WESTFIELD – The Traffic Commission conducted informal discussions with two Arnold Street property owners last night pertaining to a change in the traffic flow on that street.
The commission is assessing the impact of establishing a one-way easterly traffic flow on Arnold Street and allowing on-street parking on the northerly side of the street.
The traffic flow change, which is in the initial stage of assessment, would allow motorists to enter Arnold Street from Washington and Spring Streets and exit onto Elm Street.
That traffic flow pattern would create 26 on-street parking spaces, addressing the city’s need to increase downtown parking.
The board, with only two members present, informally discussed the proposal with Joseph Flahive, the owner of a mixed commercial and residential building, and Kevin O’Connor, an officer of the Westfield Bank that has a branch office, with a drive-through facility, at the corner of Arnold and Spring streets.
The Flahive property has a number of small shops on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floors, with parking in the rear of the building.
That property has been considered for inclusion in the site for a new mixed commercial, retail and residential building project that would also include several buildings along Elm Street.
Police Chief John Camerota, chairman of the commission, posed that situation to Flahive.
“How much longer is your building going to be there?” he asked.
Flahive said that the purchase of his building for inclusion in the construction project “is no closer today that it was 12 years ago” when the project for the Arnold/Elm streets site was first considered.
“I will continue to rent apartments, to make improvements,” Flahive said. “I would like to talk with my tenants about this (one-way traffic pattern) proposal.”
Flahive said that most of the businesses in the building deal with local residents, but that one store, an antique shop which does caning of furniture, draws from a much wider geographic area, customers who have little knowledge of the city’s streets.
Those customers are given instruction from the Massachusetts Turnpike to proceed south across the Great River Bridge, through the traffic light at the intersection of Franklin Street and to make a right turn onto Arnold Street at the second traffic light, using the Westfield Gas & Electric office as a landmark.
“I’m concerned that this would hurt that business,” Flahive said.
Camerota said that the on-street parking created by the proposed traffic flow would provide more convenient customer parking in front of Flahive’s building, the Maple Leaf Tavern, as well as other nearby Elm Street businesses.
O’Connor said that the proposed one-way traffic flow would have a serious impact on the Westfield Bank’s business.
“The Arnold Street branch is our only drive-up (facility) in the downtown,” he said. “The bulk of the customers come to the branch from Washington Street, and would now have to exit onto Elm Street.”
O’Connor said that many of those customers are elderly and use the branch to avoid the traffic congestion on the Elm Street corridor, and that they currently return to Washington Street as they leave the branch.
Camerota said than another option would be to drive through the Arnold Street off-street parking lot to Church Street, which will remain a two-way street.
“From the bank’s standpoint, we request that Arnold Street remain a two-way street,” O’Connor said.
The commission is also considering a traffic-flow change to about 150 feet of Thomas Street.
The majority of Thomas Street which would remain a two-way street between Mechanic Street and the access of the Thomas Street off-street parking lot.
The section of the street between Elm Street and the parking lot access would prohibit westbound traffic, meaning that traffic on Elm Street could enter the eastbound lane of Thomas Street, but that traffic, westbound on Thomas Street, would not have egress to Elm Street. That traffic flow pattern would also create additional on-street parking.
