Traffic light or stop signs could be installed at Taylor Home Drive, Union Ave intersection

LACONIA — City councilors asked the subcommittee for public works to study a potential traffic change on Union Avenue during their meeting Oct. 27. The intersection in question is at Taylor Home Drive. 

Residents approached Ward 2 Councilor Bob Soucy — Taylor Community is a nonprofit retirement neighborhood his ward — and asked him to investigate traffic control changes to improve the ability for community residents to enter and exit. 

“Councilor Soucy was asked for us to look into the exit at Union Ave. from Taylor Home Drive, which empties out pretty much the entire Taylor Home complex onto Union Ave., to see if there’s something we should be doing with either the signaling or some type of traffic control setup,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said. 

“I have talked to [Public Works] Director [Wes] Anderson about it, we’ve had a very limited conversation about it,” Beattie said. “We both agree that if we’re going to have this conversation, it just needs to go to the Public Works Committee, so we can break down all of the specifics, so we can know if it's something we want to bring back to the full council.”

According to a city staff report, potential options for traffic improvement include a stop sign at the exit from the Taylor Community onto Union — the community’s driveway itself is already controlled by a stop sign; creating a three-way stop at the Taylor Community intersection with Union; or to study the intersection to determine if it meets standards to install a traffic signal. 

Alternatively, the Taylor Community already has a road that connects to a public roadway, at the intersection of Prospect and Cole streets. The road, at present, is gated. Both Cole and Prospect lead to Clinton Street, which intersects with Union Avenue, an intersection that already has a traffic signal in place. 

“I’d like to request that we pass this along to the Public Works Committee, and I’m going to request that the Public Works Committee have the meeting on this at the Taylor Home,” Soucy said.

The Office of the City Manager takes care of setting the dates of subcommittee meetings, and meetings must be publicly noticed. Because of the heavy use of Union Avenue, Mayor Charlie St. Clair was emphatic the subcommittee meeting be properly noticed.

“I would ask that that date goes way overboard, making that public, because that will affect everybody in the city, not just the Taylor Home people, but everybody who uses Union Avenue,” St. Clair said. “I want that date, to make sure that date is well publicized — we want a real transparent date on that.” 

Union is one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city, and can be congested during peak traffic hours. 

“I know it's a very significant problem for their situation, there’s 485 residents there, and using that one exit and entrance does create a situation — both sides,” Soucy said. “For traffic on Union Avenue and then the traffic, people coming in and out.”

“Everybody has a problem on Union Avenue,” St. Clair said. “It’s a busy street.”