INTRODUCTION
Route
7 from Danbury to Norwalk is classified as part of the highest
roadway functional level, the National Highway System. From
the state perspective It is a principal arterial roadway and
is the Greater Danbury Region’s main link to the south.
On a grander scale, it is also the primary north-south corridor
for the western edge of New England.
The basic
alignment and cross section in our area dates from 1928. Over
the years, many spot improvements to the existing road have
been made.
More significantly, a new Route 7 Expressway parallel to the
old road was advocated by Conn DOT and HVCEO for many years.
Only short sections of the parallel expressway in Danbury
and Norwalk were ever completed.
In historical
perspective, the Connecticut General Assembly first authorized
expressway planning in this corridor IN 1957. Then Conn DOT
approved an expressway location in 1962.
Studies continued into the mid-1970's, when a federal environmental
impact statement was issued. This was challenged, first causing
years of delay, then indefinite postponement of construction.
A map of the proposed
Route 7 Expressway concept will be of
interest.
This
major new road would have entered Ridgefield from Wilton to
the west of the present Route 7. Route 102 runs generally
east-west here, and a full expressway interchange with Route
102 was planned.
Continuing northeast, the Expressway would have crossed the
existing Route 7, briefly entered Redding, then turned north
by northwest to follow the Ridgefield-Redding border, re-entering
Ridgefield briefly and then entering Redding again.
Upon
passing into Danbury from Redding, another interchange was
to link the Expressway to existing Route 7 in Ridgefield.
The new road was then to continue along the east side of existing
Route 7 to meet the existing Route 7 Expressway cross section
at Wooster Heights Road in Danbury.
Due to
funding constraints, by 1992 completion of the proposed expressway
was under reconsideration by Conn DOT. A Conn DOT policy statement
released in early 1993 stated that the expressway would still
be built, but would be delayed at least 10 years. The exception
was a small segment linking northern Norwalk to southern Wilton.
There are at present no plans at Conn DOT to revive the Route
7 Expressway construction proposal.
ANTI-ROUTE
7 EXPRESSWAY POLICY
HVCEO was for many years an advocate of Route 7 Expressway
construction. However, after a policy review in 1995, HVCEO
no longer supported the construction of the proposed Route
7 Expressway in Danbury, Ridgefield and Redding.
This 1995 position was taken due to the repeated delays in
the construction of the proposed Expressway and the concurrent
invalidation of the Environmental Impact Statement justifying
the project, as well as the lack of safety and capacity improvements
on the existing Route 7 roadway, which HVCEO wished to speed.
This
change in policy was intended to fully focus all available
funding on the immediate improvements required to address
safety and capacity constraints on existing Route 7. Since
under federal law Conn DOT cannot proceed without regional
approval, the HVCEO policy is more than advisory as far as
the Expressway is concerned.
The 2001
Regional Transportation Plan then added some broader policy
as to the reasons the Council no longer supported construction.
These were given even more depth by the 2004 Plan update and
now include:
1. Negative impact to the adjacent quality of life, both residential
and natural environment.
2. Inducing
sprawl development along the corridor and to the north, which
violates the "Smart Growth" planning policies in
the 1997 HVCEO
Regional Plan.
3. The
nearby South Western
Planning Region is a high income area (see
overview map) where affordable housing is in
very short supply. As a result, many persons with their employment
in that area seek their housing to the east along I-95 or
to the north up Route 7.
This mismatch intensifies the competition for scarce affordable
housing in the Greater Danbury Area. Evidence is past housing
studies and a pattern of one sided commuting patterns of much
AM southbound commuting from Greater Danbury, greatly exceeding
AM northbound. It is therefore projected that faster access
via a Route 7 Expressway would reduce the supply of affordable
housing in Greater Danbury available to Greater Danbury's
workers.
4. The inability of coastal Interstate 95, already over capacity,
to absorb a newly concentrated and expanded AM peak period
traffic flow that would enter southbound from the new Route
7 Expressway. Absorption of our traffic onto I-95 may have
been possible 30 years ago, but is clearly problematic today.
For some
detail on this key point, consider that the 1978 Route 7 Environmental
Impact Statement projected that, taking as a specific point
of reference the cross section of the proposed Expressway
just north of the intersection of Routes 7 and 35 in Ridgefield,
that there would be about a 33% increase in total travel in
the corridor here if the Expressway were built.
