Is The Tolland Village Plan New England-y Enough?

In the future, will Tolland’s main business area look enough like a traditional New England village?

Will the townhouses and streets in the proposed Tolland Village Area be in keeping with the rest of the town’s character?

One town council member said Tuesday night that she continues to have her doubts.

In a brief discussion of a proposal that would help create a town center at Route 195 and I-84, MaryAnn Delaney Tuttle, the council’s vice chairwoman, once again stated her concerns about the nature the proposal. Delany Tuttle is particularly worried about a connector road intended to help traffic in and out of residential areas proposed for both sides of Route 195 north of the interchange.

She said she thinks that some of the housing currently described in the proposal “is out of character with the town of Tolland.” She made her comments during a council meeting held Tuesday at the high school.

The council’s deliberations over the entire Tolland Village Area concept will continue May 10, when a traffic engineer is scheduled to detail the proposed roadway plan.

As currently configured, the proposed Tolland Village Area is intended to help focus and guide future residential and commercial development into a cohesive community of pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and shops. The plan is designed to encourage development where there are already sewer and water systems available to handle it.

In development since 2006, the proposal would nearly triple the current housing density and double the commercial square footage available in the town center, planners have said. The economic effect of increasing the density could cause tax revenues to the town to more than double, going from a projected $341,000 under current zoning, to $719,000.

Tuttle’s big concern was about the nature of the residential development and the proposed road connecting Cider Mill Road and Route 195 at a new intersection just north of the existing commercial development there. The connector would begin on Cider Mill Road at an intersection near Cider Mill Pond, and extend eastward across 195 into a future mixed-use development area. It would pass through or near the so-called Michael Taylor property that is envisioned as being an area of townhouse and commercial development.

Tuttle said she thinks it is “not a good idea” to have a through-street in an area that would be so densely populated and intended to be pedestrian friendly. Further, she said, the townhouses proposed for that area were not in keeping with her idea of a New England village.

According to the town’s traffic planner, however, the road “is proposed to be designed with ‘complete street’ principles” that would comport with the village concept. Those principles would include sidewalks, mid-block pedestrian crossings, textured crosswalks, bicycle accommodations, a center median, diagonal parking and “horizontal curvature” to reduce traffic speeds.

Having an outlet on Cider Mill Road would also help disperse the traffic instead of funneling it onto 195, Linda Farmer, director of planning and development, said.

Stephen O’Neill of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., the traffic engineer for the project, is scheduled to appear before the council May 10 to answer the board’s questions and explain the plan in detail.

The town council has 65 days to review and discuss the plan, but its approval is not necessary for adoption of what is technically an amendment to the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development overseen by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Rejection of the plan by the council, however, would require the PZC to adopt the change with greater than a majority vote.

Only one member of the public spoke about the proposal at Tuesday’s brief discussion.

Resident Sam Belsito said he sees no point in pursuing – and paying for -- the amendment until there are financial backers prepared to invest in development.  He also said that traditional New England towns “were not planned,” but evolved “naturally.”

Farmer said there is interest in moving forward on developing the Taylor property in this or the next construction season.