Williston Observer

By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

Town Manager Rick McGuire told the Selectboard last week that a meeting to address a new study for a proposed park and ride facility in Williston has been postponed.

Town officials have been frustrated with the slow pace of progress on studying a park and ride for Williston. The meeting, now set for later this month, will include a committee and a consultant selected to assist with reopening a scoping study for the project.

Last summer, the town asked the state to reopen a study done in 2000 that examined potential locations for a park and ride in Williston. The original study selected a field behind the state police barracks on Vermont Route 2A as the best site for the project. The field is part of the Maple Tree Place property.

Several obstacles exist for the property, including questions of right of way with Maple Tree Place and the traffic volumes on Vermont Route 2A. The steering committee asked the state to continue to evaluate the chosen site, while investigating other possible sites, too.

Municipal officials believe a park and ride facility would help ease the volume of traffic on Williston’s roads, particularly at the Interstate 89 interchange.

Local option taxes

Williston enjoyed a strong first quarter to 2005 in returns from its local option taxes.

The 1 percent sales tax brought in $598,386 in revenue to the town in January through March – a sharp increase over the $520,933 the tax generated for Williston from last year over the same period. The town also received $51,007 in rooms and meals tax returns, amounting to a 22 percent increase over the same quarter of last year.

In all, the local option taxes have produced $2,216,666 in revenue for the town in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The town had projected $2.3 million in revenue from the taxes. Now, Susan Lamb, the town treasurer, said a surplus of approximately $400,000 seems likely.

The 1 percent local option sales tax was added to the existing 5 percent state sales tax on July 1, 2002. The town receives 80 percent of the revenue produced by the tax; the state keeps the remainder in return for handling administration of the tax.

Williston added a 1 percent local rooms and meals tax onto the existing 9 percent state rooms and meals tax on July 1, 2003.

Williston used revenues from the local option taxes to lower the municipal property tax rate from $0.33 to $0.08 for the 2004-05 fiscal year.

Brennan Woods speeders

Stephen Casale became the second Brennan Woods resident in about a month to appear before the Selectboard to voice his distress at traffic speeds in the large residential development.

Casale brought along his two children, Sadie and Cole, to the Selectboard’s June 6 meeting to talk to the board about what he described as the frequently excessive speed of traffic in the development’s streets.

As an example, Casale said a pizza delivery driver was clocked going 50 miles per hour through the neighborhood. He said Sadie was in danger of being struck by the vehicle.

Casale noted that Brennan Woods currently has some “hot tempers” about the speed of traffic in its neighborhood.

“It’s only a matter of time before there is an altercation over this,” Casale said.

Fred Reiner, a Brennan Woods resident, had visited the Selectboard to register his concerns with traffic in the neighborhood in May. The town has worked with a consultant to formulate a traffic-calming plan for Brennan Woods. It sent the proposal to the Brennan Woods Homeowners Association for comment in April.

Casale thanked the Selectboard for the town’s work toward installing traffic calming measures. The town cannot move forward with any proposed measures until it assumes ownership of the development’s roads. Snyder Companies, the developer of Brennan Woods, still owns the roads.

“I find it frustrating that we’re not able to do more,” Selectboard member Ted Kenney.

Allen Brook study

The town will pay $6,000 a year for the next five years in an effort to document stream conditions at the Allen Brook.

The town’s expenses cover about half of the cost for the project, which involves the installation of a stream gauge in the Allen Brook. Participating agencies include the Agency of Natural Resources, the Agency of Transportation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Selectboard member Jeff Fehrs asked whether the funds were available for the town to participate in the project. Town Manager Rick McGuire said the money was in the budget.

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Speeders creating safety concerns

By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

For years, the children of Michael and Barbara O’Connor could play street hockey on Chamberlin Lane without worrying about passing traffic. Then Chamberlin Lane was extended to connect the family’s Indian Ridge neighborhood to the newly constructed Brennan Woods.

“And street hockey went away real quick,” Michael O’Connor said.

