Housatonic Valley Regional Plan of Conservation and Development

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5-1. Introduction

The growth impacts inherent in the recommendations of HVCEO's Regional Transportation Plan are designed to be in harmony with this land development oriented Regional Plan of Conservation and Development. As the two primary HVCEO plans, they are mutually supportive.

Both public transit and traffic improvements
are important to the Housatonic Region.

5-1:1. LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION. Land use and transportation are intimately related. Indeed they are "two sides of the same coin" and must be planned together.

For the specific management of the relationship, this Plan directly relates traffic and transit investment priority to growth thru the policy coordinating table below:

Once roadway or highway capacity is increased, the land uses that follow typically generate traffic sufficient to absorb the excess capacity gained by the improvements.

Narrowness, poor design, and excess curb cuts, or any combination thereof, all limit the functioning of a road. These factors are most acutely felt in high growth commercial corridors where the rate of economic development has outstripped the capacity of the road to accommodate land service and through traffic.

Poor coordination of development and
roadway capacity at left, proper coordination at right.

Public sector responses to this infrastructure and development issue can be two fold. The first approach includes supply side road improvements (e.g. road widening, turning lanes, curb cut restrictions, traffic signals, signal timing changes). The second approach seeks to limit the pace or extent of traffic increases through restrictive zoning measures that limit or prohibit land uses that generate high amounts of traffic.

A LAND USE - TRANSPORTATION
RELATIONSHIP AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL
The map on the right projects future travel time in ten minute intervals
from I-84 Exit 7 north towards New Milford if the entire Route 7
Expressway had been built. The map at left shows travel times without the
Expressway. The ten minute contour lines reach further north with
the expressway, affecting the spread and intensity of land use.

5-1:2. BETTER BALANCE BETWEEN MODES OF TRANSPORTATON. Transportation planning has been criticized as being too heavily oriented to just one mode of transportation, the automobile. And correspondingly for freight movement, the truck. There is a lot of truth to this, the "system" reflecting both the preferences of its users and a lack of alternatives.

The goal of this Regional Plan is a better balance between the transportation modes. Specifically, a lesser percentage of total daily trips taken by auto and an increasing percentage using bus, rail, carpool and walking.

Methods to accomplish such change are provided in Plan Chapters 10. Mix Some Land Uses, 11. Transit Oriented Development and 12. Pedestrian Access.

Route 6 in Bethel identifying existing sidewalks in blue
and needed additions in red, as excerpted from the
2007 Bethel Plan of Conservation and Development

5-1:3. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Over recent decades, the transportation systems serving the region have facilitated extensive economic development. Key transportation resources include Route 7, which bisects the region from north to south, I-84 bisecting it from east to west, and Route 25 linking I-84 thru Newtown to coastal Fairfield County.

The Region also relies upon Metro North to provide commuter rail service on the Danbury Branch Line and the Housatonic Area Regional Transit District to provide local and interregional bus service. These services need to expand to provide a greater share of total daily person-trips.

The Housatonic Railroad Company and Providence and Worcester Railroad provide rail freight services in the region. Rail freight services are an important contributing component of the regional economy and need to be maintained and expanded, especially as an alternative to trucking.

On the mega scale, I-84 and nearby I-684 connect the regional economy to the New York, New Jersey and Midwest markets. From a statewide perspective they also function as the gateways to the I-84 corridor economies centered on Waterbury and urban areas to the east.

A more detailed review of the economic value of I-84 is contained in Plan Chapter 8 Expand the Regional Economy.

In addition to policies for upgrading the Route 7 and I-84 corridors, HVCEO also recommends expansion of interregional public transit connections to Waterbury and Bridgeport and better connections between public transit stations and employment sites.

In all cases, an important data source for regional transportation planning is the census record of daily commuter flows from town to town on hvceo.org. And for more local data sources see the Transportation Planning Resource Center on hvceo.org.

5-4:4. TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT. HVCEO recommends that municipalities follow the guidelines of Plan Chapter 11 regarding Transit Oriented Development chapter.

5-4:5. PEDESTRIAN ACCESS. Improve the relationship of transportation to land use by following the guidelines of the Pedestrian Access chapter of this Regional Plan of Conservation and Development.

5-2. HART BUS SERVICE

HART operates two types of bus services. Fixed route service, which runs according to a published timetable, is available to the general public.

Then paratransit demand-responsive door-to-door service known as SweetHART is available to persons over 60 or with a disability.

HART fixed route service is an acknowledged asset for existing and planned employment centers. And persons without automobiles and/or with mobility limitations often gravitate towards housing near HART service, an important "land use - transit" connection.

