PEABODY — The City Council voted unanimously to ban vehicles from taking left turns between Lynnfield Street and Casco Road in a move that could prompt legal action from the City of Lynn.
Councilor-at-Large and Legal Affairs Committee Chair Thomas Rossignoll said at a meeting of the committee that the intersection has been an “ongoing issue regarding safety concerns,” which the council began discussing in 2022.
“Public safety is a priority for all of us, but it’s also something that is a work in progress, that takes some time to do some research (and) to do some study,” Mayor Ted Bettencourt said.
He said the city has been working with an engineering firm to discuss options to address the intersection.
The intersection of Casco Road and Lynnfield Street falls under the jurisdiction of Lynn, Lynnfield, and Peabody, Police Capt. Scott Richards said at a previous City Council Municipal Safety Committee meeting. Casco Road is in Lynn, while Lynnfield Street is in Peabody, although a street with the same name in Lynn also connects to Casco Road.
Bettencourt said he has been discussing the issue with Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson and Lynnfield Town Administrator Rob Dolan.
“The Lynn group was very understanding of the fact that this is a concern of ours, but they also expressed concerns about traffic and the impacts that it would have on the City of Lynn, which is understandable considering the proximity to Lynn,” he said.
Bettencourt addressed a letter from Lynn Assistant City Solicitor James Lamanna to Peabody City Solicitor Don Conn. Bettencourt said Conn had not had time to review all of the letter before the meeting.
“It has come to the attention of the City of Lynn that the Peabody City Council is contemplating enacting a regulation prohibiting left-hand turns off of Casco Road onto Lynnfield Street in Peabody,” Lamanna’s letter reads. “As you are aware, these intersections are located at the Lynn/Peabody border. Such a regulation, if lawfully enacted, would cause significant traffic backups in Lynn, including Lynnfield Street, which is a state highway under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Highways. As you may be aware, MassDOT is currently completing a multi-million-dollar roadway upgrade on Lynnfield Street.”
The letter included a series of legal statutes, which explained the procedures that Lamanna said must be followed for a municipality to enforce regulations that apply to roadways that connect other municipalities.
Lamanna added in the letter that it is the City of Lynn’s position that Peabody cannot enact any regulation prohibiting the left turn without providing written notice of the proposed regulation to the mayor of Lynn, holding a public hearing that was advertised in a “newspaper of general circulation” in Lynn, and receiving written agreement from Lynn’s mayor.
He then wrote that Lynn could “seek disapproval of any regulation enacted by Peabody affecting travel on Casco Road in Lynn with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Highway Division,” and that Essex County Superior Court would have jurisdiction over the dispute.
“For the City of Lynn to say that they don’t want to see us do this and provide the legalese as to why we couldn’t or shouldn’t do it and not provide us with a resolution is wrong on their part,” Councilor-at-Large Jon Turco said. “Doing nothing is not an option… I’m just surprised that the City of Lynn doesn’t want to work with us, knowing that that is such a safety issue.”
Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin said the letter from Lamanna to Conn “appears” to be stating that the actions taken by the City Council are “unlawful.”
“I guess what they’re actually doing is sending us a letter expecting us to be negligent, because they’re sending us a threatening letter. They’re sending a letter to our city solicitor expecting us to take no action,” she said. “We’re trying to protect our residents from a very dangerous intersection… We’ve got to do something. The Municipal Safety Committee took a vote to do something, and I say we move forward.”
Rossignoll said “the last thing” he ever wants to do is sit in another Safety Committee meeting to address an accident that resulted in a death.
“We’ve been talking about this for over two years,” he said. “We can’t sit on this anymore. The safety of our residents is way too important.”
Rossignoll said the council needs to address the “validity” of the letter from Lamanna, but also needs to take immediate action on the intersection.
Bettencourt said Nicholson has been willing to work with the council on this issue, but noted that the council wants to work on an earlier time frame.
Turco noted the City Council’s upcoming recess until Aug. 22 and motioned to amend, draft, and advertise a section of the city ordinance to prohibit vehicles from making a left turn from Lynnfield Street onto Casco Road and from Casco Road onto Lynnfield Street.
The motion was carried by a vote of 5-0 in the Legal Affairs Committee.
At the regular City Council meeting, Rossignoll offered the motion from the Legal Affairs Committee meeting, which passed the council unanimously. He added that Conn will evaluate the legality of the letter before the council moves forward and said any amendments would take place after the council’s recess.
Nicholson said in a statement that the Lynn Law Department’s legal opinion is that Peabody cannot enact this sort of regulation without Lynn’s approval.
“Though we have concerns about unintended consequences of the regulation as initially proposed, we certainly want to address traffic and safety issues and have had productive discussions with the City of Peabody about this area,” Nicholson said. “We continue to be open to a joint discussion on potential improvements at that intersection.”
Sidnee Short contributed to this article.
