Four Traffic Projects

Gain State Approval

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members learned this week that the State Traffic Commission (STC) has approved the town’s traffic planning for Fairfield Hills, where the town is conducting a major redevelopment project.

The STC approval is required because access to Fairfield Hills is provided by Wasserman Way, which is a state road. Wasserman Way is also known as State Route 860, but is not posted as such.

Traffic engineer Michael Galante of Frederick P. Clark Associates Inc, representing the town, described the traffic plans for the former state psychiatric hospital’s core campus to Police Commission members at a May 6 session.

The STC had endorsed the traffic plans for Fairfield Hills at its monthly meeting held earlier that same day in Newington.

Also at the May 6 STC session, the agency endorsed the traffic plans for the Newtown High School expansion project on Berkshire Road (Route 34), the Eton Center redevelopment project on Church Hill Road (Route 6), and the Highland Plaza redevelopment project on South Main Street (Route 25).

Mr Galante provided Police Commission members with a range of traffic statistics explaining the dynamics of projected traffic flow at Fairfield Hills. The Police Commission is the local traffic authority.

STC members are requiring that a locked gate that extends across what was formerly the main entrance to Fairfield Hills remain locked, Mr Galante told Police Commission members.

As the town’s redevelopment of the Fairfield Hills core campus evolves, the town will need to return to the STC to obtain modified traffic permits for the site.

As part of the ongoing redevelopment of Fairfield Hills, the town has constructed a baseball field where Fairfield House formerly stood. A private developer is constructing a large youth sports facility, called Newtown Youth Academy, where Bridgewater House formerly stood. Bridgeport Hall, which formerly was the main dining facility at Fairfield Hills, is being converted into a new town office building. Other new uses are planned for Fairfield Hills.

The construction of the 166,000-square-foot Reed Intermediate School was the first element of the town’s redevelopment of Fairfield Hills. The school site formerly held Watertown Hall.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told Police Commission members that that the STC acted quickly in approving the Fairfield Hills traffic plans, without waiting for comments on the matter from the Police Commission.

NHS Expansion

Also on May 6, the STC 6 approved traffic plans for the Newtown High School expansion project. Voters in April approved the $40-million-plus project.

The expansion project would increase the size of the high school from 272,889 square feet to 347,909 square feet, representing a 75,020-square foot increase in space. Changes at the 12 Berkshire Road site would increase the existing 578 parking spaces to 667 parking spaces.

The main driveway at the school would be relocated about 180 feet to the northwest. Such a relocation would move that driveway farther away from the congested intersection of Berkshire Road and Wasserman Way with the goal of reduced traffic congestion in the area.

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans a range of road improvements in that area with the upcoming reconfiguration of the Exit 11 interchange of Interstate 84.

Eton Center

The STC also approved traffic plans for the redevelopment of Eton Center, which has access points from Church Hill Road and Queen Street in the borough.

In March, the Borough Zoning Commission approved the redevelopment project for the retail complex that has long been largely vacant and deteriorating.

A Grand Union supermarket there closed for business in March 2001. A Brooks Pharmacy at the site closed for business in April 2006. A Wachovia Bank branch office remains in business within the west end of an approximately 48,000-square foot red brick building on the 7.75-acre site.

Caraluzzi’s Markets of Bethel and Georgetown will occupy a section of the refurbished shopping center with its third supermarket. It is not yet known what other tenants would occupy three other spaces within that 48,000-square-foot building.

Caraluzzi’s would occupy about 33,000 square feet of space, with the three other tenants occupying the remaining 15,000 square feet.

Redevelopment plans also call for the construction of a new 3,200-square-foot building on the site near Church Hill Road to house the Wachovia Bank branch that now does business at the shopping center.

Highland Plaza

The fourth approval from STC was for traffic plans for the ongoing commercial redevelopment of the South Main Street site that formerly held The Fireside Inn.

Last November, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approved plans for Highland Plaza at 121-125 South Main Street.

Highland HC, LLC, plans to eventually build an almost 60,000 square foot complex at the site, which is in a B-2 (Business) zone.

Highland has been reconstructing the former Fireside Inn building, which would hold new retail/restaurant uses. An as yet unnamed restaurant is planned for the section of the building nearest South Main Street. The renovated Fireside Inn building encloses about 33,000 square feet of space.

Two additional structures are proposed for the eight-acre property. A new 22,000 square foot building would hold retail space. A new 3,000 square foot building situated in a parking lot would hold a bank.