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Downtown is about to get a little more accessible.
The Select Board recently approved two new handicap spaces for the downtown area, one on Church Street opposite Waterfield Road and another in front of Bruegger’s Bagels on Main Street.
Town Engineer Matt Shuman said the Church Street location replaces a handicap spot that was lost when the bump outs were installed.
“I think the DAC (Disability Access Commission) recommended this location because it was easy for them to pull in and pull out. It’s still pretty close to the crosswalks, and it’s pretty close to where the old space was,” Shuman said. “And then, in terms of the location by Bruegger’s Bagels, we thought there was a kind of a gap there.”
Shuman said since Bruegger’s has a parking lot with handicap spots, he hoped the new spot out front would be utilized by patrons of other local businesses. He also said when looking at where to put the new handicap spaces, his department relied a lot on DAC, which offered its input.
As someone who has lived in town her whole life, DAC Chair Lisa Matrundola said she has long hoped for good handicap parking.
“When I was younger, it was extremely difficult to get an ADA parking spot,” she said.
And while it’s gotten better, Matrundola said there is still work to be done. She said she sees more and more people with disabilities trying to find accessible parking. The lack of it, she said, is driving them to shop in other communities with better parking accommodations.
“Having more accessible handicap spots, as we recommended for the DAC, I think certainly will have a positive impact for residents in Winchester,” she said. “Because, as we try to look at the demographics and the future of Winchester, we need more handicap parking, just as well as accessibility throughout the town.”
Select Board member Anthea Brady wondered if they could make room for more handicap parking by shortening the parking spaces overall. She said sometimes the spaces she finds downtown are so big she feels they could almost squeeze another car in.
Town Manager Beth Rudolph said the size of the spaces are in line with other communities. She also said they once tried introducing parking with no marked spaces, but “I think we found that people weren’t as efficient, so we ended up marking them.”
Select Board member Michael Bettencourt agreed with Brady, saying the generous parking spaces in Winchester is not typically something he finds in other communities.
“I think there are certain areas where even if you knock a foot off by the time you get to the end of the road, maybe you’ll have another spot there, or you’ve created room for another,” he said.
Bettencourt said it was helpful to see the project through the DAC’s lens.
Along with adding more handicap spaces, Bettencourt said he’d like to see the crosswalks shortened and perhaps the bricks in the town center replaced. He called them difficult to traverse, even on a good day.
“It just reminds me when I see projects like this and requests like this, how much work we still need to do,” he said.
Although there is a curb cut behind the space destined for Church Street, Select Board Chair Michelle Prior wondered if they shouldn’t put one in front of it as well to keep people from having to negotiate backwards.
“Maybe just look at that,” she said to Shuman. “I’m not trying to take away more space, but if there is a way to make it accessible, that might be useful.”
But, she was also quick to praise Shuman as well.
“Clearly, we have a need and this addresses some of that … It’s a good step in the right direction so thank you,” she said.
