by Frank Schroth

The Board of Appeals met last Tuesday (4/21) to continue the hearing of a comprehensive permit for an apartment complex at 711 Randolph Avenue. The board heard from of Decelle-Burke & Associates, the engineering firm retained by H&W apartments, the developer. Jim Burke responded to statements made by the peer review experts that evaluated the plans.

Those statements largely concerned issues of pedestrian and traffic safety and adequacy of storm water management system. Mr. Burke said that he stood behind the access. “That can be built.” A key concern is with regard to vehicles exiting the property and attempting to make a left hand turn onto Randolph Ave. Randolph Avenue is 4 lanes wide, the access point is close to a signaled intersection, and traffic volumes can be heavy especially during rush hour. The board challenged this. Chair Leonard asked if this was a situation in which “reasonable people can disagree?” The anwer from Burke was yes. “Can you safely take a left,” asked Leonard. “I’m still here,” replied Burke.

There was also some disagreement regarding possible number of calls to emergency assistance. Burke did not believe that the number of calls would be from 4-5 per week as had been stated in a previous session. He did acknowledge that dual access from Randolph Ave nue and DPW yard would be the preferred manner to allow emergency vehicles onto the site but it is unlikely that the town will agree to allow DPW access.

Burke also addressed the issue of soil sampling as it relates to storm water management. The tests performed indicate the soil is properly porous to enable proposed storm water management plan.

Daniel Dulaksi, the traffic engineer working with Decelle-Burke, said they had prepared a traffic document that “was a little tighter” as a result of factoring feedback from the peer review study. (You can find all of the documents related to this project here). He said that vehicles could exit and enter the property and that there should be sufficient traffic gaps to allow them to do that safely. members of the audience did not seem so sure.

Numerous residents spoke of the heavy traffic that would be pushed onto neighborhood streets especially if a right hand only requirement was put in place. One went so far as to say “kids are going to be killed. . . there’s no doubt. . . if a development goes in there will be a dead child.” Suffice to say, traffic is a real issue for residents of the area.

The Blute Conference Room where the hearing took place was filled to capacity.and will likely be again when the hearing resumes on May 20th at 5:00pm.