Almost 10 years in, Halls Road has not improved in Old Lyme
Jul. 7—OLD LYME — Halls Road, a short strip along Interstate 95 capped on either end by the historic beauty of Lyme Street and the sparkling confluence of the Connecticut River with Long Island Sound, still looks the way it did back in the 1960s when strip malls and parking lots were the dominant features of a newfangled suburban landscape.
Almost a decade into efforts to modernize the commercial stretch ― at a time when terms like "mixed-use" and "walkability" serve as buzzwords in communities striving to incorporate more housing options, enhanced business opportunities and safe streets into re-imagined town centers ― members of the Halls Road Improvements Committee continue to seek grant funding to turn the vision into reality.
But critics, including a Republican committee member who resigned last month after only a few months, argue officials are not cultivating the kind of support from local and state agencies that is necessary if the town wants to qualify for those grants.
Committee Chairwoman Edie Twining, a Democrat, said members have identified several grant opportunities to defray the cost of new sidewalks, trails and a pedestrian bridge preliminarily estimated at $7.2 million. But those grants aren't likely to become available for several years.
Bill Folland, the Republican committee member who resigned in June after having been appointed in March, said 10 years is too long to go without any discernible progress.
The resident has been critical of the committee for focusing on a bridge crossing the Lieutenant River rather than sidewalks along the road, and has questioned the committee's failure to engage the local Harbor Management Commission and relevant state agencies in its plans.
Folland said he'd been following the effort for years when he decided to join the committee because nothing was happening. He resigned for the same reason.
"I just saw that it seemed the project had completely stalled," he said.
His volunteer work during those few months involved exploring similar projects in nearby towns and seeking out grant opportunities. He said he became concerned about how decisions were being made, the order in which they were made, and who was making them.
He pointed to an email from the Office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, informing the town its application for $2 million would not be submitted as part of the congressman's federal funding request for community projects.
The email from Courtney's staffers cited conversations with the state Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection who said preliminary planning steps needed to be taken and permit approvals needed to be granted before the project would be considered for funding.
Folland said the project also requires more buy-in from the town if it's going to be a success.
Committee documents show the town has allocated $127,251 to the committee since 2018, with $121,338 spent. Voters also authorized a $135,000 allocation through the town's pot of federal pandemic-relief money to cover design work by Middletown-based AI Engineers for the pedestrian bridge and related trail system.
Folland expressed frustration that no money has been spent on the design or installation of sidewalks.
"I saw I was getting nowhere with the First Selectman and the chairwoman (Twining) about making necessary changes," he said. "I felt that I wanted to speak out, but I didn't feel it proper to speak out as being a member of the committee."
Twining this week expressed surprise at Folland's resignation. She said the next item on the committee's agenda at the time of his departure was the creation of a subcommittee to finally get the sidewalk portion of the project off the ground.
The chairwoman acknowledged her initial hesitancy about recommending Folland for a spot on the committee based on his previous criticism of the project. But she said her viewpoint changed when he took an active role in understanding the project's complexities and coming up with solutions.
"I was very worried about his negative attitude about it, which proved not to be true," she said. "Or back then it didn't."
Folland was appointed in March with Republican David Kelsey, a returning member, and Democrat Christina Gotowka in a unanimous vote of the selectmen.
'We need expertise'
Twining confirmed the plans for the bridge are in a "sort of stasis." The hold up revolves around the financial implications of a deal with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that would transfer a state-owned triangle of property on the east bank of the Lieutenant River to the town ― but only if local officials agree to be responsible for construction of a fishing pier and eight parking spaces there.
Twining said the committee is looking into how much it would cost to add the pier and parking area to the original design plan.
Folland said the lack of communication between the committee and other relevant agencies became evident during his conversations with the Harbor Management Commission while exploring a grant opportunity through the Connecticut Port Authority for the pedestrian bridge project.
"I contacted Harbor Management when I was preparing the application and they told me they do not support our application for that funding based on the outstanding issues there are with the bridge," he said.
Harbor Management Commission member Michael Barnes, a Republican whom Folland identified as his main point of contact, declined to comment.
Twining said the issue has become unnecessarily politicized.
"We need safe streets. We need some way of maintaining our community center as a community center by providing new zoning opportunities," she said. "It has nothing to do with spending or not spending money, or being a Democrat or Republican. It's something that has been supported by many sides."
With two vacancies on the committee currently, she said the biggest need is for volunteers with experience in engineering and project management.
"At this point, if we want to get anything done on this project, we don't need party lines as much as we need expertise," she said.
There are currently four Democrats, one Republican and one unaffiliated member on the committee. Shoemaker, the first selectwoman, said state law provides no more than two-thirds of any appointed board or commission may belong to the same party, which will have to be taken into account when the selectmen fill the two vacancies.
Twining also echoed a call by Folland to bring in a planning consultant, which they said has been done with success on a pedestrian bridge and sidewalk project over Falls River in Essex.
"I am not professional engineer," said Twining, whose experience is in fine arts and interior design. "I don't have enough background to lead these projects. We're going to need a project planner to take it forward."
She said the expertise of town land use coordinator Eric Knapp is in the area of zoning rather than planning.
Shoemaker said she is looking into the possibility of bringing in a consultant.
Meanwhile, the committee is hoping the third time's the charm for a zoning proposal that would make way for an "overlay" district to give developers the option to build apartments or condominiums not otherwise allowed on the street ―as long as they incorporate shops or restaurants on the first floor of any street facing building.
The committee hopes to present a revised application to the Zoning Commission this fall, according to Twining.
