AMHERST — A significant reduction in the amount of on-street parking near Puffer’s Pond, accompanied with a plan to make State Street adjacent to the main beach a one-way road, is viewed by town officials as a way to improve and maintain the conservation and recreation site.
“The pond isn’t an unlimited resource” Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek told the Select Board this week. “The pond can’t support 1,000 people in a day.”
The plans brought before the Select Board, which supplement changes previously announced in June, will need to go before a public hearing this fall before they are enacted by the town. Ziomek said the idea of the changes is to address the intense traffic and parking issues on the street that have included vehicles being double parked, parked at awkward angles and blocking access for emergency vehicles.
Ziomek said the two beaches are also seeing too much activity, and with fewer spaces, there would be a corresponding reduced capacity for swimmers.
The plans show that most of the parking would move to the south side of the street and that about 71 parking spaces would be lost.
The number of spaces currently is not known, but thought to be well in excess of 170, based on calculations by the Department of Public Works.
Ziomek said many of the norms for use of the pond have eroded in recent years through alcohol use and partying on the beach. “It’s reached a tipping point,” Ziomek said.
DPW Superintendent Guilford Mooring said there would be no new paving and that the DPW would just restripe the road and install new signs, preserving the rural feel of the road.
State Street would become one-way heading east toward Bridge Street and East Leverett Road. The section of State Street east of the railroad overpass, where homes are located, will remain two way, as will the portion of State Street from Pine Street to Sand Hill Road.
Select Board member Andrew Steinberg said he is skeptical that demand for the pond will instantly decrease. “Are we forcing parking into areas where this is no parking now?”
Ziomek said there could be such a domino effect, with Mooring pointing out that some swimmers may choose to park on Summer Street.
The other issue for the town is whether it has the resources to enforce the new parking rules, with parking enforcement officers mostly focused on patrolling the parking lots and parking spaces in downtown.
The second phase would include dredging the pond, making improvements to the beaches, and creating more formalized parking that might include charging fees. “We’re looking at this as a phased approach,” Ziomek said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
