[Massplanners] Towns taking over state roads

[Dan Fortier]

Bill,

Great to have your two cents on this given all the hats you have worn over the years.  As a former Transportation Planner, now a Town Planner, I can see both sides.

>From a DPW perspective, turning a state road over to the town simply makes the town have more road miles to maintain, plow, etc.  This can be a big cost and headache.

>From a Town Planner perspective, looking at it in economic development terms, the state does not like parking on state highways and, at least in the past before smart streets, would do all it could to eliminate parking. At times it is challenging to get spaces restriped where they exist. From and economic point of view, on street parking is vital to the local economy, even when the limited number of spaces is simply cosmetic. Just the idea that you might be able to stop and park on the main drag in a village center makes it more attractive to a potential customer.  On-street parking, as a potential source of conflict, also tends to slow traffic down making the Main Street businesses more visible, even if the motorist has to park in an off-street parking lot. On-street parking also tends to protect the pedestrians from street noise, water splashing from puddles, etc.

To be able to maintain, or expand, on-street parking, often you need to take over the responsibility of the street from the state.  Within a Smart Street environment, the space, building to building needs to be looked at to address all the demands, moving cars as fast as you can through these village centers needs to be kept in context with pedestrian and economic needs of the village.  That is often best determined by having the locals controlling those sections of road.

Daniel J. Fortier, Sr. AICP
Dennis Town Planner
Town of Dennis
685 Route 134
South Dennis MA 02660
508-760-6122

From: B via MassPlanners<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 7, 2021 7:59 PM
To: Paul Dell'Aquila<mailto:psdplans at gmail.com>
Cc: Mass Planners<mailto:MassPlanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Towns taking over state roads

It's been awhile, but the state used to encourage it to the point where they would reconstruction everything if the town agreed to take it over.  A few communities I worked in refused, no benefit vs the future costs.

One community,  I understood the town took over the sidewalk portion only after reconstruction of them.

As a DPW spoil sport person, I'm not sure what the advantages are, but I'd love to hear.

Bill Fitzgerald
Avon DPW

On Tue, Sep 7, 2021, 10:45 AM Paul Dell'Aquila via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>> wrote:
Good morning, Mass Planners -
Have any communities out there been able to take over control of a state road going through a downtown/town center? The Upton Police Chief mentioned this possibility to the Economic Development Committee recently and they have asked me to see if there are any examples of this occurring.
Thanks in advance,
Paul Dell'Aquila, AICP
Upton Town Planner/Economic Development Coordinator
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