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04/08/2020 08:55 AMChanges are being considered to the John Street neighborhood to help protect it from impending development in the area.
The town’s traffic authority is considering changes to the one-way street that links the Route 81/High Street artery to the former Unilever site.
At a March 18 meeting, the Town Council voted to refer a possible redesign of John Street to the town’s traffic authority, the Board of Police Commissioners, which will consult with the town’s consultant planner and fire services.
The town has only referred the idea to the traffic authority; no official decision has been reached and the authority will still need to study the issue.
The former Unilever property at the terminus of John Street is the site of several redevelopment proposals. The owners of the property successfully applied to develop an indoor recreation use on the property in fall 2019 and recently pulled a proposal to put a brewery on the property, with plans to resubmit that proposal in the future. A proposal to put apartments on the property is currently before the Planning & Zoning Commission.
If the property redevelopment is successful, it will bring increased vehicle and foot traffic to the John Street neighborhood. A John Street resident has previously intervened on the apartment application partly due to concerns she has that future development could affect her property and the neighborhood.
In response, there has been informal talks about making John Street a dead end to prevent traffic from using the neighborhood as an entrance to the Unilever property and prevent an increased traffic flow in the residential neighborhood. One resident of the road emailed the council to support the idea, according to Town Council Chairman Chris Aniskovich. Aniskovich said the traffic authority, Department of Public Works, and Fire Department will need to see if making the road a dead end is a viable option.
This is the second time in recent months that the town has sought to change aspects of John Street. The Historic District Commission, a town agency, sought to land a village district over John and High streets to protect the character of the neighborhood. The district would have required that any change to the exterior of a property in the district would need to be looked over by the town’s Design Review Board.
However, several residents of the two streets objected to the proposal and the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission voted to deny the application in February.