HART conducts periodic studies to insure the continued efficiency of its system and for logical extension of routes. For further information see the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 5: Plan for HART.

5-3. RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE PLAN

As of 2009 the area is in the midst of a major Conn DOT transportation study of alternatives for upgrading passenger service on the Danbury Branch Line. This effort includes a Connecticut DOT rail study web site.

Existing Danbury Branch Line stations
shown in red, proposed stations in blue.

HVCEO passenger rail expansion policies will be revised once the state study is completed.

For the current policy, and much background on rail services in the area, see the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 6: Rail Transportation Plan.

5-4. THE ROADWAY SYSTEM

5-4:1. CLASSIFICATION OF ROADWAYS. The classification of area roadways by function is a fundamental issue in transportation planning. It is a process by which streets and highways are grouped into similar classes according to the character of service they are intended to provide.

This classification influences the type of roadway expansion projects to be proposed on the roadway and the potential intensity of adjacent land use.

Basic to this process is the recognition that individual roads and streets do not serve travel independently in any major way. Rather, most travel involves movement through a network of roadways with different functions.

Given the diverse classification of area roads, differing design criteria are applied to encourage the use of the road as intended. Design features that can convey the level of classification to the driver include number of lanes, continuity of alignment, spacing of intersections, frequency of driveways, width of shoulders, sharpness of roadway curvature, grade standards and traffic controls.

Excerpt from map of Conn DOT roadway classifications
for the region. View entire regional map on hvceo.org.

The classifications for the Housatonic Valley are described below:

National Highway System: Throughout the USA, the combination of all interstates and some major arterials forms the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is a federal designation of the very most important roadways in the country, from the perspective of interstate travel, defense, etc.

To our west in adjacent New York State the NHS includes Interstate 684 north-south and New York Route 22 north-south. Then entering Danbury from the west, the NHS system across our Housatonic Valley Region includes all of Interstate 84 thru Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield and Newtown.

On the west side of Danbury where I-84's Exit 3 is the interface between the intersection of Route 7 and I-84, all of Route 7 south from Danbury thru Ridgefield, Redding and Wilton is NHS designated. It then interfaces in Norwalk with NHS designated Route 15 (the Merritt Parkway) and then I-95, as an interstate automatically included as an NHS route.

Proceeding easterly thru Danbury to I-84's Exit 7, where Route 7 leaves I-84 and proceeds north, all of Route 7 thru Brookfield to New Milford Center is an NHS designated route. But once in central New Milford, the NHS designation transfers off of Route 7 to Route 202, where it proceeds northeasterly until reaching the NHS designated Route 8 Expressway in Torrington.

Then at I-84 Exit 10 in Newtown, Route 6 westerly to Route 25 is an NHS route. At the intersection of Route 6 with Route 25 (the Flagpole) the designation transfers off of Route 6 to Route 25, where it proceeds thru Newtown southeasterly thru Monroe and Trumbull to the Merritt Parkway and I-95.

Aside from the top level NHS, the remaining classification of roadways by function within the Housatonic Valley Region, as defined by Conn DOT using FHWA guidelines, is summarized as follows:

Interstate: Limited access expressways that are part of the federal interstate system. In our case Interstate I-84 originating in Pennsylvania and terminating in Massachusetts. (As noted, all interstates are within the NHS).

Arterials Overview: These roadways provide the highest level of service at the greatest speed for the longest uninterrupted distance, with some degree of access control. Subcategories include:

Principal Arterial: These roads serve the major movement of traffic within the Region. Included in this class among others are portions of Routes 7 and 25, portions of Routes 53 and 302 connecting Downtown Bethel with Downtown Danbury, and the portion of Route 35 connecting Ridgefield Center to Route 7. (As noted above, Routes 7 and 25 and a small section of Route 6 are also in the NHS).

Routes with this classification are high traffic volume corridors with the largest trip desires and carry a high proportion of total vehicle travel on a minimum of roadway mileage.

Minor Arterial: The minor arterial street system interconnects with and augments the principal arterial system above. It provides service to trips of moderate length at a somewhat lower level of travel mobility than principal arterials. This system distributes travel to geographic areas smaller than those identified with the higher systems.

The minor arterial street system contains facilities that place more emphasis on land access than the higher system, and offer a lower level of traffic mobility. Such facilities ideally should not penetrate identifiable neighborhoods.

Examples from this class of roads include Routes 67 and 109 in New Milford, Route 202 in Brookfield, Route 37 in Danbury, Route 34 in Newtown, Route 58 in Redding, and parts of Route 116 in Ridgefield. Also, many town roads with an intertown travel function are included by Conn DOT in the minor arterial classification.

