DPW and Town Council Make Plans for Bacon Street Parking and Path
May 2008

The Town Council and DPW are working on a phased plan to develop the area between Bacon Street and Main Street into a parking lot for residents and for DPW vehicles. The parking lot is on Town property, while the path is actually on land owned by the Cambridge Water Department. A pipleine between the Cambridge Reservoir and Fresh Pond lies underneath. The Town intends to obtain an easement (at no cost) to use this land from Cambridge and in exchange, Watertown would landscape it, including putting the community path down the center of it.

Future phases of the plan to connect the community path now terminating at Waverley St to the river path will probably include, subject to further study and funding:

• A signal crossing at Main St
• Crossing at Howard St, marked bike path along Acton St, new sidewalks will be done along Rosedale, new signal at Rosedale and Pleasant St, and possible use of the town-owned strip of land just west of the River Lofts condos which runs from Pleasant St to the river
• Some sort of pathway from Main Street to Moxley Field across town-owned land (currently rented to Nardone's)

The path component of the project is the brainchild of councilor Vincent Piccirilli. When the project was proposed by the DPW, Piccirilli saw the opportunity to extend the Community Path that starts behind Town Hall and ends at Waverly Avenue.