Springfield DRB says school traffic plan “lacking”

Springfield's development review board says it needs additional information from the Springfield school district on how its going to manage traffic problems at the two elementary schools.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110222/NEWS02/702229880

Published February 22, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Springfield DRB says school traffic plan “lacking”

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Development Review Board says the recent traffic study done on behalf of the school district is “lacking” and it needs additional information before it can approve after-the-fact the changes to the town’s two elementary schools.

The board recently set the conditions it says the Springfield school district must meet to resolve the zoning violations and traffic problems created by the expansion of the town’s two elementary schools.

But the conditions were reluctantly issued, according to Bill Kearns, the town’s zoning administrator.

“They feel pushed in the corner,” he said.

The board met in deliberative session last week and issued the recommendations to the school district afterwards.

The board said it needed specifics of a mitigation plan regarding the drop-off and pick-up of students, as well as a study on managing students walking to the school and a plan dealing with a medical emergency during the high congestion times.

The board said that the information presented by the school district “did not sufficiently … overcome the deficiencies” in the traffic study by RSG Associates.

Kearns said the changes the school district instituted would not in ordinary circumstances be allowed according to the zoning.

“You could not put it in there without DRB findings,” he said.

The key is that it would not have an adverse effect on the neighborhood, and he said in the case of Elm Hill School, and the congestion and traffic problems, the DRB would have been hard-pressed to give its blessing.

“They probably would not have approved it,” he said.

The school district presented its new traffic study to the board earlier this month and is seeking approval for 374 students at each school, Kearns said. Current enrollments are about 300 students per school.

The higher number of students is based on the renovated square footage of Elm Hill and Union Street schools.

However, the board said it was inclined only to approve student populations of 300 each at the schools, unless the school district can convince it that its new management plans can solve the existing problems.

Kearns said the DRB noted the rather convoluted history behind the renovations at the two schools and the decision to close a third, the Park Street School. The school board also decided to change the grades in each school, consolidating all the three younger grades at Elm Hill, and Grades 3-5 at Union Street, which many believe has contributed to the traffic problems at Elm Hill.

Kearns noted that DRB Chairman Joe Wilson recused himself from the discussion because he was on the school’s building committee, which oversaw the renovations to the two elementary schools.

The school district was given until March 8, the next meeting of the Development Review Board, to submit the necessary plans, Kearns said.