Collector: These roadways provide a less highly developed level of service at a lower speed for shorter distances by collecting traffic from local roads and connecting them with arterials.

T he collector street system includes subclassifications of major and minor and provides both land access service and traffic circulation within residential neighborhoods, commercial and industrial areas.

It differs from the arterial system in that facilities on the collector system may penetrate residential neighborhoods, distributing trips from the arterials through the area to their ultimate destination.

Conversely, the collector streets also collect traffic from local streets in residential neighborhoods and channel it into the arterial system. In central business districts, the collector system may include the street grid which forms a logical entity for traffic circulation.

Local: The local street system consists of all roads not defined as arterials or collectors. It primarily provides access to land with little or no through movement. These roadways offer the lowest level of mobility and primarily serves to provide direct access to abutting land and to higher order street systems. Through traffic movement on local streets is usually deliberately discouraged.

The debate over local planning and zoning applications can often relate to this classification system. Neighbors opposing a development often say that the roadway classification is too low for the type of traffic expected to be generated. In contrast, development proponents can claim an automatic traffic advantage when their proposal fronts upon an arterial route.

5-4:2. ACCIDENT RATES. The basic procedure at Conn DOT for identifying problem locations is to make statistical calculations as to accident rates by roadway segment. This data is then used by Conn DOT, HVCEO and other planning agencies to help identify high accident locations.

Ultimately the information is used to formulate project priorities and to shape the details of design improvements. But Conn DOT no longer allows ordinary citizens to examine this data - in recent years limited to staff only.

5-4:3. MEASURING CONGESTION. Since congestion exists at many locations and roadway capacity improvement funds are limited, quantitative measurements to determine where traffic congestion is projected to be most severe are very important for determining the priority of public investments. The many HVCEO traffic studies listed on hvceo.org include such statistics and priorities.

Similarly, projections of traffic are very important for local land use commissions seeking to determine impacts of proposed developments. The key indicator of existing or future congestion is known as "level of service."

The level of service reflects driver satisfaction with factors that influence the degree of traffic congestion. Factors include speed and travel time, traffic interruption, freedom to maneuver, safety, driving comfort, convenience, and delays. Transportation professionals utilize six levels of service (like a high school report card, scores A to F) to describe level of service traffic flow conditions.

5-4:4. CURB CUT MANAGEMENT. Many existing driveway curb cuts preceded modern levels of local and state regulatory scrutiny. As uses change and properties are more intensely developed, local commissions need guidance from a traffic engineer as to the proper arrangements for driveways.

The need in this situation is for linear corridor curb cut and driveway management plans along major nonresidential corridors. In this way transportation and land use are very directly coordinated. HVCEO has completed many of these for its municipalities, and they now serve as standards by reference in local zoning regulations:

BETHEL DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1997: Route 6 from the Danbury Line easterly thru Stony Hill to the Newtown Line.
2) 2008: The Route 6 Plan above was updated as part of a municipal Route 6 Corridor Plan funded in part by HVCEO.

BROOKFIELD DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1994: Routes 805 and 202, from the Danbury line northerly along Federal Road to the New Milford Line.

DANBURY DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1985: Route 6 from the New York State Line easterly to I-84 Interchange 4.
2) 1994: Route 805 (Federal Road) from White Street northerly to the Brookfield Line.
3) 1996: Route 7 from the Ridgefield Line northerly to the Route 7 Expressway, to be updated in 2010.
4) 1996: Route 37 from Hayestown Avenue northerly to the New Fairfield Line.

NEW FAIRFIELD DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1996: Route 37 from the Danbury Line northerly to the Town Center at Route 39.

NEW MILFORD DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1997: Route 7 from the Brookfield Line northerly to Route 37, updated in 2007 to the Kent Line.
2) 2008: Updated above and added remainder of Route 7 and added Route 202 from Route 7 northeasterly to the Washington Line.

Excerpt from the 6/2005 Ridgefield
Route 35 Driveway and Curb Cut Management Plan,
HVCEO Planning Bulletin # 115, now incorporated
into the Ridgefield Zoning Regulations

NEWTOWN DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1995: Route 25 from the Monroe Line northerly to Route 6 at the Flagpole.
2) 1997: Routes 6 and 25 in the Hawleyville I-84 Interchange 9 Area.
3) 2009: Update of above to include all of Route 6, all of Route 25, and part of
Route 816 from I-84 easterly to Sandy Hook Center.