A 1981
HVCEO summary of the 1978 EIS records "This increase
will be due to traffic that is diverted from existing streets
in the corridor because of the ease of travel and time savings
due to the new facility, and a rerouting of existing shopping,
business and other trips to alternate destinations due to
a shift in the relative ease of travel."
While
pro-expressway groups might well discount point one above
as "just the standard local reaction of the NIMBY (Not
in My Back Yard) syndrome", points two thru four are
systemic issues that they need to address in their arguments.
For a web site that contrasts with the HVCEO Route 7 perspective,
visit the Committee
for the Extension of Route 7. For an anti-expressway
opinion see the Road
to Ruin site. Also of interest is an independently
produced history
of planning for and upgrading of Route 7.
ROUTE
7 POLICIES WITHIN MUNICIPAL PLANS
Danbury
City Plan of 2002: There is no support for the proposed
Route 7 Expressway in the Danbury Plan. The Plan constrains
Route 7 changes to "Support plans to widen U.S. Route
7 south to Ridgefield and to undertake other planned intersection
and geometric improvements."
Redding Town Plan of 1998: The Redding Plan states
that "unlike local town roads, where the goal is to minimize
traffic impacts in order to support preservation of the town's
essential characteristics, the traffic capacity of existing
Route 7 should be maximized to allow the road to absorb local
and connector traffic and prevent overflow on to secondary
roads such as Routes 107 and 53."
Continuing, "The Redding Planning Commission thus strongly
supports major widening and capacity improvements on existing
Route 7 and 25, the principal north-south arteries immediately
west and east of the Town and continues to recommend that
plans for 'Super 7' be abandoned."

In 2005 the Town of Redding was
presented with a
prestigious National Award for Smart Growth Achievement
in the Small Communities category by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency for the above Georgetown Redevelopment Project,
which will make use of both Route 7 and the Danbury Branch
Rail Line.
Ridgefield
Town Plans of 1999 and Branchville Supplement of 2002:
According to page 33 of the 1999 Ridgefield Plan of Conservation
and Development “Greenbelts are an important part of
the Plan of Conservation & Development. Such a system
will enhance the value of existing open space areas by interconnecting
them and providing new opportunities for wildlife habitat,
recreational use, community character, and quality of life.
One example
of this concept is the Sugar Hollow Greenway. Proposed as
part of the Connecticut State Greenway System, Sugar Hollow
is envisioned as a linear series of interconnected open space
parcels, beginning in the Sugar Hollow region of Danbury,
and extending southward through Redding, Ridgefield and Wilton
to Norwalk.”
Continuing “Much, if not most, of the land proposed
for the Sugar Hollow Greenway is presently owned by the State
of Connecticut, it having been acquired formerly when a proposed
Route 7 Expressway had been considered viable.
The Ridgefield Planning & Zoning Commission has since
eliminated the proposed Route 7 Expressway from this Plan
and has endorsed the Sugar Hollow Greenway. Accordingly, dialogue
with the State should be pursued to determine the most appropriate
and effective means for transferring and dedicating former
expressway parcels to the Sugar Hollow Greenway.”

Before
and after views from Ridgefield's Route 7
oriented 2002 Branchville Village Plan
As
for the 2002 Town Plan Supplement concerning Route 7 at Ridgefield's
Branchville section, From the Wilton Town Line northerly to
Route 102, the HVCEO policy is to "initiate only those
Route 7 capacity improvements sanctioned by Ridgefield’s
2002 Branchville Village Plan, as incorporated into the 1999
Town Plan by the Ridgefield Planning and Zoning Commission."
CONN
DOT 2/2007 COMMENT
ON THE ROUTE 7 EXPRESSWAY
Early
in 2007 an update on Route 7 was prepared by Conn DOT for
the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee. Excerpts
from the 2/16/2007 statement concerning the Route 7 Expressway
are as follows:
“While
recognizing the need for an expressway based on traffic volumes,
the Department does not propose to extend the Route 7 expressway
north of its current terminus at Grist Mill Road in Norwalk.
The concept
of extending the Route 7 expressway in problematic for a number
of reasons. During the development of the various planning
and environmental studies, the Department has met on many
occasions with the public and local officials to obtain input
in the planning process for the future of the Route 7 corridor.
During this process, it became apparent that there is much
local opposition to build an expressway in the towns of Wilton,
Redding and Ridgefield.
While
the Department owns rights of way purchased for the Route
7 corridor in Norwalk and Wilton, much of this land is now
being used for recreational purposes by local municipalities.
