South Main/Cold Spring—

Commission Recommends Traffic Control Measures

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members are recommending that certain traffic control measures be taken for the sake of travel safety to and from Middle Gate School on Cold Spring Road, in view of the proposed construction of a large shopping center near the intersection of South Main Street and Cold Spring Road.

Following lengthy discussion at a March 1 Police Commission session, commission members agreed to request that the state allow installation of flashing signs on South Main Street that would electronically lower the speed limit in the area at the times of day when school traffic is traveling to and from Middle Gate School. South Main Street (Route 25) is a state road. The Police Commission is the local traffic authority.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe recommended that the flashing signs indicate the speed limit in the area to be 30 miles per hour during school traffic periods, versus the normal 40-mph speed limit there. Such traffic signs are programmable.

Also, Police Commission members agreed to request that the state allow the installation of signs on South Main Street indicating that school buses travel through the hazardous intersection of Cold Spring Road and South Main Street. Heavy, high-speed traffic on South Main Street often makes it difficult for school buses to make a left turn from Cold Spring Road onto northbound South Main Street. Exiting Cold Spring Road is controlled by a stop sign.

The shopping center developer has agreed to widen the section of Cold Spring Road where it meets South Main Street to enhance motorists’ ability to make left turns and right turns from Cold Spring Road onto South Main Street.

Residents living near the development site have pressed the Police Commission to pursue traffic signal installation at South Main-Cold Spring intersection as a school bus safety measure.

A decision on whether a red-yellow-green traffic signal should be installed there would be made by the state Department of Transportation (DOT), which has jurisdiction over traffic signals.

Mark Davis, a traffic engineer representing the developer of the proposed shopping center, told Police Commission members March 1 that the DOT has determined that the intersection does not warrant a traffic signal due to insufficient traffic flow through the intersection.

Mr Davis said the DOT is completing its traffic review of the shopping center proposal.

TP Properties, LLC, of Danbury has proposed the construction of a 66,000-square-foot shopping center known as Plaza South on 12.35 acres at 266-276 South Main Street.

TP Properties has not proposed installing a traffic signal at the Cold Spring-South Main intersection. The developer has proposed installing a traffic signal at a new four-way intersection, which would be created at its South Main Street driveway entrance. That signal would regulate traffic flow at the intersection of the proposed driveway, South Main Street, and Button Shop Road. That intersection would lie several hundred feet north of the Cold Spring-South Main intersection.

Chief Kehoe has said he would inform the DOT that the Police Commission does not oppose traffic signal installation at the Cold Spring-South Main intersection, adding that the developer of the shopping center should cover all costs for any such traffic signal there.

On February 10, traffic safety issues posed by the presence of a new shopping center were discussed at a meeting attended by a dozen people, including town and school officials, school parents, a state traffic official, and the developer.

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is considering the Plaza South application, which has drawn opposition on a variety of issues from the owners of the adjacent Sand Hill Plaza and from nearby residents.

The P&Z is slated to resume a public hearing on the shopping center application on March 17.