REDDING DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1996: Route 7 from the Ridgefield Line northerly to the second Ridgefield Line. To be updated in 2010.

RIDGEFIELD DRIVEWAY LOCATION PLANS:
1) 1996: Route 7 northerly from the Redding Line to the Danbury Line. To be updated in 2010.
2) 2005: Route 35 northerly from the NY Line to Route 7.

5-4:5. ROUNDABOUTS. A relatively new intersection design format in the United States is the exciting concept of roundabouts. These have become very popular in Europe and are now being built all over the USA and lately in Connecticut as well.

Capacity and safety advantages of a roundabout
at the intersection of Route 302 with Route 53 in Bethel
are detailed at the end of a discussion of Bethel's Route 53 North.
The 2007 Bethel Town Plan endorsed this concept.

While they look and function something like rotaries, roundabouts are much smaller, avoiding the high speeds and accident rates of the rotary concept, now in disfavor. Not surprisingly, the major auto insurance companies favor roundabouts.

The modern roundabout has yield at entry control, and can move more cars more safety than modern signalized intersections. HVCEO recommends the use of roundabouts where feasible.

5-4:6. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS. Roadway Enhancement: The advancing trend is towards better coordination of traffic investments to facilitate pedestrian patterns, nearby landscaping and aesthetics. This national "context sensitive design" and "complete streets" movements should be encouraged for transportation projects in our area.

For its part, HVCEO undertakes detailed roadway enhancement and town center area pedestrian studies for its members, most of which retrofit and humanize the edges of roadways.

Such studies have been completed for New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, Sherman and Bridgewater, with efforts for Brookfield and New Milford in progress.

In coordination with Conn DOT HVCEO also offers a grant program for funding 1) roadway enhancement proposals and 2) "safe routes to school" sidewalk improvements.

Proposed sidewalk in New Fairfield Center with
Route 37 and 39 Intersection at left. Excerpted from
HVCEO's New Fairfield Center Beautification Study.

Traffic Calming Techniques: The term "traffic calming" is often described as the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use. The goal is to improve conditions for nonmotorized street users.

See traffic calming Resource Page A and traffic calming Resource Page B.

However, the term "traffic calming" also applies to a number of transportation techniques developed to educate the public and provide awareness to unsafe driver behavior.

Techniques include police enforcement and education in some areas. In others it means the use of speed humps or an array of other techniques and devices.

Context Sensitive Design: In the past, transportation planners and engineers were often more concerned with the efficiency, capacity, and safety of a roadway for motor vehicles than on the impacts such roads may have on the surrounding environment and communities they serve.

This approach often created undesirable conditions, including excessive vehicle travel speeds, unsafe environments for pedestrians, the loss of convenient on-street parking and adverse effects on local businesses.

Recently, transportation planners and engineers have begun utilizing a new approach to roadway design called Context Sensitive Design, also referred to as Context Sensitive Solutions. This approach seeks to design new roadways or modify existing ones to better suit all users – motor vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians, and public transportation passengers. Additionally, context sensitive design is used to preserve and enhance the character of the surrounding community.

5-4:7. SCENIC ROADS: In 1981 the Connecticut General Assembly enacted Section 7-149a of the General Statutes, the "Scenic Roads Act." This enabling legislation has authorized cities and towns to designate lightly traveled local roadways characterized by scenic qualities as protected scenic roads.

Scenically Designated
Poverty Hollow Road in Redding, CT

HVCEO maintains a detailed inventory of local scenic road designations within the Region, identifying designations by Bridgewater, Danbury, New Milford, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield and Sherman.

For more detail on the topics above see the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 2: The Roadway System.

5-5. MAJOR HIGHWAY CORRIDORS

I- 84 is the major east-west roadway thru the Region. I-84's traffic capacity needs to be expanded to meet the demands of current growth and to facilitate future economic growth.

In 2000 Conn DOT completed plans to expand the carrying capacity of I-84 thru the Region. The next step by Conn DOT will be the completion of an environmental impact statement for the major proposed improvements, including the setting of widening priorities.

Some I-84 work is proceeding without the environmental evaluation, including improvements to Exits 1, 5 and 6 in Danbury and 11 in Newtown.

For more information on I-84, including plans for the improvement of each exit, see the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 3A Interstate 84.

I-84 traverses the center of the planning region

As for Route 7 south of Danbury, HVCEO supports widening and other capacity improvements to the existing roadway, rather than the construction of a new expressway.

For more information on Route 7 south see the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 3B: Route 7 in Redding, Ridgefield and Danbury.

