1. Status of Mall Permitting. The Natick Mall has received permits to expand into the Wonder Bread Factory site. Town meeting just rezoned the site to allow condominiums, and a site plan review process will be required, which is expected to begin shortly. As part of the process, the Planning Board required that the Mall commit to significant mitigation, which was included in the special permit. This mitigation requires the Mall to redesign, with town input, various intersections and improvements. Some of the mitigation involves the payment of money to the Town for which it is up to the Town to design and implement. There are already some design drawings for proposed mitigation, in particular for intersections directly adjacent to the Mall which will be redeveloped by the Mall itself. Some sort of process will be required for the town, mall and the neighborhood to reach agreement as specifically what shall be done. (For all of the intersections, we will attempt to make the preliminary engineering drawings available either in hard copy or on this website. It appeared that a lot of the confusion at the meeting was because people had a hard time visualizing what was being proposed.)

The sewer lines and water lines on Speen Street will be upgraded to accommodate the Mall this coming summer, and so there will be significant construction impacting all of us. Presumably the Mall will begin reconstruction the Hartford Street intersection and adding the pedestrian crossings (discussed below) at that time, since they need to complete these as part of their approvals.

The following is a list of some of the mitigation that will either be done by the Mall, or has been “earmarked” – meaning that money will be contributed by the Mall, but it is up to the Town to determine how to proceed.

A. North of Route 9 (Mall Intersections). The Mall will be redoing the intersections around the Mall.

· This includes the intersection at the north end of the beetleback.

· A new entrance to the Mall at the northern end of the expansion will be included at the Speen Street roadway between the beetle back and Home Depot.

· A big issue at the hearings was the continuation of a proposed bicycle path on the old railroad tracks, and how bicycles would cross Speen Street.

· The Planning Board also required the Mall to include signage that would direct traffic exiting the Mall going to the Mass. Pike to go by way of the Shopper’s World connector road, rather than Speen Street/Route 30.

· The Mall will also be spending a significant amount of money on computerized signals for the intersections around the Mall. (If any of you have gone through the Speen Street/Route 30 intersection before 6:00 a.m., you will note that you don’t have to wait at that light if there is no traffic, because it changes the instant you get there.)

In addition, the Mall will be required to develop a traffic plan to attempt to deal with traffic during the holiday shopping season. While traffic will continue to be a nightmare at Christmas, if there is some coordinated effort with the Natick and Framingham police departments, there might be some progress over gridlock.

B. Fire Station Connection. If there is a fire at Sherwood Plaza, it is very difficult for the fire trucks to navigate to the plaza, even though the station is right next door. A direct connection, to be utilized only by emergency vehicles, will be incorporated into the design, and a better connection for the fire trucks to access Route 9 will be included.

C. Sidewalks. The Mall has committed to upgrade sidewalks surrounding the Mall and connecting to Speen and Hartford Streets in order to make the Mall accessible on a practical level for pedestrians. (Having condos at the Mall may create a constituency that also wants first class pedestrian connections.)

D. Speen Street/Hartford Street Intersection. This intersection has been redesigned by the Mall and will be improved by them primarily by adding a new left turn lane to Speen Street going south at Hartford Street. This will not eliminate all to confused drivers who either miss the turnoff for Route 9 or meant to go north on Speen Street but got on the wrong exit, but it will allow those who figure out quickly enough that they have made a mistake and who can get into the left lane, to make a legal left turn onto either Route 9 or Speen Street north without blocking traffic. Also, on Speen Street going north at Hartford Street, the signs directing people to the Route 9 entrance are not visible soon enough and unfamiliar drivers often have to cut across lanes to get to Route 9. The Mall has committed to improve that signage.

E. Speen Street/Nottingham Intersection. How to improve this section will need a lot of input from both the expert engineers and from residents. The merge from two lanes to one lane is problematic; however, increasing the merging distance may only shift the problem to the Nottingham intersection. Cars utilize Nottingham to u-turn when they have made a mistake are a problem. Would it be better to prohibit left hand turns out of Nottingham and force everyone to accomplish this u-turn by going to Hartford Street? It is also possible that nothing radical will be done at this intersection.

F. Pedestrian Crossing. A commitment has been made to include mechanical devices, pavement and geometry changes, and in-road lighting to allow safe pedestrian crossings at three intersections on Hartford Street and three intersections on Speen Street. How this is accomplished is a big concern, as, while we like the idea of the addition of crossing aides, we all realize that you take a big risk if you assume that everyone is going to stop. The Mall is responsible to design and construct these 6 intersections.

