MEMBERS PRESENT: Patrick Kennedy, Viney Wilson, Mario Marrero
ALTERNATES PRESENT: Stephanie Dexter, William Butter
STAFF PRESENT: Michele Lipe, Town Planner; Lauren Zarambo, Recording Secretary
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APPLICATIONS TO BE OFFICIALLY RECEIVED:
REGULAR MEETING / MADDEN ROOM
CALL TO ORDER:
Chairman Kennedy called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: None
NEW BUSINESS: Discussion/Decision/Action regarding the following:
- Meeting with Heidi Samokar, from Planimetrics, to review the Plan of Conservation and Development. (Booklet 6: Infrastructure Topics enclosed.)
Heidi Samokar from Planimetrics began her presentation on Infrastructure in the community which included town facilities, buildings and land, transportation and utilities. Of all topics previously discussed, Infrastructure is within the least control of the Planning and Zoning Commission and more under the control of the Town Council, the State Department of Transportation, water providers or South Windsor’s Water Pollution Control Authority.
A chart was presented showing how communities use Plans of Conservation and Development (POCD) to guide growth and change, investments by others and to coordinate activities. The predominant use of the plan is to guide growth and change but can help set operating budgets to allocate funds for public relations to help South Windsor remain a business friendly community and to set capital budgets for things like road maintenance. Ms Samokar asked the Commissioners for their guidance to form the philosophy of the plan so as to know how the plan is to be used. If the Commission sees the plan as opportunity to guide investment and coordinate activities she asked how to bring in other groups involved so that the plan reflects all visions and intentions for South Windsor.
Residents equate Community Facilities (Bk6, P2) and services with quality of life. A graphic of a traffic light was displayed showing Schools, Police, Parks & Recreation and the Senior Center as major places that may need help in the next ten years. (Bk6, P4) Although there is a decrease in enrollment in schools and a projected decrease in the need for more space in schools in the next 10 – 20 years, enrollment is cyclical and may increase in the future. Referendums failed to support these departments but the need to improve their facilities does exist. Commissioner Wilson commented school facilities are not being used for community activities and that everything is geared toward the Community Center. She questioned why schools could not be used after hours for scouts and other groups. Ms. Samokar responded
Parks and Recreation has an excellent relationship with the schools in terms of sharing fields and the Teen Center uses the schools for cooking but acknowledged many cases where sharing existing facilities is not available. Planner Michele Lipe stated there is a procedure to use school spaces but was unsure of restrictions limiting use. Commissioner Wilson replied given the taxes paid by individuals and businesses better cooperation should exist. Chairman Kennedy agreed there should be avenues to work through. Ms Samokar summarized the first step would be to use buildings and land more efficiently to their maximum potential by sharing. Chairman Kennedy also commented schools and land should be retained for future potential use.
Moderate needs for improvement were noted (Bk6, Pg5). The Town Hall lacks adequate meeting and office space. The Fire Department facilities are pretty well set but if volunteer recruits are unable to find affordable housing they may go to other communities to join their departments. The Teen Center, Senior Center and Public Works would like more space. The Emergency Operation Center Shelters are in good shape but the EOC has technology issues to be addressed. The Housing Authority has a waiting list for their one new housing development.
Facilities noted to be in good shape are Ambulance, Library, Animal Control, and Waste Disposal. Commissioners Dexter and Butter asked if South Windsor had its own EMT or is there a reliance on the Town of Manchester. Planner Lipe replied there is a difference in each community’s services on a paramedic level and multiple times both services have responded to calls. Ms Samokar said she will research. Commissioner Wilson commented that all relatively new buildings were built without a ten year or long term plan and with South Windsor’s growth many facilities have been outgrown. Ms Samokar suggested it is the result of the voting residents having a hard time approving what is needed in the present let alone sizing it for the future. A Community Facilities Plan can address this issue.
Ms. Samokar asked the Commissioners how they would edit the Over Goals and Strategies (Bk6, P6), ‘to provide facilities and services that meet the needs of all age groups and contribute to a high quality of life and for best land use to ensure new or expanding facilities are optimally located to perform its function, support community goals and avoid impacts to established neighborhoods’. Commissioner Wilson suggesting adding words to the line “ensure new or expanding facilities are optimally located and sized for the future”. Commissioner Butter added the phrase ‘to accommodate projected future growth and to maximize the use of what we have’. Chairman Kennedy added ‘capable of expansion, if need be’.
