Opposition Voiced Over Beach Road Path Plans

ORLEANS – As efforts to explore the feasibility of creating a multi-use pathway along Beach Road out to Nauset Beach are set to get underway, a group of residents have organized in opposition to the project.

 “Save Beach Road” includes between 20 and 30 residents on and in the area of Beach Road who have stood up in recent months against the proposal, which they say will adversely impact the rural character of the road stretching from the end of East Main Street out to the beach.

 “All I want to say is this is not the Jersey Shore, or Orange County, Calif.,” said Catherine Stevens, a Beach Road resident and group member. “This is Cape Cod, Patti Page. This is how it always has been. Keep it as that.”

 In May, town meeting voters authorized spending $85,000 to fund a feasibility study to explore options for creating a muti-use path that would make the road safer to travel for cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorists. Beach Road, which does not have sidewalks, is one of the town’s busiest in terms of vehicle traffic, especially during the summer months. 

 On Sept. 11, the town’s traffic and bikeways advisory committee voted to advance a contract with the Watertown-based engineering design firm VHB to begin work on the study. The money authorized at annual town meeting will be used to pay for the firm’s services, and the contract needs to be executed by Town Manager Kim Newman.

 “The sooner we can move on it, then at least we can start the preliminary work for Beach Road so we’d be able to provide more comment or take public comment back,” said Rich Waldo, the town’s public works director, who also sits on the advisory committee.

 The draft contract with VHB identifies three design options for study. One involves the construction of five-foot on-road bicycle lanes with a Cape Cod berm with a three-foot grass buffer and five-foot sidewalk on the south side of Beach Road. A second option calls for a 10-foot side path with a Cape Cod berm and three-foot grass buffer on the road’s south side, while a third option would be a hybrid design where a path would be on the roadway in some stretches and off-road in others. 

 A fourth option involving five-foot on-road bicycle lanes, granite curbing and a five-foot sidewalk on the south side of the road has been dismissed by the committee, but Waldo said in an email last week that the committee “will hold reservation to proposing a fourth design alternative in the future.”

 Waldo said that the study will begin by identifying any “design constraints” that currently exist along the road. Those could include the placement of utility poles or rock walls as well as any easements or deed restrictions in the area.

 “What are the limiting elements,” he said. “What are the hard objects we can’t work around.”

 Committee chair Alice Thomason read three letters of support for the project into the record Sept. 11. The letters referenced a number of safety issues that come with traveling Beach Road, including distracted drivers and pedestrians, sun glare that impacts drivers’ visibility, and pedestrians and cyclists that do not always follow the rules of the roadway.

 George Clayton, a 45-year resident of East Orleans, said in his letter that his first-ever accident involved a cyclist who moved into traffic to avoid pedestrians walking along the side of the road.

 “While I recognize this was my fault, it could have been avoided if we had proper bike and walkways,” he wrote.

 Others referenced an accident from May 2015 in which six female pedestrians walking to the beach were injured by a vehicle. In their letter, Brad and Diane Moore-Dodge said that they find it dangerous to walk along the road, “even for such a short time.” They added that a multi-modal path would improve real estate values and the “desirability” of the area.

 But not everyone agrees. Members of the Save Beach Road group after the meeting said the project would adversely change the nature not just of the road, but of Orleans as a whole.

 “When you change the culture of a street, you change the culture of a town,” said Bill Wibel. 

 Wibel also said the project will yield “very little return on investment,” and that plans to build a path are shortsighted. He said the town needs to take long-term issues such as the potential effects of climate change on the area into consideration.

 “Any alternative that they are going to propose, I would hope that they would plug in and do some forward thinking about what society is going to look like, what the impact of climate change is going to be on the beach,” he said. “That beach may not be here in 20 years. There may be no parking lot there.”

 With regard to pedestrian and cyclist safety, group members said that non-motorists need to pay attention and exercise caution when using the road. Rodie Thompson of the Save Beach Road group said in the case of the May 2015 accident, a group of women were walking “abreast” into the roadway.

 Thompson said for Beach Road residents, being cognizant of vehicle traffic is just part of living along the busy street.

 “You have to look,” she said.

 Thompson also criticized the advisory committee of being partisan in its process during the Sept. 11 meeting. Specifically, she questioned why the committee did not read letters submitted by the Save Beach Road group into the record the same way it did the three letters of support. Peter Allgeier of the advisory committee said that those letters were reflected in the minutes of the committee’s August meeting, which had not yet been approved and accepted by the committee.

 After the meeting, Thompson said Beach Road residents need the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns about the project.

 “Ask us first,” she said. “Because if I am a select person, I’m going to say ‘Have you contacted the residents?’”

 But members of the advisory committee say that public comment will not only be part of putting together the feasibility study, it is already well underway. 

Thomason said that public support for studying the path has been confirmed not just through the spring town meeting vote, but through public forums held as part of efforts to put together the town’s complete streets prioritization plan and a revised local comprehensive plan. The advisory committee also solicited input from eight local boards and committees regarding studying the multi-use path, she said.

 “We very much understand the anxiety that some of the abutters have,” she said. “But we’re hoping that they see that we are very much doing outreach.”

 Stevens, meanwhile, said it is “assumed” by Beach Road residents that any plan for a path will involve a “taking” or easement of private property to accommodate it.

 “We don’t know that yet, because we haven’t entered into the feasibility contract yet,” Waldo said. “The goal is to look at all those scenarios for any limitations they may have.”

 But while specifics are lacking without a study, which Waldo said could be completed by January, Thomason said the town’s goal is to “minimize” any potential takings or easements as much as possible.

 “We know the easement issue is huge, and the town is not about to go start taking people’s front lawns.”

 Others at the Sept. 11 meeting raised concerns with environmental impacts that would come with the creation of a multi-use path. Orleans resident Nancy Renn said “a major, major removal of trees and plants” would be needed along the road to accommodate the proposed path.

 “The trees play a crucial role in mitigating the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere,” she said. “As the town of Orleans advances toward climate agendas, the significance of trees often remains undervalued.”

 This isn’t the first time that plans for transportation improvements along Beach Road have run into opposition. In 2011, a plan to install sidewalks along the road failed to move forward.

 Safety may be top of mind when it comes to studying the feasibility of a multi use path, but advisory committee members say they also recognize the importance of keeping the country character of Beach Road as they work toward a plan.

 “It’s a balance of all,” Waldo said. “I think all transportation projects are the balance of all, but that’s what makes them so difficult. It’s about trying to find where that line of balance lies.”