G. Turning Speen Street into a Residential Street. Over the length of Speen Street (down to Route 135), the sidewalks and curbing on the east side, which run for the length of Speen Street, are to be improved using better materials and granite curbing. On the west side of Speen Street, granite curbing will also be installed and sidewalks will be improved or added at the upper end (probably not past the Golf Learning Center), and will be improved where they exist from Lodge Road to Route 135. Lines denoting bicycle lanes will be added. Some have proposed that trees be used to accentuate the residential character of this street. The traffic rationale for these measures – granite curbing, lines which artificially narrow the street, and some actual narrowing of the street – will, we are told, have the effect of “calming” the traffic. While there will still be plenty of room to pass cars making left turns onto side streets, people will tend to go slower where there is a risk of damage if a curb or tree is hit, and will tend to go slower simply because the bicycle lines will give the appearance of narrower roadways. In addition, there was a vision painted by Steve Cosmos, the landscape engineer hired by the planning board to review the mall’s designs, that Speen Street needs to look like a residential street and to be very distinctive compared to the commercial part of Speen Street above Hartford Street – drivers need to know that they are entering a residential area, and the trees, curbing, sidewalks, and other factors need to “announce” that this is a residential area. This is also an entrance to Natick proper and must be designed with that in mind. This is the primary mitigation project that is under the town’s control. The Mall is giving money, but it is up to the town to decide how to spend it to improve the quality and character of Speen Street. The Mall is only giving partial funding to all of the “vision” that was discussed for Speen Street, and so it is up to the town to decide where to prioritize its resources.

2. Other Construction Projects. Independent of the Natick Mall, other construction projects are going on which will impact our neighborhoods.

A. Route 135 Reconstruction. The improvements being made to Route 135 (in preparation for the state turning the roadway over to the town) are nearing completion. Sidewalks now run from the CVS all the way to downtown. Sidewalks also run up to the eastern edge of Roche Bros. The one piece that has yet to be finished is a section of sidewalk on the south side of Route 135 in front of Roche Bros. (which is complicated by the fact that it has to be cavaliered over the wetlands). That is expected to be completed by the end of June, 2006. When that is completed, pedestrian access should be easier.

B. Right Turn at CVS. Feasibility studies for a right turn lane from Route 135 west onto Speen Street north will be undertaken (in front of CVS). This right hand turn lane would alleviate a traffic bottle neck, but will also adversely impact the new pedestrian crossing at this intersection, and needs to be studied to determine how best to safeguard the improved pedestrian access. (CVS requested an extension of their “drive-through” window, and the Planning Board required that they give the land in front that will potentially accommodate a right turn lane.)

C. Framingham and Wayland. The Natick Mall is also giving a substantial amount of money to the Town of Framingham, and a small amount of money to the Town of Wayland, because each of those towns saw the opportunity to get something for nothing.

3. Commercial Truck Traffic. Many of the issues relating to the volume of traffic (other than the Mall’s holiday traffic) is a result of the fact that we live in an area of high employment. Morning and evening rush hours are gridlocked not because of the Mall, but rather because Speen Street is a connector road for people trying to get to the Mass Pike or Rt. 9. However, over the years, a number of commercial ventures that depend on trucks have been allowed by Framingham and have increased truck traffic on Speen Street. Gravel trucks go down Speen Street from Framingham to the facility south of Natick, and several truck terminals located off 135 in Framingham and the Adesa car auction facility in Framingham all utilize Speen Street. Whether trucks can be excluded completely or partially from Speen Street is under the jurisdiction of the Mass Highway Department, and traffic surveys at this time indicate that volumes are not sufficient, however, new traffic studies will be undertaken. Commercial vehicles have every right to use Speen Street at this time as long as they abide by the law. However, the Natick police department understands our concerns, and understands that even if a truck is not speeding, vehicles of that size in a residential neighborhood going the speed limit can be, at a minimum, extremely noisy and disruptive, and pose a danger.

To that end, the police department has used other options to attempt to influence truck traffic.

· For example, when the Mall was legally sending construction trucks down Speen Street, the police and the planning department used their leverage (i.e. the Mall will need to come before the town for additional permits) to persuade them to not use Speen Street. The Mall has been extremely cooperative, however, the haulers have cooperated only in some cases, but in other cases have asserted their right to use Speen Street, and some have apparently attempted to find ways around any restrictions the Mall puts on them.

· Natick police have met with Adesa to provide information showing that other routes to the Mass Pike are shorter and quicker. However, there are problems with trucks utililizing Route 126 through Framingham (the at-grade railroad crossing, and the fact that Framingham has “coincidentally” reconstructed parts of Route 126 using traffic islands, etc. to make it more difficult for trucks to navigate those roads).

· The Natick police truck unit has also conducted inspections of trucks on Speen Street. During periods when they set up operations, they pull over every truck using the street and conduct safety inspections. This has the effect of insuring that trucks maintain safe speeds, operate vehicles safely, but also has the effect of letting the truckers know that they are being watched, and perhaps discourages use of Speen Street. Part of the problem has been maintaining traffic flow while pulling over trucks, and a recent solution to deal with that problem has been to gain permission from the Natick Army Depot to use their parking lot for pulling trucks over. The Natick police have also conducted surveys of roadway usage, including speed and type of vehicle, and this information will be used in part to determine if a case can be made to exclude trucks from all or part of Speen Street.

# 1395754 v1 - wadswojw - 009999/0001