Melrose Ped/Bike Committee: Opposition to Metro Credit Union Drive-Through Plan

Metro Credit Union, located at the corners of Main Street and Sylvan, is proposing to add a drive-through on their lot. Our members signed a letter, which was submitted to both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, in opposition to this plan. While our members are vocal champions of local businesses — foot traffic is business traffic! — we categorically oppose the creation of new drive-throughs in Melrose, and believe that opening up a new curb cut along this key transportation corridor, in close proximity to an intersection, will unacceptably compromise pedestrian and cyclist behavior. Please find our letter below. If you agree that auto-centric land uses are the wrong direction for Melrose, the Zoning Board of Appeals is continuing this case on 12/9 at 7:45 — contact them and let them know how you feel.

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October 27th, 2020

Dear members of the Zoning Board of Appeals,

We, the officers and members of the Melrose Ped/Bike Committee (PBC), are sending this letter urging you to deny the variances as requested in Case 20 021 – 138 Main Street. These variances are being requested in accordance with a plan to expand on-site parking and create a new curb cut off Main Street for a drive-through window, a proposal which is contrary to several of the city’s stated plans for this critical transportation corridor, will unacceptably compromise pedestrian and cyclist safety, and represents a step backwards on both public health goals and our efforts to combat climate change.

• The City’s 2017 Master Plan “Melrose Forward” states that  “Healthy Community Design” should be at the forefront of all city planning decisions. Chief among the plan’s recommendations for promoting healthy design is continuing to “re-think the auto-centric development model” in Melrose. Melrose has, in recent years, increasingly acknowledged the reality of induced demand in its planning decisions. Automobile-exclusive land uses, like parking lots and drive-throughs, inevitably lead to an increase in automobile usage. This directly conflicts with critical city efforts to reduce traffic and congestion, and will work against any future attempts at traffic-alleviation strategies on this street. The proposed reconfiguration is wholly auto-centric, and will induce additional single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) trips while creating a hostile street-facing parking lot.

• Recent strategic “smart growth” planning decisions, such as the creation of the Smart Growth District (SGD) and Rail Corridor Overlay District (RCOD), have been accompanied by explicit prohibitions on drive-throughs. These prohibitions were put in place because drive-throughs degrade walkability, preclude street activation, and disincentivize vibrant and diverse public use of that space. Many cities are now acting to comprehensively ban drive-throughs altogether, not only because they understand that they do not form part of a healthy community, but also because they actively harm local and regional climate and health goals.

• This proposal directly conflicts with the city’s NetZero 2050 goals. Private automobile trips account for around 40% of the city’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing these emissions to near-zero is not a plan for the Melrose residents of tomorrow; it is an obligation for the Melrose residents of today. Curbing vehicular emissions in the immediate future is mandatory if we are to avoid the worst effects of global warming. By approving plans which will induce additional SOV traffic to this site, the city would be working against its own climate goals — in addition to making local air quality worse for residents, a phenomenon which has been shown to lead to greater rates of respiratory disease, shorter lifespans, and increase susceptibility to complications from illnesses such as COVID-19. Drive-throughs in particular are often shown to increase rates of idling, which further lead to localized air quality issues. Further, this site already contains a parking area almost 100% larger than what was actually granted in the original ZBA case, and the applicants now propose to increase this further. This further reduction in open space will contribute to urban heat island effects locally. Both MAPC and Public Land Trust have mapped regional surface temperatures and found specifically that the project area is already experiencing elevated heat island effects which will get worse as temperatures increase, the amount of asphalt increases, or both.

• The proposed project is incompatible with the city’s Complete Streets plans for Lower Main Street. This section of Main street is the city’s most critical multi-modal transportation corridor, and one that is key to safeguarding the future of our city. That future is rapidly approaching. The highly publicized drop in transit ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to fears that the MBTA will move to reduce service levels along commuter rail stations and suburban bus lines, which has the potential to disproportionately impact Melrose for years to come. In this scenario, core subway service becomes critical, with Oak Grove taking on increasing importance as a local transit hub. Potential reductions in bus service would mean that more “last mile” trips would shift to walking and biking, often via routes which utilize this section of Main Street. These dynamics arrive as the city is preparing to conduct a full surface reengineering of this segment of Main Street beginning as early as fall 2020. This corridor is the gateway to Melrose from the south; given the width of the existing roadway, the project affords us a rare opportunity to create the city’s first true “complete street,” featuring narrowed travel lanes, protected lanes for bicyclists, and high-visibility crosswalks. The city must do everything it can to encourage walking and cycling trips not just along Main Street, but also to and from Malden, one of the most diverse cities in the commonwealth and a community Melrose must do more to connect with.

• Sufficient parking already exists locally. The applicants have previously attempted to expand parking at this location, but have been denied under Site Plan Review due to the fact that ample on-street parking exists not just on all surrounding streets (Main, Sylvan, and Ledgewood) but also in the extremely large surface lot in the parcel between Sylvan and Banks. We believe this denial was prudent. We understand that the applicant is now claiming that this on-street parking is insufficient due to existing parking regulations which limit on-street parking during certain AM business hours. We recommend the applicant work with the city to apply to the Traffic Commission to change the parking regulations on the portion of Sylvan immediately adjacent to the bank to permit parking during these hours, which already regularly takes place. Indeed, the applicants themselves imply this is appropriate: in their Transportation Management Plan, they state that they will encourage employees to park along Sylvan and will “work with the city” to “allow for long-term parking on Sylvan Street.” There is no reason to suspect that the city would be unwilling to formally permit street weekday street parking on the relevant section of Sylvan, however as of yet there is no evidence that this approach has been considered.

The PBC strongly supports and advocates for our local business community, and some of our members are themselves Metro Credit Union customers. The opposition to this particular plan should not be taken as a lack of support for creating conditions which will continue to allow MCU to grow. We simply feel that neither the city nor MCU would be warranted in arguing that these variances are needed to sustain the future growth of this important local business, nor do they adhere to the city’s Master Plan or climate goals.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, 

Officers:
Jonah Chiarenza, Chair;
Dan Krechmer, Vice Chair;
Ryan Williams, Secretary;
Finn McSweeney, Communications Officer;

Signing Committee Members:
Elizabeth Foulser, Ellen Katz, Ben Bradley, Cindy Chabot, Jeremy Garczynski, Brian Gregory, Lihlani Nelson, Garrett Nelson