10/29/14 ODOT announces site for new parking lot in Berlin

  • By Nick Sabo
  • October 29, 2014
  • 391
                        
SUMMARY: ODOT has developed the parking lot as a means to compensate for on-street parking along Main Street to be eliminated in a road-widening project for U.S. 62. The Ohio Department of Transportation has purchased land for a parking lot that will compensate for the loss of on-street parking in downtown Berlin. ODOT real estate administrator Steve Lucas said a 2.2 acre lot behind the 4000 block of Berlin has been purchased to be used as the site of a new parking lot. The parking lot will be completed prior to the widening of Main Street from Township Road 359 to the U.S. 62/state Route 39 split, Lucas said. The parking lot has one exit/egress point, with traffic coming and going via East Street, located about one block west of the U.S. 62/state Route 39 intersection. The parking lot will be located on the south edge of Township Road 1001. The site will need to be backfilled to bring the parking lot to the level of the township road. The lot will have 51 spaces, with three of them for the handicapped. Lucas said the lot will “replenish” the lost parking and serve the downtown area well. “The site was the closest to town and gave the greatest number of spaces,” Lucas said. “It will suit the community’s needs for many years.” The lot will replace an estimated 42 on-street spaces lost in the road widening project. Lucas said the lot will be gravel at first, to give time for the ground to settle. Eventually the lot will be asphalt. The spaces will be 10 feet wide and “very comfortable to pull in to”, Lucas said. Berlin Main Street Merchants chair Eli Hochstetler said ODOT met with merchants about the parking lot Monday Oct. 27. Hochstetler said reactions were mixed and mostly trended toward the negative. “There’s even more questions unanswered than we had before,” Hochstetler said. “Most of the business owners aren’t happy about it. One said she is glad for it because you can’t open your door parking in front of her store because it’s so close to traffic.” Merchants have been opposed to the loss of on-street parking. They like it because it is convenient for shoppers and lends to Berlin’s rural feel. Hochstetler said the biggest concern with the lot is its location. While the handicapped spaces are nice to have, Hochstetler said, they are uphill from town. Also of concern is motorists getting in and out of East Street, and the impact on traffic. Lucas said ODOT engineers see no need to signalize East Street. Township Road 1001 will be improved to better accommodate two lane traffic, Lucas said, and a sidewalk will be installed along the south edge of the roadway. The lot was chosen over nine other possible sites in Berlin. Lucas said some sites under consideration would have required removal of existing buildings. The lot is to be built prior to removal of the on-street parking, Lucas said. The project is funded solely through ODOT and will go out to bid this winter, Lucas said, with construction to begin in spring.


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