There are strategies to comprehensively plan for community facilities and town owned land. A Management Plan can be created for every parcel of land, especially those not being used, by identifying any town restrictions for the land and secondly to project the community’s future intentions for the property ten or twenty years ahead in a public forum like the Town Council. A Capital Improvement Plan already exists for capital projects over the next few years for repairs to buildings, new buildings, fields, equipment, vehicles and roadways. No Comprehensive Facilities Plan presently exists. Each department has a good idea of what they need but there lacks a coordinated vision of the over all picture to take advantage of departments benefitting from each other. This larger town plan could come through the Town Council
to phase and program different departments facilities in order to coordinate and achieve greater goals of the community. Chairman Kennedy concurred a Comprehensive Facilities Plan would be under the Town Council’s jurisdiction. Commissioner Marrero asked how much impact the POCD would actually have on the Town Council. Chairman Kennedy stated the POCD would not be binding on any other commission or department. Ms Samokar stated the plan does not need to be presented as a goal or a strategy but as a tool to be used.
The second overarching strategy is to guide the location of Community Facilities (Bk6, P7). Facilities should be easily accessible in centralized locations along arterial roads. The Town Hall and Library should remain in the Town Center to help contribute to the town center atmosphere. Public safety facilities are located to serve response times and geographic scope. When facilities expand or are newly constructed they should not impact existing neighborhoods negatively.
Transportation in South Windsor is dominated as a car oriented community. Roads need to be perceived for everyone inclusive of pedestrians and bicyclists. When improvements are made to roads a ‘Complete Street’ philosophy is popular in the region to make streets easier and safer for people walking or biking and to potentially allow for more grants for roadway projects. ‘Complete Streets’ can be an overarching approach for South Windsor while maintaining a comprehensive, safe and efficient road network, expanding walking and bicycling options, promoting public transportation including promoting the continued use of rail for moving freight. Commissioner Marrero obtained a DOT map of South Windsor which appeared different from how the town maps are classified. Ms Samokar replied DOT will allocate
funding based on their map classifications and will also use it for road improvement which sometimes do not correspond to what exists on the ground. The town has come up with their own classification. Planner Lipe stated she would be revisiting the town map with Town Engineer, Jeff Doolittle to make minor modifications.
A Vehicular Transportation Plan was displayed. Ms Samokar described road classifications. Arterial Roads are major routes that connect communities and the region to key destinations explaining their prime purpose as getting the traffic through. Sullivan and Buckland Roads were sited as examples. That purpose sometimes creates challenges with business along those routes. In reality moving traffic and meeting business needs both have to be met. State owned arterials sometimes are widened to become secondary expressways to accommodate traffic flow. If that is not the vision for the town it is important in the plan to express to the DOT the need for ‘context sensitive design’, planning not just for numbers but for what is on the roadways. The prime purpose of Collector Roads is to collect cars from local roads
and bring them to arterials. Local roads are not meant to be through roads but to access development. A way to use these classifications to help manage traffic congestion is to prevent ‘high traffic generators’ from being built on roads which are not arterial or collectors. Ms Samokar stated the Commission is doing a good job of mitigating requiring traffic studies and turning lanes but what is not being done before a project is planned is stating high density housing development cannot be built on local roads. There is nothing in the regulations that prevents a property owner from building a high density housing development on a local road. Many communities require special exception permits for high density residential, assisted living, convalescence homes, or schools but will not consider the project if there is access onto a local road. This gives predictability to applicants who then know not even to propose coming in off a local road. Chairman Kennedy questioned if
access management a few feet into a local road rather than directly into an arterial could be beneficial. Ms Samokar agreed that regulation language could allow for that scenario.
Roads are a physical investment that we have made for our community and should be maintained. The Public Works department hired a firm to examine how various funding levels will impact South Windsor’s roads long term. A table on Booklet 6, Page10 shows how much money is needed annually to maintain the present condition of the roads. The condition of town roads forms the first impressions of a community and factor into attracting new business into town. The town has done well with road connectivity in the ease of getting through town in all directions. The Vehicular Transportation Plan map shows two new connections: one from the Buckland study which recommended a new connection for Evergreen Walk and another roadway network proposed for the Connecticut Studio site. South Windsor has successfully connected
subdivisions to minimize cul de sacs. Traffic hot spots are minimal in the area. Ms Samokar encouraged working together with surrounding communities to address issues like Evergreen Walk and the Buckland area. Planner Lipe stated a traffic light is being installed at the Dunkin Donuts on Sullivan Avenue. Sidewalks and a pedestrian crossing in that area will be looked at in the future. Traffic calming measures like those being installed on Kelly Road are important for quality of life and traffic safety in neighborhoods. Parked cars on the street slow traffic and buildings which are built closer to the street psychologically can help slow traffic.