A quiet dead-end street instantly became a bustling connector road bridging not only the Indian Ridge and Brennan Woods neighborhoods, but also Mountain View Road and U.S. Route 2. Unsurprisingly, traffic speeds shot up.

The road linking the neighborhoods came out of Williston’s comprehensive plan, which calls for connected neighborhoods. However, the road’s opening also created undesired traffic hazards on a residential street replete with pedestrians and playing children. The speeds on the Chamberlin Lane have concerned some residents so much that they have taken to parking their vehicles on the side of the road instead of in their driveways in order to narrow the road and create an impromptu traffic calming measure.

The town is moving to improve conditions on the road. A consultant hired by the town recently released recommendations for traffic calming measures in the Brennan Woods development, including on a stretch of Chamberlin Lane. The measures feature speed tables, which are longer, flatter versions of speed bumps.

Increasingly, as Williston has grown, town officials are hearing from residents concerned about traffic speeding through their neighborhoods. At the same time, the comprehensive plan calls for roads to connect neighborhoods. When those connections are made, speeds tend to increase.

Traffic calming measures such as speed bumps are seen as the solution. The Brennan Woods recommendations came on the heels of the Selectboard’s recent approval of traffic calming measures on Van Sicklen Road.

Traffic calming steps are not as common in Williston as in nearby Burlington and South Burlington, because they are generally not needed, according to Public Works Director Neil Boyden. However, fast-moving traffic through residential streets tends to prompt concern among neighbors and calls for the town to take action.

For instance, Fred Reiner gave an impassioned speech to the Selectboard in May about traffic on Brennan Woods Drive. The O’Connors visited the board in October to highlight worries on Chamberlin Lane.

“There are a lot of children in this neighborhood and eventually someone is going to get hurt — or worse — if something doesn’t change,” Michael O’Connor said.

According to an engineering study, prevailing speeds on Brennan Woods Drive and Chamberlin Lane approach 35 to 40 miles per hour, despite posted speed limits of 25 miles per hour.

The Brennan Woods experience has served as a sort of test case for town officials, illuminating potential problems with large developments and with roads connecting neighborhoods. Ownership of the streets in Brennan Woods has not yet been transferred from the project’s developer, the Snyder Companies, to the town, greatly limiting the steps the town can take to control traffic.

For instance, Boyden said, “We can’t set the speed limit and enforce it without owning the facility.”

Based on the problems that have arisen, Town Manager Rick McGuire said the town might reexamine the process it uses for assuming control of a road. Also, traffic calming will be considered in the planning for a project — rather than after a development is complete and problems emerge.

“We will likely want to see traffic calming built into the construction of the road itself,” McGuire said.

Most of Williston’s subdivisions are not linked by connecting roads — a chief reason the town does not have more speed problems in its neighborhoods, Boyden said.

Though the town hopes to increase connections in the future, McGuire said it is unlikely that town would seek to connect existing neighborhoods. The focus would instead be on building such connections into new subdivisions.

The advantages of connected neighborhoods are many, according to town officials. Boyden said they improve access for public safety and maintenance vehicles. McGuire said connected neighborhoods ease congestion on main roads and improve convenience for motorists and pedestrians. The connections just must be accompanied by steps to keep traffic speeds in check.

Residents often ask for increased police presence at spots where they say traffic is too fast. However, it can be difficult for Williston’s relatively small police force, which typically has no more than two officers on patrol, to spend large amounts of time on traffic control. In addition, McGuire said, police presence only has a limited effect on lowering speed limits. Physical changes are often necessary.

The O’Connors agree. They said they are pleased the town is considering speed tables for Chamberlin Lane. The town sent a copy of the engineer’s traffic calming measures for Brennan Woods to the Brennan Woods Homeowners Association for feedback in April.

Most complaints about speed originate on the town’s larger connecting roads, like North Williston Road and Mountain View Road. However, the town frequently is restricted in the work it can do to install traffic calming steps on those roads.

