No More Street Parking on the Town Hall

The Mansfield Board of Selectmen voted 4-0 (with Kevin Moran absent) on Wednesday to start enforcing a no parking policy near the town hall.

Union Street, which is used for parking during a good number of town and church events, has a section in between the two town hall parking lots in which it narrows.

“For me it’s a little narrow for parking on both sides,” town manager William Ross said. “The real bottleneck is right between the two parking lots.”

The motion was to have the parking band on the east side of the street, a section that takes up 50 feet, or about four car lengths.

The issue was brought up in a letter from a resident who intimated that the road’s width is so narrow cars parked on both sides of that area would be endangering any driver trying to get by.

Selectmen all agreed on a limited parking policy for the area, but the manner of limited parking did not have an initial consensus.

Selectman Jess Aptowitz said that he would vote for a motion that would extend a weekday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. parking ban from the town all to the West Street intersection with Union Street. He added that it would not pose a problem for parking to area residents, as there are no house in that stretch of road.

“There’s the common and then there’s the cemetery, Aptowitz said. “From West Street to the town hall there’s no houses there.”

Selectman Doug Annino agreed, saying that many commuters use the area to avoid paying parking rates.

Annino and Aptowitz agreed to use the former plan on the parking for now.