Commission discusses making two unrestricted parking spaces at 227 South Street, members raise protected-bike-lane experiment

The Northampton Transportation and Parking Commission on March 18 discussed removing a 2-hour time limit and adding two on-street parking spaces in front of 227 South Street, while several commissioners urged studying parking-protected bike lanes for a longer stretch of South Street.

The discussion matters because the block is unusually wide and already contains painted parking; changes could affect visibility at an adjacent driveway and the safety and continuity of bicycle facilities along a corridor that the city plans to rebuild under a TIP project.

Director Donna LaScalia, director of public works and chair of the commission, said the roadway in the area is roughly 47–50 feet wide and that the city has several layout options. She described two engineering options for the approximately 49 feet of usable curb: either a single 22-foot parking space yielding about 27 feet of clearance from the driveway at 221 South Street, or two 20-foot spaces that would leave roughly 9 feet of clearance off that driveway.

Danny McCahon, who said he manages the property at 227 South Street, asked the commission to remove the two-hour restriction. "If the time limited piece of that could go away, the residents would be thrilled," McCahon said.

Parking enforcement administrator Nancy Forrestal said the original time limit was installed to serve a veterinary practice that is no longer at that site and supported creating two unlimited spaces, noting the city can still enforce vehicles parked more than 72 hours under existing ordinances.

Several commissioners raised bicycle safety and corridor-scale issues. Commissioner Randy Sailor and Commissioner Jamie Albro Fisher said the stretch is wide enough to consider parking-protected bike lanes, but staff and others emphasized that an experimental or permanent change would need to cover a longer continuous length of roadway to avoid creating confusing, short transitions for bicyclists and motorists. Director LaScalia said a protected-bike-lane experiment would require remarking pavement over a longer distance and advance public communication; she did not support doing a very short experiment of a few hundred feet because it could increase safety risks.

Commissioners and staff also noted the city has an upcoming TIP project to reconstruct a larger stretch of South Street from the New South intersection to the bridge beyond South Park Tower. That TIP project would be a logical time to evaluate a corridor-wide protected-bike-lane design.

The commission did not take a formal vote at the March 18 meeting. LaScalia said staff would return with an ordinance or recommendation based on the discussion and the information gathered from residents and the TIP planning process.

Votes at the meeting were limited to procedural items unrelated to this matter; no on-the-spot ordinance or final action was adopted for 227 South Street.

Looking ahead, staff said they will draft recommended regulatory language and an ordinance for the commission to consider at a future meeting; commissioners requested maps and sketches if an experimental protected-bike-lane layout is proposed.