The Select Board voted to allow the Department of Public Works (DPW) to create no-parking areas near the intersection of Cedar Hill Terrace and Humphrey Street.
Cedar Hill Terrace comes off of Humphrey Street, near the Four Seasons Motor Group. At the Select Board’s last meeting, Swampscott Police Chief Ruben Quesada presented proposed parking changes for the street, including no-parking areas at the bottom of the hill and along the upper left side. Under Massachusetts traffic regulations, vehicles are prohibited from parking within 20 feet of an intersection.
“It really focused on sight lines, access to residents and safety to both pedestrians and vehicles with the idea that…folks park up on the sidewalk on both sides right now,” Town Administrator Nick Connors said. “When both sides are full, it becomes a real issue for safe transiting, both by vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic.”
The proposal would prohibit parking on the lower portion of the road up to the corner near Four Seasons Motor Group. Parking would also be prohibited in the tree-lined section of Cedar Hill Terrace near Bay View Avenue. The side of the street along Four Seasons Motor Group would be designated for one-hour parking, while the residential side would be restricted to resident-only parking.
Connors noted that there have been eight parking tickets issued in total from March through the first week of May.
“I want to know how they plan to actually police one-hour parking,” said Vice Chair Danielle Leonard. “I don’t have a lot of faith with the numbers that you just gave me that anyone is going to do that. That right away crosses off that little green line (of one-hour parking spaces) for me because it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Leonard also mentioned that the Four Seasons Motor Group is a proponent of the parking issues, and she requested to speak with the group to find a solution at a meeting in the future.
“I think there needs to be far more enforcement around this actual corner and if they’re parking too close to the corner,” Chair Katie Phelan said. “It needs to be enforced.”
The Select Board agreed to host further discussions with the police, DPW, residents and nearby businesses around one-hour and resident-only parking changes to the area.
Before the board’s decision, residents urged officials to make the area residential parking only. Albert Williams, who lives on Cedar Hill Terrace, spoke during the public comment section on the Select Board meeting Wednesday. He raised the issue around the number of cars and blocking intersection views to safely merge.
“It’s really congested here. It’s a residential street, however every day there’s two to three employees from the dentist’s office that park on the hill and there are multiple cars,” Williams said. “Over time it’s gotten to be ridiculous.”
Select Board Member Wayne Spritz said later in the meeting that he has recently met with Williams and that he believes the town could appease concerns by tending to the vegetation overgrowth at the top of the hill.
“That area is so overgrown. There’s no defined sidewalk,” Spritz said.
Dr. Darryl Smith, whose dental office is on Puritan Road, said he has told his staff to “only park at the top, along the trees.” He agreed that the “bottom (of Cedar Hill Terrace) is certainly a mess,” noting that the visibility issues and safety concerns are valid.
“I have elderly patients, patients in wheelchairs. I need my parking at my office so my patients can access my office,” Smith said. “I don’t let my staff park in the staff parking areas because our patients need access. A couple can do it each day, but I need at least 10 spots for customers – and that works out pretty good – so occasionally myself or my staff will park on the top of the hill at Cedar Hill alongside the brush…I don’t see any good reason to restrict parking to my staff. It’s daytime hours. We’re already restricted from the beach…My staff sometimes has to walk from blocks away.”
Jim Sweeney, who has lived on Cedar Hill Terrace for over 50 years, added that the area has “really become a parking lot.” He also said there have been cars that are parking on the road for “literally weeks or months at a time the last two years.”
Alison Arnett, who has also lived on the terrace for multiple decades, added that the “hill is very dangerous for families and children.”
“There are children going down the hill on bicycles,” Arnett said. “There are people going down with baby carriages. You can’t see around the cars…People come down around Bay View (Avenue) and turn without stopping enough. It’s both a danger for drivers and it’s really dangerous for families.”
