Windsor Special Meeting Fails To Move Broad Street Diet Vote

WINDSOR, CT — A last-minute push to change the date of Windsor’s upcoming Broad Street road diet vote appears to have stalled, leaving the special town meeting on track for April 28.

In a social media post shared Thursday, the Windsor Republican Town Committee said the town’s four Republican councilors called a special Town Council meeting for Wednesday night to try to move the Broad Street special town meeting from April 28 to Saturday, May 2. The committee said none of the Democratic councilors attended, leaving the council short of the five-member quorum needed to take action.

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The town had formally posted that April 15 special council meeting as a hybrid session at Town Hall and on Zoom. Its agenda listed a single item: whether to amend the previously approved special town meeting date and instead hold the Broad Street vote at 10 a.m. May 2 at Windsor High School, and the agenda packet says the request was filed by Councilors Kristin Gluck-Hoffman, Ronald Eleveld, William Pelkey and James Durant.

The same agenda packet says five members are required for a quorum, which explains why the proposed date change could not move forward if only the four requesting councilors were present.

The scheduling fight grew out of the Town Council’s April 6 vote to send the revised Broad Street Traffic Calming and Pedestrian Safety Project to a special town meeting. Minutes from that meeting show the council approved a $2.91 million appropriation on a 5-4 vote and separately set the special town meeting for 7 p.m. April 28 at Windsor High School, with the project to be funded through a State of Connecticut Urban Act grant and a reimbursable U.S. Department of Transportation grant.

That April 6 meeting drew sharp debate not only over the project itself, but over the way the vote would be held. Town minutes show several residents argued that deciding the issue at a single 7 p.m. meeting at the high school would be unfair to working people, older residents, disabled residents and parents, while others urged the town to move ahead on slowing traffic and making downtown crossings safer.

Town records show the current version is a scaled-back plan after Windsor voters rejected an earlier proposal. In the March 11, 2025 referendum, the $6.1 million project lost 1,739 to 1,261, or 58 percent to 42 percent.

Windsor’s project page says staff then worked with engineers to reduce the scope and remove or scale back costlier pieces from the earlier version. The town says the revised plan focuses on Broad Street from the Palisado Avenue-Poquonock Avenue area to near Batchelder Road, keeps the existing curb line, provides parking on the west side, adds on-street bike lanes on both sides and aims to slow traffic while improving pedestrian and bicycle safety in Windsor Center.

For now, the project remains scheduled for the April 28 special town meeting previously approved by the council.