Residents Offer Input on Route 44, Canton Center

Residents offered planning input for Route 44 and Canton Center in a charrette workshop Monday evening.

Students from a University of Connecticut Landscape Architecture studio course in community planning and Paula Stahl, a UConn Extension Educator, facilitated the event.

The workshop included input from residents on their favorite places to visit, frequency of Route 44 use, the features of Canton Center and what they would miss if they came back in 15 years and it were gone.

A few common themes emerged from the exercise such as a love of walkable communities and that most residents drive on Route 44 at least once a day. Stahl said that while Route 44 is a busy road, parallel walking areas are a strong possibility.

Residents also met with the students to help them carefully map existing sites and provide input on planning ideas.

Residents marked an array of provided pictures with stickers, noting what looks they felt would fit in with the town. Some of the more popular ones were photos of a bike rack, outdoor eating area and an urban streetscape.

Near the end of the evening, students told the crowd what feedback they heard.

“I want to make sure we’ve heard what you’re telling us,” Stahl said.

For example, student Emily Anyzeski shared the input she received on Canton Center. While as many as 70 percent of the people did not want to see any change there, some felt some added retail would be good while others said some areas could be enhanced without changing the basic character of the area. Some of those ideas, such as a bed and breakfast, were controversial among the respondents, she said. But all in all there was some common ground, she added.

“All agree it needs to have the feel it already has,” Anyzeski said.

The students also gave residents a chance to state what they felt was missing.

Medical, skating rinks, fields and farms were mentioned as some of the missing elements.

Lansford Perry said he felt the photos lacked the small industrial or craftsman shops that can be so beneficial for jobs and economic activity yet have a low impact on the community in other ways.

“Frankly, I'd like to see more respect to things that generate real cash,” he said.

Marianne Burbank reiterated the feeling that the town should “treasure what we have” for Canton Center but said it does not have to look to outside places for Route 44 design ideas.

“We have our own history and our own historical architecture right here,” she said.

At the same time, attempts to re-create looks often fall short, said Betty Fiora.

“What I wouldn’t want to see is for the whole area to be cookie-cutterish,” Fiora said.

During the meeting, some who work on development projects in town quietly bemoaned the general lack of large-scale projects in the pictures.

Some businessmen did, however, offer some suggestions or situations to consider.

Turning left into many businesses on Route 44 is a dangerous move, said Steven Mitchell, mentioning his Volkswagen dealership and Benidorm Bikes.

“Route 44 has to be a safe place to travel,” Mitchell said.

And Julius Fialkiewicz added that the parallel walkable areas Stahl mentioned as a possibility would be a challenge due to setback requirements on Route 44.

Despite some of the concerns, Stahl emphasized that the project was a student one. During the next four weeks, students will work on the data and visit the areas again as they did Monday afternoon.

People are welcome to send additional input to paula.stahl@uconn.edu, Stahl said.

The students will return to town on April 25 with concept master plans for the areas

As a student project, the town is welcome to use some, all or none of the final product, Stahl said.

“Ninety-nine percent of the reason we’re here to help the students,” she said. “We’re hoping you embrace at least a piece of it.”