Townhome plan concerns New Milford residents
NEW MILFORD — Given the high volume of traffic that passes through Pickett District Road, some nearby residents have disputed the accuracy of a traffic study conducted for the proposed 107-townhouse development on the street.
Traffic is a main concern of residents who oppose Flagstaff Investments, LCC’s plan for a 12-building residential complex at 240 Pickett District Road. Opponents questioned engineering consultant F.A. Hesketh & Associates’ findings that the townhouses “can readily be accommodated by the existing roadway network.”
Amanda Wood, a Pickett District Road resident, said during the most recent public hearing on the project that any time there’s an accident on Route 7, Pickett District Road becomes “either a speedway or a parking lot” as traffic is redirected down the road. Doug Skelly of New Milford said traffic is also rerouted down Picket District Road whenever there is significant flooding.
“Pickett District Road was never made to be a commercial road,” Skelly said at the most recent public hearing, adding he didn’t think the development is “sufficient for safety reasons.”
Flagstaff Investments of New Milford submitted to the Zoning
Commission in November a special permit and site plan application to build the townhouses. The commission held a public hearing for the site plan application at its Jan. 23 meeting, and the hearing continued at its March 12 meeting. The commission will reconvene to discuss the application at its March 26 meeting.
Less than a mile from Lovers Leap State Park, the 13.4-acre vacant property is bordered by single-family residences across the street and to the north as well as business and industrial zones, according to Paul Szymanski, who has been representing Flagstaff Investments at the Zoning Commission’s meetings.
The property is in the multiple residence district zone and includes the 5,900-squre-foot remains of a building foundation that will be demolished to make way for the development, according to Town Planner Laura Regan’s summary of the project to the Zoning Commission.
Each of the development’s 12 buildings would have five to 12 townhouses of about 1,700square feet in size, while each townhouse would have three floors, a 12-foot-by-22-foot garage and a 9-foot-wide driveway, according to Regan’s summary.
Each townhouse would also have its own refuse and recycling containers for the routine scheduled pickup each week that will be stored in the garages, according to Szymanski, president of the New Milford engineering firm Arthur H. Howland & Associates.
He also said the townhouses would all be market rate housing but didn’t confirm whether they would be rented or owned. Regan confirmed the development project was not an affordable housing application, according to the Zoning Commission’s Jan. 23 meeting minutes.
Traffic study
Access to the site would be provided by a single driveway to Pickett District Road located 1,500 feet north of Still River Road, according to F.A. Hesketh & Associates’ letter to Arthur Howland & Associates.
F.A. Hesketh & Associates examined traffic around Still River Drive, which lies south of the site and connects Route 7 and 202 to Pickett District Road, according to the 2023 traffic study.
The traffic study states the state Department of Transportation’s most recent traffic counts on Still River Drive were conducted during December 2020 and indicated an average daily traffic volume of 11,500 vehicles.
F.A. Hesketh & Associates’ office installed an automated traffic volume counter on Pickett District Road for a full seven-day period last June, the traffic study said. The count indicated a weekday average daily traffic volume of 3,178 vehicles with a peak hour volume of 227 vehicles during the morning peak hour at 7 a.m. and 340 vehicles during the afternoon peak hour at 5 p.m.
“Based on our analysis, it is our professional opinion that the traffic volumes associated with the proposed residential development can readily be accommodated by the existing roadway network,” F.A. Hesketh & Associates stated in the traffic study. “The proposed site driveway is properly located with respect to available intersection sight distances and is properly designed to accommodate the anticipated driveway volumes.”
The proposed site driveway would operate under stop sign control and provide 24 feet of pavement with a single travel lane in each direction, according to F.A. Hesketh & Associates’ letter.
The town’s Public Works reviewed the access to the proposed driveway location and determined it met town regulations, including those for sight lines, according to Public Works Director Jack Healy’s letter to the Zoning Commission.
Building the residential development would cost $10 million, according to the project’s site plan application. Szymanski said he anticipates it would be a multiyear project and that he would like to start construction this year, though he did not confirm when the first townhouses would be completed.
‘I’m scared I’ll get hit’
A few nearby residents raised concerns about the safety of cars entering and existing the property’s access point and a potential increase of speeding cars and traffic on Pickett District Road.
“If you’ve lived here in New Milford, you know what Pickett District Road is like,” said Annette Golembeski, who lives across the street from the proposed site, at March 12’s Zoning Commission public hearing. “They’re spending $10 million on this project, so spend it so we can have safety on these roads.”
Leigh Haeger, who lives directly across the street from the proposed development’s entrance, said he was worried about damages to his property with young drivers speeding down Pickett District Road. He also raised concerns about students living in the development who would wait for the school bus across from his home, which he believed would be a loss of privacy.
“I’m basically where the cars hit their 50, 60, 70 mile per hour range,” Wood said, “and I asked the police to put in one of those machines to track speeds. I lost two cats that were hit and killed. Every time I go to that driveway, I’m scared I’ll get hit.”