Branford Residents Raise Concerns About Pedestrian Safety Near Train Station

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

BRANFORD, CT – A good portion of Tuesday’s Transit Oriented Development meeting was spent talking about not development but traffic and how to slow down the drivers who frequent the train station, and waterfront area.

Planners for BFJ Planning, who were hired by the town with a state grant to propose future development options near the Shore Line East train station, focused a lot of their presentation on potential new development.

But residents in attendance, while mostly supportive of what they heard, also told BFJ, which is preparing a final report for submission to the town in November, to not forget about the safety aspect of what is being proposed.

Several residents who live in the area said they were concerned that the area is very dangerous for pedestrians – and could be even more so if more development is in the offing.

One resident said, “The speeds are just ridiculous.”

Those in attendance were glad to hear that BFJ has taken the issue of safety into concerns into its plans to propose new development for the area.

A company spokesman spent part of the presentation showing the crowd slides of the type of traffic calming strategies that could be used to handle current or increased traffic more development might bring.

The spokesman said that strategies that could used, include: crosswalks, lighting, trees, signage, speed bumps, textured pavement, parallel parking and curb extensions.

Frank Fish, of BFJ, reassured the audience that traffic calming measures would certainly be included in its final recommendations to the town.

As far as the type of development that is being suggested for the area around the train station, Fish said it would be mostly residential in nature.

“We did not want to develop a plan that would compete with the retail in nearby downtown,” Fish told the crowd. He said while there might be some retail involved in the project it would ideally be retail that would not be redundant with retailers who operate downtown.

Both First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove and Town Planner Harry Smith complimented BFJ for working diligently on the project.

“We want to make sure what we do enhances the assets of what we already have,” Cosgrove said. “We are all about complimenting and enhancing what we already have.”

Smith added: “We want to facilitate new development but retain community character – and, of course, build our tax base.”