Street changes to improve safety near splash pad are imminent

Following the adoption of new ordinance changes that now allow food trucks to be parked on the street north of the new splash pad, the Newton City Council is considering removing two parking spots to improve sightline issues and installing new stop signs for the northbound and southbound traffic.

Two more considerations must be approved in the coming weeks in order for the changes to be adopted. The first consideration was passed in a 5-1 vote. Council member Melissa Dalton voted against the removal of the parking spots, saying she disagreed with eliminating the parking stall on North Third Avenue West.

To her, it made sense to remove the parking stall on the east side of West Third Street North, but she argued there was no sightline issue with the North Third Avenue West parking stall on the south side of the street. She even offered an amendment to keep the aforementioned parking stall, but it failed to advance.

“There is no problem seeing,” Dalton said at the Aug. 18 council meeting. “…Removing that whole parking spot, to me, doesn’t make sense.”

According to city documents, the Traffic Safety Committee reviewed the situation and recommended restricting parking on the east side of West Third Street North about 50 feet south of North Third Avenue West and on North Third Avenue West about 50 feet west of West Third Street North.

Council member Joel Mills felt it was best to keep recommendations to the Traffic Safety Committee, and he suggested he would support the action being tabled if it meant the committee could take another look at her idea. However, the action would not be tabled, and Dalton stood by her argument.

Dalton even respectfully challenged Mills, who had voted against the action to allow food trucks to operate on the street near the splash pad.

“So also playing devil’s advocate, the reason you didn’t vote on the food trucks is because you think children would be going out in the road with the food trucks parked there,” Dalton said. “If that is an empty spot, that would leave a wide open area for kids to run in that area.”

Mills affirmed he had concerns about unsupervised children. But he was OK with the recommendations to remove the parking stalls.

Dalton added, “I would encourage you all to go look at this. There’s no restriction right now when there is no stop sign and there is a car parked there. There’s no restriction. You can see clearly. Let alone when a stop sign is there and a car has to stop, you don’t even have to watch them coming per se.”

Adding stop signs to the northbound and southbound lanes at the intersection of North Third Avenue West and West Third Street South turn it into a three-way intersection. Of note, the Traffic Safety Committee did not have an opportunity to review the request about the stop signs, though staff does not oppose the idea.