Comments on the proposed CONE access road

On or about 04/24/06, the attorney for Centre of New England (CONE) appeared before the Town Council and made three requests:

- Requested an additional 750,000 gals. per day of sewer capacity.
- That the Hopkins Hill Road drainage system is directing runoff water onto CONE property. Developer asked the town to review and mitigate.
- Proposal to bulldoze the Hopkins Hill School playground and move it elsewhere on school property to make way for an access road to CONE Phase 2 housing. If an access road cannot be obtained though school property then the developer wants access to their property by using stub connections at Tulip, Lydia and/or Jade Roads. The stub at either Jade or Lydia was abandoned by the town about two years ago. The attorney said that putting an access road through the playground was "the path of least resistance".

While all three requests are of interest, the one that concerns me the most is the access road proposal. There are significant safety, traffic, environmental and quality of life issues here.

Safety -- Nothing is more important than making sure our children can go to and from school safely. There could be a few thousand additional cars using the proposed access road then Johnson Blvd. The air our children breathe shouldn't contain sand and diesel exhaust airborne particulates. These exposures put children in harm's way.

Traffic -- The Planning Commission's November 12, 2003 approval of the CONE master plan made it clear that under Stipulation (a.) " the adjoining stub (residential) streets which surround and adjoin the parcels in the Business Park Zone should not be designed to provide access to the Business Park. No cut-through or extension of any stub road will be allowed." The latest traffic study on CONE was done by Rizzo Associates dated November 2004. The report deals with anticipated traffic mitigation needed for all phases of CONE. In the report, there is no mention of a need to have access to Johnson Blvd. using HH School property, no mention of a need to connect to Tulip, Jade or Lydia. There is no mention of a need to connect to King Street, or to Bestwick Trail.

This leaves the developer with the task of accessing phases 2, 3, and maybe even 4 or 5 by crossing wetlands. In order to do this the developer needs approval from DEM. The wetlands crossing approval process takes time, and the developer would probably prefer to access their property by "the path of least resistance", by using School property, the stub road connections, King St., perhaps Bestwick Trail or even Arnold Road north of where the former Municipal Landfill is located. A wetlands crossing permit would probably not be necessary in any of these cases.

Based on the traffic study and the developer's own build-out analysis dated Feb. 2004, 1,500 condominium units could possibly be built in Phases 1 through 5. There are potentially several thousand additional car trips a day in and out of CONE onto Johnson Blvd. Traffic lights might have to be installed at each end of Johnson Blvd. Drivers may try to use short cuts to Grant Dr. Holmes Rd., York Dr. etc. so these neighbors would suffer as well. Who would pay for the traffic lights? Who would pay for maintenance, repairs and improvements to Johnson Blvd., Arnold and Hopkins Hill Roads? All three roads are town-owned, so the burden and expense of road upkeep and traffic mitigation would fall on the taxpayers of town -- not the state, not the developer. Having anywhere near this number of cars using the proposed access road and traveling on Johnson Blvd. is unacceptable.

Environmental -- Currently the children (and adults) at HH School are exposed to dust from all the sand that is on school property and the surrounding area. When construction begins on Phase 2, the large sandy hill and all the trees and plants behind the school will likely be removed, creating more exposure to airborne particulates. The removal of plant life, the construction of buildings and installation of non-permeable parking lots and roads will lead to excess water runoff. The duration of construction could be several years. What mitigation techniques will the developer use to control the dust, runoff water and also be in compliance with Coventry's Soil and Sediment Erosion Control ordinance?

A lot of construction equipment will be used to build the housing at Phase 2. Nearly all of these trucks, backhoes, bulldozers, etc. run on diesel fuel. Diesel fumes are a known hazard to children, who would be breathing in additional airborne particulates from these vehicles as they drive on the proposed access road and the nearby construction sites. Allowing our children to breathe more diesel exhaust is an unacceptable risk.

There will also a lot of noise associated with construction activities like blasting, drilling, hammering, truck and equipment operations. What sound mitigation techniques would the developer use to lessen the noise pollution?

Quality of Life -- This is a big issue. How can one quantify the value of a quiet, lightly traveled, safe neighborhood? Johnson Blvd., Lydia, Jade, York Drive and the entire area surrounding the school would suffer if any access ways to CONE are allowed. The school children and adults who are at the school and residents of the neighborhood would lose if thousands more vehicles use the local roads daily. Let's recap: 1) Increase in traffic. 2) Increase in air and noise pollution. 3) Decrease in safety. Result: Residents would no longer have a quiet neighborhood to enjoy.

In summary, allowing an access road to CONE via HH School property or the surrounding neighborhood is unacceptable and should not be allowed.