One of Marion’s longtime families, landowners, and business owners has engaged in a complicated process to improve the Route 6 egress around his and family members’ properties, and his case was heard during the December 21 meeting of the Marion Planning Board.
Bill Washburn, Warren Washburn, and Chris Washburn were among the Washburns on Monday night’s Zoom meeting to talk about making Washburn Lane an outlet and creating an inlet on the opposite side of private property along that road.
As explained by Bill Washburn, the idea is to use the 30-foot-wide Washburn Lane for traffic entering Route 6 and for traffic turning off of Route 6 to use a yet-to-be-constructed road, the pinch point of which is almost 40 feet wide.
“Before we went any further and spent any money doing up a plan, we wanted to know if that [would be acceptable],” said Bill Washburn.
The other option posed was constructing a new road to a width that the Planning Board would accept.
However, the questions that the Washburns came to the meeting with were not the same questions that they took home for further study and evaluation.
Washburn estimates that the road is at least 100 years old. It used to wind along cornfields on its way past Washburn Park. “The road may have moved,” said Bill Washburn, alluding to a 1910 document and a 1906 photo.
Planning Board member Norm Hills brought up the 100-foot contiguous frontage requirement that cannot be met and asked if the road is a private way. Bill Washburn said, “It’s a private way that’s used by everybody.” Today softball players and dog walkers use the road.
Hills said, “We may need legal answers here,” and many of the revelations that followed brought him and the board as a whole back to that point.
The Washburns had discussed the future of the property with town representatives for years. Chris Washburn said that the Department of Public Works plows from Route 6 all the way to the ballpark. Bill Washburn says that, except for a pie-shaped piece of the road, the Town of Marion owns the road.
Planning Board members Christopher Collings and Eileen Marum discussed the problem posed by speeding drivers in that hilly area of Route 6.
“I find [Route 6 speed] to be the biggest problem,” said Bill Washburn. “When they built [Route] 195 and took 60 percent of the traffic off of Route 6, the speed has picked up quite a bit.”
Hills pointed out on the map that Lot 60 is in the Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission’s care, which adds further restriction of what can be done in the area.
“We’ve got some homework to do. You’ve given me a few things I haven’t thought about,” said Bill Washburn.
The Planning Board recommended Washburn study state regulations to egress involving Route 6 and the lane’s legal status in question.
Engineer David Davignon attended Monday night’s Planning Board meeting where he sought and got two Approval Not Required (ANR) decisions, 369 Wareham Street on behalf of Marion Lands Trust and at 28 Point Road for the Estate of Joan Winters.
The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board is scheduled to be held on January 4 at 7:00 pm via Zoom.
Marion Planning Board
By Mick Colageo