For example, the Selectboard and a group of residents sought speed tables on Van Sicklen Road to subdue speeding traffic. But an engineering study showed that the speed tables were not warranted because of the current average speed of traffic, though that speed was well in excess of the posted speed limit. Implementing the speed tables when they were not warranted would carry significant risks, McGuire said.

“It creates a liability problem,” McGuire said. “If someone has an accident there and the traffic calming isn’t according to standards, then the town’s first line of defense has been lost.”

Instead, the town approved a set of less powerful traffic calming measures.

Perhaps the town’s most significant traffic calming project was the installation of speed tables in the Meadow Run neighborhood approximately two years ago. Boyden said the town had received complaints from Meadow Run residents about excessive speeds in the neighborhood. The town hired a traffic consultant and ultimately speed tables were recommended.

Boyden said he judges the speed tables to be a success based on one key piece of evidence.

“I haven’t heard any complaints since we put them in,” he said.

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Locals help bring small-scale railroads back to Shelburne

By Colin Ryan
Correspondent

Visitors to Shelburne Museum’s toy shop enter a painstakingly re-created world of trains, tracks, water towers, covered bridges, signs, stations and trees. But the new display is not just for show.

Visitors can operate by remote control the two sets of trains, direct the station, announce train times, operate the water tower, and animate other aspects of the display.

The intricate model train display reprises a Shelburne Museum tradition from decades ago. A group of local residents, including two Willistonians, lobbied the museum to bring the popular display back. It is carefully designed to evoke the original, which was displayed from 1954 through 1967.

In both the former and current displays, a shared passion for trains created a collaboration.

The original display came about because of a friendship between Shelburne Museum founder Electra Havermeyer Webb and A.C. Gilbert, a doctor from New Haven, Conn.

After graduating from medical school, Gilbert started his own company selling Mysto Magic Sets, then went on to design the Erector set. He later purchased the American Flyer toy train company and asked Webb to display his trains in her museum.

But Webb didn’t like his original layout, which wasn’t distinctly Vermont-themed. Gilbert sent workers to Shelburne to redesign the display, which was first exhibited in 1954.

After 13 years, the museum decided the display was too difficult to maintain and gave it to the Brandon Training School. It was later auctioned, and many of the details of its original design were lost.

The current display also involved collaboration, this time involving many local residents.

Ed Bianchi, a teacher at Charlotte Central School, came up with the idea of bringing the display back after reading an article in Classic Toy Trains Magazine written by one of the people who worked on Gilbert’s original display. It turned out that the museum had also wanted to pursue the idea. But the museum had two questions: Would it operate reliably? Would there be enough local volunteers to maintain it?

A group of train enthusiasts have stepped forward to help. Bianchi found eight other people to join the project to recreate the original museum’s display: John Gaworecki, John Malcovsky, Roger Brassard, Frederick Raab, Jack and Barbara Campbell, and Williston residents Mike O’Connor and Nick Hardin.

They pitched the idea to museum curator Hope Alswang in February 2003.

“We put together a display of items that would have been in display,” Bianchi explains, “using models, catalogues, and drawings to show what it would look like. They went for it.” The museum budgeted $2,000 for the display, and the train lovers put up $2,000 more.

Among the group members, O’Connor and Hardin are the most enthusiastic about American Flyer model trains. Construction of the set took place in Hardin’s basement. The unlikely group — two teachers, two electrical engineers and other devotees with various talents — met weekly for about 10 months to complete the job.

The museum prepared a backdrop that includes a poster modeled on one used in the original display and altered to look more like Vermont. One of the challenges was to keep the look and feel of the 1950s A.C. Gilbert design while meeting the museum’s reliability requirement. The group equipped the trains with modern motors and other up-to-date parts so that the display could be operated by children.

“We've made it so the kids can operate the trains all day long, but at the same time, a true S-Gauge collector would recognize this as an authentic display,” says O’Connor. “American Flyer trains are highly sought after, very desirable trains. That they run as well as they do to this day, having withstood the test of time, is a testament to everything A.C. Gilbert was about.”

The enthusiasts say that model train collectors are caretakers, not owners. Collectors understand that the trains they own were built to last lifetimes. They love the sleekness and perfection of the trains’ design and want to share them with others.

