Possible Changes to Morristown Truck Loading Zones

Concerns from residents about noise and traffic from delivery trucks has prompted the introduction of a new town ordinance.

Phil Abramson of the town’s planning department gave a presentation on a plan to change the town’s parking restrictions and loading zones within the public roadways surrounding the Epstein’s Rehabilitation area. The analysis was done by T&M Associates, which is the planning board’s engineer, and Jonathan Rose Co.

Abramson said that a lot of the issues were parking in the wrong places, trucks using the no-standing area as a loading area, people using the loading area as a standing area and contractors double parking.

“Striping will be painted to label loading and no-standing zones,” said Abramson.

 Councilwoman Alison Deeb brought up concerns with 40 Park residents.

“Sometimes there is a need to pick up people who live there and there are elderly seniors that live there,” said Deeb. “Are you just to look for a spot? It was convenient to pull in there and wait for someone to come out of 40 Park. Now I’m just trying to figure out what to tell my (constituents)."

“I would tell your constituents to pick people up on DeHart Street, there’s a right of way back there that can be used for that. It’s much safer,” said Abramson. “That’s a travel lane. One of the things that we’re fixing that’s part of this.” He added that there’s currently no striping to show where two lanes start, where the turn lane starts, etc .

Council President Harris brought up issues with loading times.

“As far as (loading) time and restrictions, we’re not proposing to change any of those right now,” said Abramson.

Councilwoman Rebecca Feldman echoed Harris’ concerns and said that “Something I’d like to look at is whether or not we can restrict the hours of loading without impacting the businesses.”

Proposed Changes:

• New loading zone on Market Street. There will not be any loss of parking spaces on Market Street.
• There will be no parking or loading on the east side of Market.
• On the east side of DeHart Street, near Maple Avenue, is for morning loading only and on the west side of DeHart Street, near South Street, is for delivery trucks 24/7.
• As for the two blue strips shown on the DeHart Street powerpoint slide, the building is part of the redevelopment area and “if ‘proposed building C’ was to be constructed,” those blue strips would be the loading area for that building.
• Two parking spaces in front of Wells Fargo and Sona Thirteen on South Street will be used for loading between 7 - 11 a.m. The turning movements from South Street will not be impacted. 

Next Steps:

• Ordinance Adoption
• NJDOT coordination: “We’re still working with NJDOT to deal with South Street and Market Street because those are state roads. These are regulations that are already in place, the parking is already in place, the loading place is already in place. We’re just moving things around a bit to not offend their (NJDOT) regulations.”
• Implementation (signage and striping)
• MPA Enforcement Strategy “They’ve agreed to train their officers, especially during the morning loading hours and rush hour, to ticket for loading offenses.”
• Retail Coordination with Partnership “Work through the Partnership to work with local businesses so that they know and to tell their truck drivers.”