The Department does not own substantial right of way in the
Route 7 corridor north of Ridgefield.”
Continuing,
“The lapse of time since the 1978 EIS and the potential
of impacting what are now areas used for recreational purposes
would require the Department to undertake completely new planning
studies which would include numerous new alternatives. Completing
the planning studies, the NEPA/CEPA documentation and the
design of such a facility could take up to 10 years prior
to construction.
Other
factors which make studying a freeway on new location in the
Route 7 corridor problematic include; the difficulty of obtaining
the required federal and state environmental permits, potential
impact to the numerous residential areas in the corridor,
potential impact to sensitive cultural resources such as the
J. Alden Weir National Historic Site and potential impacts
to environmentally sensitive resources.
Regardless
of the alternative selected, the Department would still have
to, at the very least, purchase right of way acquisition north
of Ridgefield. Rights of way costs combined with construction
costs could approach $1 billion.”
ACTIVITIES
TO IMPROVE EXISTING ROUTE 7
Up
until December of 1999 Conn DOT remained committed to completion
of a small segment of the Route 7 Expressway from its current
northern terminus at Grist Mill Road in Norwalk to a new northern
terminus at Route 33 in southern Wilton.
But Governor
Rowland announced in December of 1999 that, due to local opposition,
widening of the existing Route 7 northward to Route 33 would
replace the proposed parallel Route 7 Expressway extension
plan. Thus as of 2007 the Route 7 Expressway has been dropped
from both the plans of Conn DOT and HVCEO.
The Route
7 policies of the adjacent South Western Regional Planning
Agency as of 2004 are as follows:
---
Support improvements to existing Route 7 between the Route
7 Expressway terminus at Grist Mill Road, Norwalk, and Route
33, Wilton (Project 102-305); and, the widening of Route 7
in Wilton further north to Olmstead Hill Road {near the Cannondale
Railroad Station} (Projects 161-118,124).
---
Conduct a needs assessment of the Route 7 corridor between
Olmstead Hill Road in Wilton and Route 35 in Ridgefield to
establish an implementation program for operational, intersection,
safety, access management, multimodal and streetscaping enhancements.
This assessment should be a cooperative effort of Conn DOT,
SWRPA and HVCEO within a framework of sensitive design.
---
The SWRPA Congestion Mitigation Systems Plan “Vision
2020” Final Report (2003) recommended support for plans
to widen Route 7 to a four-lane arterial with full roadside
access from Wilton to Danbury.
---
A future unfunded project to to build the Route 7 expressway
to Danbury.
Leaders
kick off the widening of Route 7 between Danbury and Ridgefield
on
August 15, 2005. From left are Ridgefield First Selectman
Rudy Marconi, Ridgefield
State Representative John Frey, Governor Jodi Rell, Danbury
Mayor Mark Boughton,
and Conn DOT Commissioner Stephen Korta. Photo courtesy of
the News Times.
Back
in the Housatonic Valley Region, in Ridgefield and Danbury,
as of 2007 Route 7 is being widened from two to four lanes
and the alignment improved.
It should
also be noted that HVCEO completed a driveway and curb cut
management plan for Route 7 in Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield
in 1996. The Redding and Ridgefield portions of the plan were
thereafter incorporated as site plan standards into the zoning
regulations of those communities.
As
for HVCEO's Route 7 improvement policies, the following will
be pursued:
---
In cooperation with SWRPA and Conn DOT, conduct a needs assessment
of the Route 7 corridor between Olmstead Hill Road in Wilton
and Route 35 in Ridgefield to establish an implementation
program for operational, intersection, safety, access management,
multimodal and streetscaping enhancements, all within a framework
of sensitive design.
---
Support the construction of a multi-modal transportation
center in the Georgetown village area, as part of the redevelopment
of that area which is immediately adjacent to Route 7. The
multi - modal center will be located on the Wilton - Redding
Town Line and include pedestrian and bicycle access, bus and
rail transit services, and parking.
---
Assess the Branchville Station area for potential for transit
oriented development.
---
Update Route 7 curb cut management plans in Danbury, Ridgefield
and Redding.
---
The right of way owned by Conn DOT for a future Route 7 Expressway
should instead be used for a pedestrian path to be known as
the Sugar Hollow Greenway
---
Both the Ives Trail and the the Norwalk River Watershed Trails
System crossing of Route 7 are pedestrian movements to be
taken into consideration in future Route 7 planning.
Sections
1 - 2
- 3
- 4
-
5 - 6-
7- 8
|