Friday, August 23, 2019

Killington Road planning begins Wednesday

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    KILLINGTON — The first public meeting to discuss what Killington Road will look like in the coming years will be held Wednesday.“This is just a notification that on Aug. 28 at the (Killington Pico Area Association) we are going to have the kick-off meeting for developing the Killington Road Master Plan,” said Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth at the Tuesday Select Board meeting. “VHB, the engineer that’s going to be doing the work, will be doing a brief presentation to explain how we are going to go about the process and where we’re going to go, and how people will be involved.”
    Mike Coppinger, executive director of the Killington Pico Area Association, said Thursday that the meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. While the KPAA is hosting the event, the Killington Road Master Plan is helmed by the Killington Planning Commission and Killington Select Board.
    “We will note that at some point in the near future we are going to be doing some survey and data collection along Killington Road, but the plan has not started,” Hagenbarth said Tuesday. “We are going to take all the information we’ve gathered from previous studies, and then the Planning Commission will be in the center of this program. There will probably be some form of a committee included because the (Killington Ski Resort) will be included … and any business owners that want to be a part of the committee will be there, people on Killington Road.”
    Hagenbarth said the plan should take between six and 12 months to create. Once complete, if adopted, it will allow the town to apply for various state and federal grants.
    Interim Town Planner Preston Bristow said Thursday that Killington is a town that expects to grow in the coming years, especially along Killington Road, and the road right now needs to be upgraded to handle the expected traffic. Bristow said funds for this plan were approved at Town Meeting in March, but it’s been talked about before. He said it’s likely the town is already aware of the things people want to see addressed, but won’t know for sure until the meeting on Wednesday.
    Bristow said besides beefing up the road itself, people have talked about streetlights, crosswalks, cut-outs for buses and the placement of travel lanes. He said upgrades to water infrastructure have been discussed as well, including the possibility of a public water system.
    It’s not clear whether the Killington Road Master Plan will be incorporated into the Town Plan, said David Rosenblum, chairman of the Planning Commission. He said he expects to hear more from people on Wednesday.
    The last time Killington Road was reconstructed was in the late 1980s, Hagenbarth said Tuesday. Minor work, such as lane striping has taken place since.
    “I’m sure it will be done in phases, this is not an all-at-one-time project, but the goal is to have a plan to look to that we can work with,” he said.
    Hagenbarth said the Wednesday meeting will be warned as a special Select Board meeting, not to be confused with its regular meeting scheduled for Sept. 3. The Planning Commission has also warned the Wednesday gathering as an official Planning Commission meeting.
    keith.whitcomb
    @rutlandherald.com

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