Police Testing Cottage Place Stopping Ban

Westwood Police are planning a 90-day trial for a plan to reduce the number of parents using Cottage Place to drop off or pick up their children for Brookside School.

The plan is to ban "stopping and standing" during school hours on the entire north side of the street, as well as a 237-foot portion of the south side near Lafayette and a more-than-100-foot portion on the south side near a fire hydrant at the dead end, Police Captain Frank Durante said at a council meeting this week.

Residents of the street have complained that parents using the street have become a nuisance and a possible safety hazard. Police have been working with school officials and monitoring traffic on the street since school began last month, according to Durante.

"It's necessary that we restrict it, because people are clogging up that area," Durante said. "We're worried about fire, ambulance — any emergency services getting down there."

Cottage Place resident John McLoughlin said he would prefer to ban pick-ups and drop-offs on the street altogether.

"I think there's an accident waiting to happen," McLoughlin said.

Parents parked on the street previously told Patch they agreed parking was a problem on the street, but it was often the closest spot they could find because they had to pick up other children at other local schools at around the same time.

Brookside's current arrival and dismissal procedures do not include Cottage Place, but do include Clairmont and Westend Avenues.

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