AOT hears concerns about Chester roads

By Christian Avard
Staff Writer | May 18,2013

Rutland Herald

CHESTER — The town of Chester made it clear Friday they want the state to look after its roads.

Agency of Transportation officials visited the Chester Select Board and heard a laundry list of concerns pertaining to traffic patterns, road conditions and maintenance schedules. Select Board Chairman John DeBenedetti told Chris Cole and Kevin Marshia of the AOT that development is springing up around Chester and it could have a serious impact on local roads. According to DeBenedetti, a 22-home residency is in the works at Okemo Mountain Resort, Killington Ski Resort is planning to build 2,200 condominium units, 200,000 square feet of retail space and a new base lodge, and Winstanley Enterprises LLC and Weston Solutions is applying for an Act 250 permit for a 35-megawatt, wood chip-fired power plant in North Springfield.

DeBenedetti said it’s uncertain what kind of traffic Chester will experience if the Okemo and Killington plans are approved. But town officials are concerned about the traffic that will be generated if the biomass plant is approved.

According to the Select Board, there may be up to 240 trips (120 round trips) per day at the proposed biomass plant and wood chip facility and trucks will be traveling on Routes 11 and 103 and carrying a maximum load of 30 tons of wood chips from the proposed plant.

Cole and Marshia said they understood the town’s concerns, but they can’t step in until the projects are approved.

“People are looking for the agency to be proactive, but we have money to be reactive and it’s not enough,” Cole said. “We don’t have the ability to differentiate where trucks can operate in terms of the state highways they use. The Section 248 and Act 250 processes do.”

If traffic patterns increase significantly and local roads are compromised, the AOT can ask the District 2 Environmental Commission to allow traffic monitoring. If problems persist, the developer will be required to mitigate unsafe situations.

Select Board member Tom Bock said many residents have lived on Route 103 for many years and they are “very concerned” about the proposed projects and especially the biomass plant facility. Some homes are 20 yards away from the road and they believe daily truck traffic will significantly impact the community. Cole suggested a corridor study by the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning and Development Commission to be paid for by developers.

DeBenedetti also asked when Route 10 was going to be repaired. The town was unsure if it was an AOT priority and Marshia said it was.

The AOT will survey the area this summer and repairs will start in 2015. DeBenedetti said the AOT repaired a section of Route 10 recently and wondered if that would postpone any plans for repairs,

“Will you think, ‘It’s not that bad, we can hold off on it?’” asked DeBenedetti.

“I don’t think it would delay it,” Marshia said.

christian.avard

Comment: So this is where the letter to the Act 250 commission on SP Land's permit application got started. For those of you who don't know, the three local Regional Planning Commissions, Rutland Regional, Two Rivers Ottaqueechee, and South Windsor, have submitted a letter to the Act 250 Commission which recommended, among other stringent requirements, that SP Land pay for correcting existing adverse and unsafe conditions on the US 4/VT 100/VT 103 Corridor consisting of 133 miles of road and 17 major intersections.
It doesn't get anymore unreasonable than this. When I originally read the letter I though these people were out of there minds. Now I see why they demanded this. Did the South Windsor Regional Planning Commission representative instigate the language in the letter. One has to wonder if his interest is in the best interests of his region or the above three regions represented by the signees of the letter or is he representing the interests of the biomass plant whose effect on Chester's roads is obviously substantial. By alluding to other developments whose effects on Chester's roads is uncertain, as stated in the article, the biomass development is spreading the cost among other entities.
In all fairness, the three RPC's are working on a revision of the letter which does not include the above provision, but it took stern objection by SP land and lobbying by concerned citizens in our town to get them to reconsider their letter. But other unreasonable conditions are still proposed. There is a meeting of the Rutland Regional Planning Commission on Tuesday May 21 at their offices in the Opera House on Merchants Row in Rutland. If you are at all interested in making a statement regarding this failure of our Regional Planning Commission in protecting our interests at the urging of outside interests please attend and make your presence felt.