To The Editor:

The Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission is presently hearing plans for constructing two four-story apartment buildings on a narrow strip of land between Berkshire Road and Oakview Road, bordering the Newtown Senior High School’s athletic field.

The builder has several smaller projects under construction in Connecticut that carry the “Affordable Housing” designation, as this one would. Newtown needs affordable housing. But to use this property to construct 136 mostly one-bedroom apartments for working people demands safe and expansive road access.

A significant increase in traffic on Oakview Road, which exits onto Berkshire Road, would increase traffic during Newtown High School’s morning arrival time.

Oakview Road, where the two buildings are planned, is an unsafe road. It is narrow, hilly, and winding. Two cars traveling in opposite directions, as Oakview is a two-way road, with a 20-mile-an-hour speed limit, approach each other cautiously. There is often insufficient room for both cars to pass without one car pulling over to allow the other car to pass. It is unsafe for cars, school buses, trucks, bicycles, fire engines, ambulances, high school runners, and people just walking. There are no sidewalks.

Some cars exiting the building driveway closest to Berkshire, wanting to proceed toward Wasserman Way and Exit 11 on I-84, will be met head-on by cars moving towards Berkshire Road, from the second building’s driveway, an unseen distance down the road. The traffic jam begins on Oakview Road.

Increasing the two-way morning traffic on Oakview Road and Berkshire Road, with the addition of cars leaving for work, and other times, will create a dangerous and unsafe traffic situation, with life and limb at stake.

The only way to solve this problem is not to create it.

The Planning and Zoning Board should reject the builder’s plans to build on this property.

Stephen Rosenblatt

Sandy Hook