What About Traffic?
Any use of the property is going to mean some more traffic than now since the property is largely unused now, and the SSND have the legal right to use or sell their property. The question is what use will increase traffic the least when traffic is the worst. Any Belden Hill Road resident knows that traffic is a problem during the morning rush hour, and in the late afternoon-evening starting with Miller-Driscoll school pick up and extending to the evening rush hour.
The SSND development should not result is materially more traffic at the times traffic is a problem on Belden Hill Road. According to American Seniors Housing Association Data Book 2021, the average age of residents of independent living is about 82 years, and of assisted living is 84 years These are ages at which many people have given up driving, and even if they haven’t, they are unlikely to want, or be forced, to drive when traffic is heaviest. This is also a population that has chosen to live in a place where driving is not necessary and that is served by a shuttle bus to go to town or medical appointments.
Nor should staff driving to or from work increase traffic at rush hours. A resident at Meadow Ridge, an assisted living facility in Redding, says traffic peaks there 6:00-7:00 am and again 2:00 - 3:00 during shift changes. The facility at the SSND property would have no reason to schedule shift changes when traffic was busiest. Further, the SSND/Hines development is required by Wilton Zoning regulations to submit a “transportation plan to reduce the impact of staff traffic” so the public and the P&Z will have the opportunity to require Hines to commit to reducing the effect of staff traffic on Belden Hill Road.
Other uses of the property, such as multi-family or single-family development, are more likely to result in more peak hour traffic than the SSND development even if the SSND had more parking spots. Even use of the property as a town park with sports fields, while unlikely a viable option, is likely to cause worse traffic other than in winter from parents and athletes attending games in the afternoon and on weekends.
Opponents of the SSND development focus on the number of parking spots the property will be required to have based on the number of units. Focusing solely on the number of parking spots required by zoning, without considering how many resident cars will be parked there, how frequently they will be driven, and when they will be driven, is likely to give a distorted view of the effect of the SSND development on local traffic.
Traffic on Belden Hill Road will change when the property is developed, as neither the neighbors nor the Town have the power to keep the property vacant and unused. Among the visible options, we believe the SSND Development will have the least detrimental effect on traffic. Neighbors concerned with traffic in the neighborhood should therefore support the SSND/ Hines Development.