Winston Prouty Center presents traffic study for housing project
By Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer, Saturday, August 3, 2024
BRATTLEBORO — The Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development hosted three meetings this week, inviting those in the neighborhood to hear about a traffic study and learn about how its housing project is taking shape.
“We’re making the pitch for why this is a great place to build a village,” Chloe Learey, executive director of the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development, said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve made a lot of progress.”
Learey said the plan for The Village at Winston Prouty to develop 282 units of different kinds of housing on campus is to “just use debt and private equity to make it work.” A recreation hall also is part of the design.
Attendees at the meetings are “very excited,” Learey said. She noted the traffic study had been conducted by Corey Mack of Wall Consultant Group when the plan called for more units — 342.
About 2,631 new vehicle trips are anticipated to be added over an average day. That’s an increase of about 80 percent or 3,306 over the most recent data, translating to about one vehicle leaving per minute and one vehicle arriving per minute.
About 163 of the 2,631 vehicle trips would be in the morning peak hour, according to the study. About 122 would happen in the evening peak hour.
“I think in the world of traffic, it is not a lot but it feels like a lot,” Learey said. “But a concern I hear a lot more is the speed of traffic on Maple Street.”
About 63 percent of the trips generated by the project will relate to Maple Street and streets/neighborhoods to the east, according to the study. More traffic associated with the project would slow drivers down and construction would likely occur in phases, Learey said.
About 37 percent of the trips generated by the project will relate to Guilford Street and streets/neighborhoods to the west.
“No surprise here,” Learey said. “All of these intersections, the study said, would warrant more research about how to do traffic calming essentially because there are more than 75 trips during the peak hours.”
Six intersections likely to be recommended for more study include Western Avenue and Guilford Street, Guilford and Maple, Maple and Austine Drive, Maple and Fairview, Maple and Pleasant Street, and Maple and Canal Street.
Learey said the town is aware of traffic issues and has implemented some measures to help, including a stop at Fairview and Maple. Other projects could include narrowing the roadway and adding traffic lights, rumble strips and roundabouts.
“All of this is on the town’s radar,” Learey said. “I think they’re a great partner, and they want to do as much as they can as well.”
The Village at Winston Prouty project could make traffic improvements “more compelling,” Learey said.
Another possibility is creating a different exit from the campus. Currently, the campus only has one way in and out.
“One part of the proposal is to make a three-way stop right at the entrance to campus, which would slow traffic down, and then looking at a possible egress on Maple Street over here,” Learey said.
Her plan is to post a recording of the presentation to the center’s website.
“We’ll keep working to advance the site design and then start permitting and do some of the schematic design engineering and figure out how we’re going to pay for it,” Learey said.
The hope is to raise $150,000 to keep the project moving. Learey said the money will pay for a project manager as well as some fees for architects and engineers.
Altogether, the price tag is estimated to land somewhere between $78 to $100 million. Learey said the first phase could cost about $15 million.
A separate study estimates water and sewer upgrades will cost about $6 to $7 million.
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Learey said she hopes the community will support the project with funding or by talking about it with others.