On the subject of Walking and Biking, Ms Samokar suggested the POCD incorporate by reference the South Windsor Walk and Wheel Ways’ master plan (Bk6, P12). Planner Lipe stated the SWW&WW got very active with the repaving of Route 5 in contacting the State concerning crosswalks on Route 5 and a biking lane. The SWW&WW is looking to the Planning and Zoning Commission to draft something into the town plan supporting their efforts so ‘Complete Streets’ can be incorporated into future designs to work more effectively at the state level. Ms Samokar stated she is willing to craft policies to support this. Planner Lipe received suggestions at the State level encouraging these kinds of policies to be put into town plans so that when working with the State they are there and will complement the work
of the SWW&WW.
The Pedestrian Transportation Plan (Bk6, P14) was based on existing town data and identifies where sidewalks are located and priority areas for future sidewalks. The map can be used by the Town in making decisions where to build sidewalks and sidewalk requirements when development is proposed. The map could also be used to plan sidewalks to potentially connect open space areas to each other. Town roads were rated on the Bicycle Plan (Bk6, P15) for bike-ability. These maps can inform the Town or State when road work is proposed if measures can be included to help make the roads more bicycle friendly. Commissioner Marrero asked what simple measures can be taken to make changes such as stripping the road or would widening roads be necessary. Ms Samokar stated on roads with low traffic a simple measure such as signage to
look for bicyclists is possible.
Commissioner Butter asked if there is something in place to prevent road work from being done simultaneously on roads which act as alternate routes to each other. Ms Samokar responded she would check with Planner Lipe if there are policies in place. Commissioner Wilson commented on road work when trees are removed and streets widened on smaller roads which results in faster traffic and more accidents as evidenced on Pleasant Valley and Clark Roads. Ms Samokar stressed the importance of strong policies in place so when conducting a review there is strong policy and plans to support good planning.
Chairman Kennedy commented on the Freight Rail section of the Booklet 6. Ms Samokar spoke about the benefits of having an active freight rail line going through town. Freight planning cannot be done on a local level but by knowing the rail company that owns the line the Town can be keep up to date as to whether they will be continuing to provide rail service and to keep an inventory of who uses the rail line. The Town can be marketed in partnership with the freight provider to businesses.
Utilities include sewer, water, energy, electricity, drainage and communications. Sewers and water will not be changing much over the next 10 years. Maintenance is the issue. Planner Lipe is working with DEEP to fix the Sewer Service map (Bk6, P18) which shows some conservation areas which are not really conservation areas. The sewer avoidance areas are important in areas when high density growth is not wanted. Ms. Samokar stressed the importance of having the map accurately reflects where the Town does and does not want sewers. Planner Lipe stated she will keep the Commission posted on the subject. On the subject of drainage, the Town has incorporated Low Impact Development (LID) techniques into projects which use the land to manage storm water rather than building structures when allowable.
The next step in the project is the online Community Survey which the Commissioners will design. Ms Samokar is preparing a booklet with sample questions for the Commissioner’s ‘homework’ to use to develop what they want to learn from South Windsor residents. Planner Lipe spoke about ways to get the word out to the community about taking the survey. When the results from the survey are in Ms Samokar will work with the Commissioners to create the Plan. Six Commissioners have responded to a previous online survey Ms Samokar created for the commissioners on the subject of the future of Main Street.
MINUTES: 7-10-12 Minutes adopted by consensus. 7-24-12 Minutes are still to be distributed and were deferred to the next meeting.
OLD BUSINESS: see page 2
OTHER BUSINESS:
CORRESPONDENCE/REPORTS:
ADJOURNMENT:
Commissioner Wilson made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Marrero seconded the motion. The motion passed by unanimous vote. The meeting ended at 8:57 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lauren L Zarambo
Recording Secretary
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