“Building this display is really about passing on the love of trains,” says Bianchi. “This hobby encompasses everything: collecting, electrical work (powering the trains), mechanical design (gears, motors, wheels and moving parts), artistic creativity (painting scenery and decorating cars), and a love of history (researching original details). And there’s a place in it for just about anybody.”

In an interesting way, things have come full circle for the group. They are planning a feature article on the display to be published in the September edition of Classic Toy Trains Magazine, the publication that inspired them to revisit the old exhibit in the first place.

The heyday of model trains ended in the 1960s. But the children who grew up with them still want to pass their love of trains down to their children. Bianchi facilitates the railroad club at Charlotte Central School, and each year kids come to him hoping the club will be meeting.

Kathryn Chase, Charlotte Central School’s librarian, says the museum display will allow her to share her memories of model trains with her granddaughter.

“As a little girl at Shelburne Village School, I remember walking over to the museum with my class,” she says. “We always looked forward to the train exhibit. I think it’s important for children to see the history of transportation, and the way things have changed and stayed the same.

“Trains will change a great deal in the next 50 years, so I’m thrilled that they’ve put the trains back,” Chase says. “Because of it, I can bring my granddaughter, the fourth generation of my family that will be able to see this train exhibit.”

Shelburne Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $9 for adults, $4.50 for children ages 6-18 and free for younger children.

Organizers of the model train exhibit are looking for people who have memories, photos or other information about the original layout. Call Ed at 425-2771, ext. 155 or send e-mail to [email protected].

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Illinois-based firm purchases shopping center

By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

An Illinois-based real estate company has purchased Maple Tree Place for a price topping $100 million, adding it to one of the country’s largest portfolios of shopping centers.

Rick Fox, a spokesman for the Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, confirmed that one of the company’s subsidiaries, Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, had bought the shopping center last month from Starwood Ceruzzi, the Connecticut real estate company that has owned the development since the 1990s.

Fox said the purchase price for the 71-acre parcel was $103.3 million. The property was recently reappraised at a value of $42.2 million — an increase of nearly $6 million over the year before, according to assistant town assessor Dick Ransom.

Fox said the appeal of the Maple Tree Place development was obvious.

“What’s not to like about this property?” he said. “Inland Western bought more than a half-million square feet of some of the top names in retail in an area that continues to grow.”

Maple Tree Place has developed into one of the state’s largest commercial developments, featuring national retailers like Best Buy and Staples, a 10-screen movie theater and tens of thousands of square feet of office space. It also has a residential component — a 50-unit affordable housing complex.

More development is permitted at the Maple Tree Place parcel. Fox said Inland Western is developing a strategy for continuing to build out the property.

“There is a plan for the additional land and we will be working with the sellers on that development as it moves forward,” Fox said.

Inland Real Estate Group has more than $10 billion in assets and manages more than 95 million square feet of commercial space, according to the company’s Web site. Shopping Centers Today, a trade publication, ranked Inland as the fifth-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the U.S.

Fox said Maple Tree Place shoppers will see few changes as a result of Inland Western’s purchase. He said the public should expect growth at the shopping center, but no major remodeling of the relatively new development.

“The real difference that people will notice is the continued development, but as far as the rest of the property is concerned, the average shopper won’t notice the change at all,” Fox said.

Fox said the closing date on the sale was May 20. The Williston Town Clerk’s Office had not received a property transfer form as of Tuesday, nor was Town Planner Lee Nellis aware if a sale had occurred, though he said, “I’m 99 percent sure something has happened.”

Cindy Ellis, senior vice president and associate general counsel at Starwood Ceruzzi, did not return a phone message seeking comment on the transaction.

Starwood Ceruzzi and the town of Williston have had ongoing discussions for months about whether Maple Tree Place has met several of the project’s original conditions of approval. Nellis said the conditions would not change with a change in ownership.

“Any new buyer would still have a legal obligation to meet the conditions of approval,” Nellis said in April.

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