330 University development remains a tough nut to crack

By Jeff Kearns

The tricky traffic situation at 330 University Ave. still needs more study, planning commissioners decided April 28, when they put the project on hold again pending further traffic studies.

"We're now scapegoating this project for the larger perceived ills of the town," said commission chairwoman Laura Nachison, alluding to the traffic woes in the area.

Nachison and Commissioner Paul Bruno deadlocked on what to do with the project against Kathryn Morgan and Lee Quintana. (The commission was operating on a bare quorum that night, with three members absent.)

Developer Bill Hirschman wants to build 21 houses and remodel a historic house on the site, which is tucked in behind the trees on the corner of University Avenue and Highway 9. Two of the houses would be below-market-rate rental units.

The commissioners praised Hirschman for working with the town and the neighborhood to figure out a design appealing to everyone, but said that the benefits just don't outweigh the potential traffic tie-ups.

"There's nothing which can override the impact to that intersection," Morgan said. "I've tried to do this, but I can't."

Quintana said she wasn't sure the project had a solid community benefit, which she said might be a higher density of housing on the site.

One aspect of the plan that has been dogging Hirschman is articulating a community benefit, which he needs because the project would require a special zone change.

He's singled out more housing in town, a better intersection at University Avenue and Highway 9 (part of which he plans to widen), and in the most recent iteration of the design, a pedestrian walkway linking the development to the Edelen neighborhood.

Although town officials seem to have warmed up to the project, Edelen neighbors still showed up in force to make their opposition known.

Almost all of them pointed to traffic as the major impact they don't want to deal with. Most neighbors are opposed to linking the project to Bentley Avenue, which they say would tie up the Edelen neighborhood with more traffic.

But that leaves the project with only one access point--onto University Avenue just a half block south of Highway 9--that the same neighbors also oppose, because they say it would tie up the already crowded intersection.

The application comes back to the commission June 7.

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