PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETING
PITTSFORD AND BRANDON BYPASS SCOPING STUDIES
Otter Valley Union High School Cafeteria
Monday, May 21, 2001
7:30 – 9:30 PM
These comments were
received subsequent to the 5/21/01 meeting, and are presented here exactly as
we received them.
PITTSFORD
I live on Route 7 in the Village of Pittsford, across from the Library. I am interested in a bypass because of the increasing heavy traffic, particularly the number and size of trucks going through the Village.
My front door vibrates when trucks go by, and once the door flew open. Another time, a mirror fell off the wall.
As this is the center of the village (the historical district), there is much local traffic en route to the post office, the grocery store, the Library, the Bar, the laundry, a sporting goods store, two beauty parlors, etc.
I don’t think bypasses should be too close to a village. The Florence route seems more sensible to me, with connection to a Brandon bypass.
I suggest a separate, highly advertised, preliminary discussion meeting soon in Pittsford.
The citizens of a town have a right to vote on this question at a duly warned meeting.
The question of a bypass has been discussed for many years. It’s time to do something about it!
- Ruth S. Wimett
Good
morning,
My
name is Joseph House and I live with my wife Brenda on Blanchard Ave. in
Pittsford, Vt. I am writing to let you
know of my grave concern over the projected “PE” bypass in Pittsford. In my opinion the “PE” bypass is a huge
mistake, which is an opinion all of my neighbors share. In this day of fast paced, noisy, busy and
crowded neighborhoods, ours is very unique.
The only noise we hear is an occasional auto on Plains Road, or an
airplane overhead. Traffic is limited
to homeowners and visitors. Children in
our development have a very safe place to play, ride bikes, etc. We share a serenity here not found in many
areas today. This area is like a long
time dream to my wife and I, as we moved from New York about 9 years ago, where
we lived on a busy street where this “serenity” was nowhere to be found.
I
have included a page of photos from our neighborhood and an explanation of
each. I only hope you study these
photos carefully to understand the impact “PE” will cause.
Photo
#1 shows my home and my closest neighbor.
You can feel the peace and quiet of our secluded area. This feeling will be destroyed if the bypass
is allowed to pass through here.
Photo
#2 is a whitetail deer fawn. This fawn
was in no danger and sensed that when it wandered to my neighbors kitchen
window. You don’t see this around any
main highways, and if you did, it would probably result in death to the
fawn. Traffic is no match for any
wildlife, especially a small deer.
Photo
#3 shows 24 deer in my back yard. The
woods directly behind my home is their home also. It is nothing to find several deer beds in the snow during winter
months. These animals have a natural
sense to know if there is danger, and they know they are safe here. There has been as many as 30 deer in my yard
feeding at one time. This is a good
size population which would be almost certainly displaced with a highway here.
Photo
#4 was taken just inside the woods you see in photo 3. This antler rub is 5 ½ ft. off the
ground. It is not from whitetail deer,
but from a moose. There has been three
separate occasions when a moose has passed through our development. It is quite a site to see if you have ever
lived on a busy street where a site like this is unheard of.
I
hope this letter gives you an idea of what our development is all about. Peace and quiet, nature and serenity. Please don’t take this away from us, it will
be very difficult if at all possible to find again.
Sincerely,
Joseph House
Joseph House
159 Blanchard Ave.
Pittsford, Vt. 05763
802-483-2129
5/21/01
To whom it may
concern,
I am a Pittsford
resident. I do not want to see a bypass
around Pittsford village. A bypass
would change the community in a negative way.
Also, as a taxpayer, I do not want to see any more money spent on
studies.
Regards
Daniel J. Shea
1198 Furnace Road
Pittsford, Vt. 05763
Monday,
May 21, 2001
I
am writing in response to the request for citizen feedback on the
Pittsford-Brandon bypass. My family
resides on the lower portion of Sugar Hollow Road, an area that, according to
the latest map, would be seriously impacted by one of the proposed routes. We moved to this location six years ago
because of the natural beauty of the area, the secluded nature of the dirt
road, and the sense of safety this would afford in raising small children.
We
are also aware that the VAST trail network is in the middle of the proposed
bypass route, and this is a valuable resource for our family and the
community. This trail network is
utilized for cross country skiing, snowmobiling and hiking. It is home to turkey, an occasional moose,
as well as the regular residents, deer, ruffed grouse, black bear, foxes, etc. Many residents also use the old dam as an
access point for fishing. We are also
aware that this dam and the area surrounding it, is an historical area.
Because
of the change in the landscape and the traffic level, the bypass, if erected
along the proposed lower Sugar Hollow route, would force us to move from a
beautiful, wooded location, and from the house where our children were
born. We chose to live here; we chose
not to live on Route 7. We believe the
state and towns should look for other alternatives to traffic congestion,
alternatives that do not cause relocation from natural, wooded areas.
Sincerely,
Lauren
and Doug Norford
As residents of Brandon, we concur that there is a definite need for a by-pass around Brandon. We also feel that a Pittsford by-pass would also be beneficial to those who travel Route 7 from south to north of the state. By building a route 7 by-pass between Brandon and Pittsford at a later date it could connect the two short “band-aid” by-passes which should be built now.
Using a westerly route could also connect eventually with other town’s band-aid by-passes that eventually lead to Route 4 between Rutland and Fair Haven.
With Castelton College located near Route 30 we feel that the state should make a north south corridor somewhere on the western side of Vermont. Having all short routes on the west side would allow traffic to continue while different segments were built piecemeal.
- Paul & Mary Potvin – Brandon, VT
May
24, 2001
1) The railroad as shown on your map going from Proctor to the OMYA plant in Pittsford no longer exists. This was abandoned in 1975 as evidenced by an enclosed photo copy of the newspaper article. Maybe this was done before your company was established and was overlooked.
