Lebanon
The projected increase for weekend traffic has been tripled, and the proposed expansion would account for 21 more vehicle trips during the evening peak than previously thought.
However, a consultant for the rink project still maintains those cars shouldn’t be enough to worsen traffic appreciably along Route 10.
“In the end, it makes a very minimal difference,” White River Junction-based Resource Systems Group engineer Erica Wygonik said, according to an audio recording of Monday’s meeting.
Wygonik’s firm was hired by the nonprofit Campion Sports and Recreation Project to study traffic as part of the proposal to expand the Route 10 ice arena.
That group has been meeting with the Zoning Board since early March as part of a first step toward construction of a two-rink complex.
In April, Wygonik presented the board with an analysis that showed expansion would increase weeknight peak traffic by 45 cars and weekend traffic by 30.
But that study underestimated how many vehicles would be drawn to weekend practices and miscalculated when peak weeknight hours occurred.
When engineers adjusted the timeframe of what is considered the weeknight peak time by 15 minutes, they found traffic actually increased by 66 additional trips.
And by better predicting how many people the practices would draw, the consultants projected weekend peak traffic would increase to 89 cars.
Those numbers aren’t expected to cause traffic delays along Route 10, Wygonik said. She told the board last month that the road currently operates with “minimal delays,” and said on Monday that the rink expansion wouldn’t change that.
Board member Al Patterson, a retired Hanover police officer, took issue with Wygonik’s original assessment in April. Speeding and rush-hour congestion already make driving on Route 10 difficult at times, he said, and the expansion could make things worse.
“There is very heavy traffic at certain times where this would absolutely be a hazard,” Patterson said of the expansion in April.
At the time, Wygonik said crash statistics didn’t point to a problem along that section of Route 10, and the projected traffic increases are small enough that a much broader traffic study isn’t required. Patterson wasn’t present at Monday’s meeting, but Wygonik made similar arguments.
“This number of trips is still well below the New Hampshire (Department of Transportation) threshold for doing a traffic study,” she said.
She added that statistics indicate the traffic increases won’t lead to adverse safety conditions on the road.
The board also heard about the rink’s plans to reduce light pollution in the neighborhood. Abutters on Main Street and residents on nearby Gould Road have complained at past meetings that they’re disturbed by headlights as cars turn into the rink’s parking lot.
Alan Saucier, with the landscape firm Saucier and Flynn, said rink officials hope to put up a vinyl screen on a chain-link fence along the north parking lot. It would shade possible light from Gould Road during the winter months and can be removed in the offseason, he said.
“This is an $8 million building and you’re going to put up a plastic screen to shield lights?” board member William Koppenheffer asked in the audio recording. “Doesn’t it seem like cutting corners?”
Saucier said a screen is the most effective way to screen light because it takes time and money to get bushes and trees to perform the same function. Dartmouth College and the town of Hanover, which own the nearby playing fields, also don’t want trees in the north parking lot because they could pose a hazard to people using adjacent athletic fields, he said.
There also are plans to build a 5-foot, solid wood fence to screen light from neighbors west of the lot. Neighbors to the south will be protected through a combination of hedges, trees and possibly a berm.
The proposal didn’t comfort David Donley, who abuts the rink property on Main Street. Although light from the complex can be a problem, noise also is a nuisance, he said.
“The biggest problem, I think, is that their car doors are opening and closing,” Donley said in the recording.
With the rink asking to operate year-round, he worried that quiet days at home will become a thing of the past. Donley asked board members if they’ve ever looked forward to a quiet Sunday with a cup of coffee.
“We’re not going to have that,” he said.
The board closed its public hearing on the rink expansion Monday night and is expected to deliver a decision during its May 16 meeting. The project will then have to go before the Planning Board for additional review.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.
Correction
The nonprofit Campion Sports and Recreation Project paid for a traffic assessment to study the proposed expansion of the James W. Campion III Rink. An earlier version of this story misstated which organization paid for the assessment.