Peabody turns Munroe Street around

PEABODY — The City Council Municipal Safety Committee addressed traffic concerns on Central Street and Munroe Court caused by Prestige Car Wash and prepared an ordinance that would reverse the direction of the one-way Munroe Street.

City Council President Stephanie Peach said when the council previously approved a special permit for vacuums at the car wash, the councilors discussed reversing the direction of Munroe Street because of the orientation of the car wash.

The neighbors did not want to make the change at the time, but she said she wanted to bring up the issue again because residents cannot leave their driveways and the traffic is building up for “hours on end.”

Police Capt. Scott Richards presented his recommendations for the issue and what he has already done to fix it.

“This is clearly an issue for the neighborhood,” he said. “(The car wash) is putting a lot of traffic in that neighborhood that does not typically have a lot of traffic in it.”

Richards said his original recommendation was to reverse the direction of Munroe Street from southbound to northbound.

He said this would keep the traffic from the car wash on Hardy and Central streets and away from the neighborhood behind the car wash.

“Given the current conditions and the circumstances that are around this area now, I think that would be the easiest and swiftest solution to this problem,” Richards said.

Over time, the people that live in the neighborhood will understand that this is the best solution, he said.

Richards said that from monitoring the situation and listening to the neighbors’ complaints, “it’s evident that there’s a problem.”

A resident who lives on Munroe Court said there is a sign on the beginning of her street from Central Street directing drivers down Munroe Court. She said cars using Munroe Court to go to the car wash speed down the street and that her cars have been hit before. She recommended the sign be removed.

Richards said all the signs currently in place will be removed and replaced to direct cars down Hardy Street and up Munroe Street.

He also said the traffic and speeding issues in the neighborhood are not only a result of the car wash. Richards said cars cut through the neighborhood to avoid the ongoing construction projects on Central Street, but that part of the issue will be resolved when construction is completed.

“This is a solution to a problem that doesn’t have any great solutions,” Peach said. “I understand that it’s going to have an impact on the neighborhood, but hopefully the good is going to outweigh the bad, and I do believe that it will.”

Councilor Peter McGinn motioned to draft and advertise to amend an ordinance to change the direction of Munroe Street from southerly from Elm Street to Hardy Street, to northerly from Hardy Street to Elm Street.

The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the Municipal Safety Committee.

Councilor and Committee Chair Anne Manning-Martin said the ordinance would not take effect until the end of August, pending a vote from the City Council.

At the regular City Council meeting, Manning-Martin presented the motion and it passed unanimously.

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