Lebanon
The city’s planning staff recommends developer Doug Homan pay for an additional lane on a planned roundabout at the Mechanic Street and Slayton Hill Road intersection, while Homan argues all that’s needed is a traffic light.
Homan’s plan to construct 283 single-family homes off of Buckingham Place, Slayton Hill Road and Poverty Lane has been in a preliminary review before the Planning Board for more than a year, and the board has recently taken to holding three-hour meetings to address the project. In that time, the project’s housing proposal has been reduced by about 9 percent due to driveway concerns.
But it was traffic that concerned the board during its June 29 meeting. The development is expected to increase peak morning traffic by about 225 vehicles and 228 in the evening, according to Resource Systems Group, a White River Junction consulting firm hired by Homan.
While most traffic approaching the housing development would only experience minimal delays, the consultants expected longer queues on Slayton Hill Road, Buckingham Place and the Mascoma Street connector to Route 4.
“We recommend access management efforts be undertaken to limit the overall number and extent of curb-cuts along U.S. 4 and that a similar two-way left-turn lane be installed east of Interstate 89,” the consultants wrote in a 2015 report. They also recommended a traffic light at the Mascoma Street and Slayton Hill Road intersection.
Given the project’s decreased housing lots, the Planning Board asked whether it should request Homan perform a new traffic study, according to minutes from the June meeting. With its potential to increase traffic, city Engineer Christina Hall said the planned roundabout for Mechanic Street and Slayton Hill Road should be extended to two lanes.
Homan replied that roundabouts don’t handle as much traffic as the lights do, and referenced the RSG report to back up the assertion, according to the minutes. Shortly after, Lebanon Associate Planner Maggie Howard-Heretakis recommended the cost of extending the roundabout be paid for by the developer.
Homan then said he intends to pay for some of the city’s traffic mitigation efforts, but since his engineers recommended a light, it seemed unfair the city demand he pay for a roundabout.
Questions over traffic continued at the board’s July 27 meeting. Board member Joan Monroe criticized the RSG study for not accounting for the impact on cyclists, adding that the Mechanic Street improvement plans to make the roads friendlier for everyone, not just drivers and pedestrians.
“I’m suggesting that it’s absolutely critical that (cyclists) begin to (be included),” she said in an audio recording of the meeting.
Neighbors expressed concerns about how the development’s traffic would impact their commutes. Wellington Circle resident Dorota Strzelecki said the proposed configuration will cause traffic to converge at the Maplefields convenience store, and recommended a traffic light in front of Buckingham Place.
“Reading (the report), it looks like my life is going to get an awful lot worse,” she said, according to the audio recording. “Just this morning I did three trips in an hour at peak times.”
On Thursday, Howard-Heretakis said planning officials intend to sit down with Homan and his engineers to try to work out a solution for the traffic. She said the board also plans to review a wildlife study and homeowners’ association documents, and discuss the proposed development’s ponds at its next meeting.
After sitting through more than a year of meetings, Homan said he’s frustrated with the Planning Board process. He has complained several times in past meetings about the board’s requirements in a process that’s designed to be preliminary.
“We’re certainly frustrated with the amount of time that the project’s taken,” he said by phone on Thursday.
The Planning Board is scheduled to take up the Carter Country Club project again at 6 p.m. on Aug. 29.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.