Marblehead planning board recommends traffic changes for YMCA; neighborhood group forms

MARBLEHEAD – Neighbors of the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA are forming a neighborhood association to respond to the increased traffic in their neighborhood. They are hiring a lawyer and a traffic engineer, Leggs Hill Road resident John Williams told the Planning Board Tuesday night.With that in mind, Williams asked the planners to postpone voting on traffic recommendations for the new “Y” on the Marblehead-Salem line – but board Chairman Phil Helmes told Williams that the board is only recommending a list of changes and further action will be taken by selectmen, probably on Aug. 26. Four board members then voted unanimously to endorse the recommendations.Only eight persons attended Tuesday’s meeting, a far cry from the 70 neighborhood residents who packed previous meetings on the “Y”.Board discussion revolved around a traffic study by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., consultants whose hiring was ordered by the Planning Board and paid for by the “Y”.The board rejected a proposed traffic plan with a traffic island in the center of Londonderry Road to divert traffic and change the traffic flow.”I’m leery about changing traffic patterns,” Helmes told his colleagues.Instead the board opted to recommend stop signs on the “Y” driveway and Londonderry Road, sidewalks on Leggs Hill Road, a speedbump and a traffic island at the driveway and textured crosswalks at the driveway entrance and on Leggs Hill Road.Lanes on Leggs Hill Road will be 11 feet wide and lanes on Londonderry Road will be 10 feet wide. Speed limit (30 miles an hour) signs and No Parking signs will be posted in the area.YMCA Executive Director Paul Gorman told the board the “Y” has hired Menino Construction as the contractor and once the approvals are in place they could start as early as late August.