2) In the interest of public good and also to
relate to the proposed bypasses, it would be in the best interest of all
parties concerned to have all of the rivers and streams incorporated into the
present map. This would give us a
better insight to how the picture all fits together. (Otter Creek, Neshobe River, Etc.) Now I know that these features were well established on the face
of the earth long before the roads, railroads, and even us were around these
parts of the universe.
3) From the perspective of a resident from
Brandon, I fee that the short bypass route labeled “BW” is the viable way to
solve this problem. However I feel that
this route can be shortened. This can
be accomplished by starting the northerly terminus with route 7 just south of
the Steinberg road, have no intersection with route 73, and continue
south-easterly to join up with route 7 near Nickerson road as proposed. I feel that the limited traffic from route
73 west would not warrant an intersection with the bypass at this point. Just have this traffic come through town as
usual. The real bulk of traffic is
north and south bound, and this short bypass should fill the need for a long
time to come.
Respectively,
James McKinnell
637 Marshall Phillips Road
Brandon, Vermont
05733
June
1, 2001
I
agree that Brandon does need something done to cure traffic problems in the
downtown section of Route 7. However
the cure should cause as little disruption as possible.
I
am against any attempt to change the rural character of the area. This not New Jersey (with apologies to
jerseyites) and I don’t want to see it become an industrialized area. Therefore, I would favor the shortest and
least intrusive route around the immediate downtown area. With the upgrades to Route 7 over the next
10 years, it seems to make sense to bypass the town and get back on 7 as
quickly as possible. I strongly oppose
the PBE and PBW routes.
As
a real estate broker I am also extremely concerned by the apparent disregard
for the rights of area property owners.
Every home or land parcel within a ¼ to ½ mile of all six of the
currently proposed routes now is a stigmatized property. If you totaled the number of parcels
involved in some way be it visual, noise or otherwise, the number would
certainly be over a thousand. An owner
wishing to sell one of these properties or a real estate broker listing one has
to inform a potential buyer that a bypass may directly or indirectly affect the
property or face the very real threat of a lawsuit. In the case of a broker a virtual guarantee of loss of license in
addition to civil penalties.
I have seen what has happened in Rutland, Rutland town and Mendon because of the various Rutland by-pass routes. Sales have slowed to a crawl and prices have dropped for home along the routes and it has caused real hardship for many many people. A sale in Pittsford was cancelled two days after the May 21, 2001 meeting because the property was in one of the bypass routes. Can you imaging how devastated the seller was.
Some
how the planning process has to become more sensitive to this problem and not
draw lines on a map without good and valid reasons and to erase those route as
quickly as they are rejected.
Sincerely,
Alex
Greene
927
Hollow Rd.
Brandon,
Vt 05733
In
1967 I wrote a letter to the Rutland Herald Editor stating the need for a
bypass around Brandon because of the many accidents particularly with regard to
the stretch of road south of the funeral home.
I live at 40 Franklin St.—Things haven’t changed, except to maybe get
worse. Since last fall these incidents
have occurred:
1)
going south around 7 or 8 AM a man ran into the light pole at the south side of
my drive breaking it in two.
2)
An older man coming south blew his nose and ran head on into a car in front of
my house.
3)
A woman coming south ran into my ‘northern’ neighbor as he was turning into his
driveway.
4)
A man coming south driving a new PT cruiser lost control of the car at the
curve and drove across the top of my driveway, down my hillside, and was
airborne and landed, on the wheels and right side up, on my property south of
the stream which goes into the culvert under Rte. 7.
5)
It’s difficult to get out of my driveway onto Rte 7—It’s fortunate I wasn’t
sitting there in my driveway waiting to get out when this last car was totaled—I
would have been too! 2 of these drivers
I know were not from Brandon but were just driving thru—probably the other two
were just driving thru too—If there had been a bypass they probably would have
been on it and not on Rte 7 by my house—& these accidents on Rte 7 would
not have been—
Edna
Jones 6-8-01
Would
we eliminate or drastically reduce the need for a bypass if Route 22A were to
become a “regional” bypass—
There
must be some origin/destination traffic counts that would help answer this?
Thanks.
6/22/01
I very much disapprove of the Brandon West bypass proposal
because it appears to be much more costly and less effective than the BE
route. Railroad bridges and road
crossings are more expensive and always cause dangerous conditions for
traffic. I am familiar with the terrain
on the BW route and it imposes a lot of problems including a marble quarry,
wetlands, and some rocky sections.
It seems to me that the BE route would make a lot more sense
for providing access to Brandon from the East and traffic moving north to
Burlington or South to Rutland and would be less costly and safer than the BW
route.
Please take my opinions into
consideration, as a landowner and citizen of Brandon.
Bruce
& Debbie Howard
Old
Brandon Rd. Brandon, VT
6/22/01
After
carefully reviewing considerations on the bypasses around Brandon, Vt. I have
come to the conclusion that the proposed bypass labeled BW is not in my
opinion the most desirable route because it would be necessary to bridge over
the Railroad tracks twice and to go over 5 roads by bridge or make
intersections, all very costly. Besides
there wetlands in that area that the Corps of Eng. would probably forbid construction.
where it cuts off Rt. 7 south of town is a very dangerous entry area and has
the reputation of being accident prone on the hill & curve. The interchange west on Rt 73 would be
costly for the Light use it would provide.
The BE approach makes much more
sense for one reason it would be in open country which would also service the
town of Forestdale and provide a good interchange for trucks coming westerly to
go to Brandon Middlebury or Pittsford & Rutland. No R.R. to cross and fewer roads.
H.
J. Huntoon