just give us 30 days And that's the day it goes into effect, and we'd have everything up by then And it's nice outside. It's not frozen still thawing Yes, Mandy Joe two questions one for the assistant fire chief and and that one is Does the fire department and EMS use Lincoln as a cut through to get places? Or is it generally only on that street for actual emergencies on that street? So that's my question number one and then the other one I think is for Guilford maybe and that is painting as Sarah said You know we heard that signs get stolen regularly paints are hard to paint over or at least take a little more effort than stealing a sign and so if there are state regulations that require setbacks from Hydrants where there's no parking because we don't have to institute that that's just a state regulation or state regulations that say you have to be By state law so far away from an intersection and so far away from a driveway Can't we on this street paint? those parts of those curbs yellow and would that potentially then if we did that solve some of the Safety issues that have been part of the concern because there would be larger spaces for cars to pull off if an emergency truck went through So to answer your question we do use that street Initially because we're in the station That's not a direct route to many places other than Lincoln Affiliated streets there by but if we're somewhere else so I'm on South University or coming up Amy Street And you tell me I have a call at UMass and absolutely that's a cut out street that we would use readily So as far as painting goes the easiest place to paint Hydrants is on the streets that are in the downtown area would actually have curbing around them Because we can paint the curbing and it lasts longer than paying the road So yes, we could do it. It's um, I would probably give it to the hydrant guys We hire a couple of seasonals every summer and they go paint hydrants and they repair hydrants with the crew So we would just paint it. I think red is the color We would paint it red or yellow and then we could it would probably stay longer if it was on a curved area If it's not on a curved area I would recommend not really painting it unless you're gonna paint spaces on the whole street or something Are there other questions from the council? Okay, so I just want to ask people to Bear with us. This is the first time we've had a hearing like this And so what council now needs to do is decide whether they close the hearing or continue the hearing or Whatever else they might do the first action is whether we close or continue so Is there a motion that's that's the question I wanted what happens if we close the hearing Okay, if we close the hearing and we want to discuss this again in the future We have to go back and re-advertise Okay, if we leave the here. Yes, Alyssa. That's not true. So You can close this is not planning board and this isn't zoning board of appeals And it's not someplace else that has a jewellery that kind of power This is we closed the hearing and that means we're done hearing from all these folks If we said we want to continue the hearing because we're waiting for you to put out two traffic counters And we want to get that data. We could leave it open But technically we could as I understand it we could close the hearing and we could still say hey You know what we had another question come back and answer another question This is not like an applicant for a particular permit for a particular project That's gonna get billed or not get billed so we don't have those kind of constraints So I would normally argue toward closing the hearing and then we can still do pretty much whatever we want after that But the hearing is no longer considered open We don't have to re-advertise unless we decide to start talking a lot unless we decide to start talking about sunset For example, then we need to advertise that. Thank you for that clarification So we either close the hearing or we don't close the hearing is their emotion is there a second Challenges seconded is there any further discussion?  I'm sorry. I didn't it's too busy Okay So all those in favor eyes, how many did you have I? Had 11 yes one no and one abstention Okay, so the hearing is officially closed. Thank you and thank you for that We are going to take a break and we'll be back in 10 minutes. Thank you We're going to reconvene so the next item on our agenda is to In fact decide what we want to do with the proposed parking regulation changes on Lincoln Ave and The floor is open for discussion Mandy Joe, so this isn't going to be surprised, but I'm in favor of referring to the new town Services and Outreach Committee with a hope that they might consider talking to tech and the Town staff about what we heard tonight and other potential options and everything and giving us back a report Are there other comments at this time before we ask for a motion? Yes, Alyssa Given that we have something else on the agenda to refer to tech to yes, so tonight We we already referred some to yes, so last meeting like they haven't even started yet Is I want I actually I don't have a problem per se with that But I actually would like us to talk briefly if we if anybody else is interested in this in increasing those distances from The intersections because that was and that's partly because that's what we did in 2015 That was one of the things we focused on then clearly it hasn't been enough and so I'm Petit that to me is a more immediate issue because they're I mean you still have to get enforcement out there But if people understand not parking so close to the intersections that seem to be a public safety concern