As for improvements to Route 7 north of Danbury, HVCEO supports completion of the expressway thru Brookfield to the New Milford town line, followed by widening of the roadway in New Milford. Much of this work has been completed.

See the Regional Transportation Plan's Part 6 3C Route 7 in Danbury, Brookfield and New Milford for these and other northern Route 7 issues.

5-6. TRANSPORTATION
PROJECTS BY MUNICIPALITY

Transportation improvements in each community are designed to work in harmony with municipal land use policy. HVCEO maintains a list of recommended transportation improvements for each community:

1. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN BETHEL
2. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN BRIDGEWATER
3. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN BROOKFIELD

4. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN DANBURY
5. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN NEW FAIRFIELD
6. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN NEW MILFORD
7. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN NEWTOWN

8. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN REDDING
9. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN RIDGEFIELD
10. LINK TO TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN SHERMAN

Overview of roadway widening policy in the Danbury
Projects Section of the Regional Transportation Plan

Green (lighter gray in hard copy) ) designates existing
four lane roadways, while red (darker gray in hard copy) indicates
two lane roadways proposed for expansion to four lanes.

See the full regional map.

5-7. AIR SERVICE

Danbury Municipal Airport. Danbury Airport has no regular public air passenger service, except to Cape Cod and related tourist destinations in the summer.

The following text is taken from the 2002 Danbury Plan of Conservation and Development which notes that:

Danbury Municipal Airport is the base for corporate air fleets, a flight school, and a number of aviation services, and consists of two intersecting runways and the control tower.

The airport is used exclusively for private flights and is protected from land use intrusions by the Airport Protection Zone in the Danbury Zoning Regulations. This zone is intended to reduce hazards in the approach and transition zones by controlling building area and height.

The 1995 Danbury Airport Master Plan offers three land use and zoning recommendations to further the protective envelope: (1) the City should acquire land or casements along the residentially zoned portion of Miry Brook Road to control the height of vegetation; (2) permitted land uses around the airport should be restricted to avoid new land use conflicts; and, (3) the Airport Protection Zone regulations should be updated to conform to current airspace standards. The airport has no plans to expand its current boundaries.

Arriving at Danbury Airport

The airport's greatest negative impact on the community is the noise associated primarily with the flight school. This is especially severe during summer weekends and has its greatest impact on the Wooster Heights neighborhood.

To minimize this negative impact, many airports around the region institute noise abatement policies that impose curfews during those hours when noise is most likely to disturb residential neighborhoods, policies that could be considered by the Airport Authority.

Candlelight Farms Airport. As for the small Candlelight Farms Airport in western New Milford, it has two turf runways and no control tower. The largest runway is 2,900 feet, aircraft parking is via tiedowns, and there are about 33 aircraft based at the field.

Stewart International Airport. The international airport options for Greater Danbury can be viewed by size. Kennedy Airport has 42 million passengers annually, La Guardia 23 million, Bradley 6.7 million and Stewart 300,000.

Early in 2007 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns Kennedy and La Guardia, purchased Stewart Airport. The Port Authority's goal is to shift some air traffic north.

As Stuart Airport in Newburgh, NY is about 40 miles west of Danbury, this strategy serves our interests. A direct exit to Stewart Airport from I-84 is also planned.

CT Airport Systems Plan. The CT Statewide Airport System Plan has been updated by Conn DOT to 2006. It is an additional source of information on this subject.

Policies and information are also available in the HVCEO Regional Transportation Plan for ridesharing, commuter lots and bicycles.

5-8 . TRANSPORTATION RECOMMENDATIONS

GOALS: Develop a transportation network for our growing region that is consistent with well planned patterns of land development and that effectively integrates energy conservation, air quality goals, environmental quality and environmental mitigation.

1. Implement the detailed recommendations of the HVCEO Regional Transportation Plan.

2. Promote a better balance between transportation modes, such that the share for automobile travel of total travel can decline in the future. Facilitate convenient pedestrian movements, mixed use and transit oriented developments.

3. Consider downstream transportation impacts when making local land use decisions.

4. Use transportation investments to support the economic vitality of the region, especially by enabling business competitiveness, productivity and efficiency. Coordinate the transportation system with local and state goals for enhancing economic vitality.

5. For the Region’s transportation system as a whole, enhance physical and modal integration and connectivity, increase safety and security, and promote efficient system management and operation.

6. Work to maximize the productivity of existing transportation systems before such systems are expanded.

7. Increase accessibility and mobility options for people and freight. Promote a shift away from the one person per car situation and toward increased vehicle occupancy via continuous advocacy of public transit, car and van pooling.