This is regarding the idea for a multi-level parking garage in the CVS parking lot in Amherst.
There are already occasional traffic jams back to the traffic circle where East Pleasant and Triangle streets meet. Can you imagine what will happen if hundreds of parking spaces are created with single-lane access only available from North Pleasant, which crosses a pedestrian sidewalk? Egress from that lot is single lane as well, and onto a narrow, one-way residential street. The public should be shown traffic and environmental impact studies before such harebrained schemes are undertaken.
Part of the justification for this project is that two other projects will bring hordes here for tourism. Who in our highly educated community thinks that thousands of people will travel to Amherst from Boston and New York City to visit a library or an outdoor band shell? Will these structures overshadow those in the large cities? What a joke.
I just read that an architectural firm is designing a music venue named The Drake. That could attract hundreds of people, but mostly in the evening when existing lots are less crowded.
I’m all for expanding the library, as that is primarily for the residents of Amherst. The CVS garage project would be a shoehorned sardine can that, if completed, will likely result in huge traffic jams and an angry response from town taxpayers.
Steven B. Kurtz
Amherst