Council discards two traffic plans for Oak Hill
Council discards two traffic plans for Oak Hill
By Zack Anchors
Staff writer
The Scarborough Town Council is continuing to consider how best to improve traffic conditions at in the Oak Hill area. At their meeting this week, council members eliminated two possible projects from a range of alternatives considered. Both projects would have involved building roads that would create a bypass route to the Route One/Black Point
Road intersection.
Councilors cited overwhelming opposition to the plans within the surrounding neighborhoods and voted four to three not to include them as part of the overall plan for traffic improvements in Oak Hill.
One bypass road would have connected Route One with Black Point Road by running along Commerce Drive and through the site of planned subdivision development that has been named "Eastern Village."
The other bypass road would have connected Route One with Black Point Road on the other side, running from Route One's intersection with Hannaford Drive to where Black Point Road meets Eastern Road. Combined together, the new roads would have provided new alternatives for vehicles that are traveling onto and off of the Black Point Road and onto Route One. Together the projects were estimated to cost $10.4 million.
Councilor Jeff Messer said he had talked to people throughout the surrounding neighborhoods and had not met a single person who voiced support for the plan. He said he believed there were better strategies that could be used to alleviate traffic problems at the Oak Hill intersection, such as adding a new left-turn only lane on Black Point Road and improving the timing of the traffic signals. Councilor Shawn Babine said future councils could still decide to go forward with such a plan in the future if they chose to, but that he did not think it would be appropriate for the current council to endorse a plan that faced such opposition. Both Babine and Messer said they each lived in the neighborhoods that would be affected by the projects.
Councilors who were in support of endorsing the projects emphasized that to vote for the plan would only ensure that it remained an alternative and would not mean the projects would necessarily go forward. Along with Councilors Carol Rancourt and Patrick O'Reilly, Councilor Sylvia Most voted to approve the project recommendations.
"We are truly not binding future councils except that we are precluding it if we don't approve this," she said.
Councilor Rancourt pointed out that it was likely that future councils would not be able to pursue the plan if it was not approved by the current council due to the fact that site plan reviews for development in the area would not take into account the possibility of the proposed roads being built. Therefore, she said, it would be likely that development would occur in the currently undeveloped areas where the roads would be built.
At the next council meeting on Jan. 15, the discussion of traffic improvements to Oak Hill is expected to continue, with the council addressing the adoption of an impact fee on new developments in the Oak Hill area. The council will also discuss a similar impact fee for the Dunstan area.
By Zack Anchors
Staff writer
The Scarborough Town Council is continuing to consider how best to improve traffic conditions at in the Oak Hill area. At their meeting this week, council members eliminated two possible projects from a range of alternatives considered. Both projects would have involved building roads that would create a bypass route to the Route One/Black Point
Road intersection.
Councilors cited overwhelming opposition to the plans within the surrounding neighborhoods and voted four to three not to include them as part of the overall plan for traffic improvements in Oak Hill.
One bypass road would have connected Route One with Black Point Road by running along Commerce Drive and through the site of planned subdivision development that has been named "Eastern Village."
The other bypass road would have connected Route One with Black Point Road on the other side, running from Route One's intersection with Hannaford Drive to where Black Point Road meets Eastern Road. Combined together, the new roads would have provided new alternatives for vehicles that are traveling onto and off of the Black Point Road and onto Route One. Together the projects were estimated to cost $10.4 million.
Councilor Jeff Messer said he had talked to people throughout the surrounding neighborhoods and had not met a single person who voiced support for the plan. He said he believed there were better strategies that could be used to alleviate traffic problems at the Oak Hill intersection, such as adding a new left-turn only lane on Black Point Road and improving the timing of the traffic signals. Councilor Shawn Babine said future councils could still decide to go forward with such a plan in the future if they chose to, but that he did not think it would be appropriate for the current council to endorse a plan that faced such opposition. Both Babine and Messer said they each lived in the neighborhoods that would be affected by the projects.
Councilors who were in support of endorsing the projects emphasized that to vote for the plan would only ensure that it remained an alternative and would not mean the projects would necessarily go forward. Along with Councilors Carol Rancourt and Patrick O'Reilly, Councilor Sylvia Most voted to approve the project recommendations.
"We are truly not binding future councils except that we are precluding it if we don't approve this," she said.
Councilor Rancourt pointed out that it was likely that future councils would not be able to pursue the plan if it was not approved by the current council due to the fact that site plan reviews for development in the area would not take into account the possibility of the proposed roads being built. Therefore, she said, it would be likely that development would occur in the currently undeveloped areas where the roads would be built.
At the next council meeting on Jan. 15, the discussion of traffic improvements to Oak Hill is expected to continue, with the council addressing the adoption of an impact fee on new developments in the Oak Hill area. The council will also discuss a similar impact fee for the Dunstan area.
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