WINDHAM – In order to reduce traffic congestion and prevent potential accidents in North Windham, town planners are trying to encourage fewer “curb cuts” leading from retail parking lots onto Route 302, said planning director Brooks More.

More was responding to concerns posed by Windham business owners who are concerned that the town is allowing too many entrances and exits onto the busy Route 302 corridor.

But as long as new development projects meet the requirements in the town’s land use ordinance, businesses are allowed to have direct entrances onto the road, More added.

The town’s initiative to eliminate curb cuts during property development is addressed by the town’s 21st Century Downtown Master Plan, adopted by the Town Council in January.

The plan, according to More, is intended to help the community embrace and promote growth in a way that improves North Windham’s quality of place, and lays out transportation options, land use, streets and architecture to create a more suburban downtown.

Ed Eastup Jr, a Windham resident and owner of Eastup Automotive on Route 302, and other local business owners are concerned about the number of retail parking lot entrances, also known as curb cuts, along the busy road.

Eastup said he does not agree with the town allowing access from the new Dollar Tree development directly onto Route 302, a road he believes is already “too congested.”

“How about closing all entrances to and from every business that can gain access at a traffic light?” Eastup said. “Reprogram all traffic lights to allow maximum traffic flow and clean up this ridiculous traffic problem. It’s mess.”

It’s allowed

According to More, if developers meet the town’s land use standards, town planners cannot prevent them from having a parking lot entrance leading directly onto Route 302.

There is also a limit on the number of curb cuts a business can have leading from its property, according to the land use ordinance, adopted by Windham planners in 2009.

The intent of the ordinance, for commercial districts in North Windham, is “to provide general retail sales, services and business space within the town of Windham, in locations capable of conveniently servicing community-wide and/or regional trade areas with safe, well-regulated automobile access and pedestrian access where appropriate,” it reads.

New, enlarged or rebuilt businesses on a high-capacity urban road must be limited to one curb cut, for example.

“Private entrances or exits should be located at least 50 feet from the closest un-signalized, or 150 feet from the closest signalized intersection,” More said.

Mark Cobb, a Windham resident and owner of Cobb’s Collision Center located off Route 302, was a member of the 21st Century Downtown Plan Study Committee. He and other committee members spent nearly two years creating a plan that outlines how to “alleviate some of the traffic issues and steer the development of the town in the right direction, and to give the council a plan to move forward,” Cobb said.

The plan also addresses the “excessive curb cuts,” Cobb said, or driveway openings, that when in use, have a tendency to start and stop traffic and create “very dangerous situations.”

Town officials are working on developing a comprehensive vision for transportation improvements in North Windham, Cobb said, in response to concerns by residents and business owners about Route 302’s ever-worsening traffic patterns.

As summarized in the plan, “Current zoning and transportation patterns in North Windham – in addition to being a centralized regional commercial area – have created a place that is auto-oriented, lacks pedestrian amenities and a specific sense of place. There is an inherent conflict between the need for Roosevelt Trail to serve through-traffic and to serve the local community. The arterials are stressed and the intersections are near or close to failing in terms of capacity.”

The town is working to create a connector road system that drivers can use for traveling between businesses and to avoid Route 302, Cobb said.

Recommendations by the study committee, which were adopted by the town, include eliminating left-hand turns that cross over two or three lanes, and developing a Complete Streets policy to provide safe, comfortable and convenient travel environments, as development or redevelopment occurs.

Ben Smith, Windham’s assistant planner, said the number of curb cuts from a business depends on which zoning district the development is taking place in.

Cobb said the new Dollar Tree development, which connects to Landing Road in the back and Route 302 in the front, “is a very concerning and disappointing situation.”

In the case of Dollar Tree, which is located in the town’s Commercial 1 district, the business is allowed one curb cut per any given street, Smith said.

“The [Planning] Board does have the ability to waive that, and allow up to two [curb cuts] on a non-arterial road, like Landing Road,” he said.

As traffic zipped by Dollar Tree on Tuesday, Eastup said while he understands that the curb cuts are allowed by the ordinance, he believes the town needs to look at rewriting it and incorporating it into the town’s master plan.

Cobb agreed.

“The problem is that you do it, but no one acts on it,” Cobb said. “We have had a Comprehensive Plan in this town for 20 years and no one acted on it.”

Too many cuts

While the Dollar Tree’s parking lot entrance on Route 302 is “right in, right out” access only, versus an access from both directions, Smith said, it is nevertheless another curb cut on Route 302.

Despite the town’s regulations, Cobb and Eastup, who have owned their businesses on Route 302 for a number of years, agree that allowing the additional curb cut onto Route 302 from the new Dollar Tree is “unnecessary.”

“We have way too many open curbs throughout the town,” Eastup said.

“There are so many businesses that don’t need access directly onto 302, and there are so many traffic lights. You constantly have people stopping in traffic and trying to let someone take a left-hand turn, where clearly there is a sign that says ‘no left-hand turn.’ It causes accidents. It’s insane.”

“We need less curb cuts, that’s it,” Eastup said.

Smith said addressing traffic issues on Route 302 in North Windham is a matter of revising the town’s land use ordinance and prioritizing the town’s short- and long-term goals for transportation and economic development so it can begin implementing the 21st Century Downtown Master Plan.

Windham residents and local business owners, Ed Eastup, left and Mark Cobb, discuss the need to eliminate the number of curb cuts on Route 302.The Route 302 entrance of the Dollar Tree being built off the Landing Road next to Wal-Mart in North Windham.