Restaurants, Bank at Outlets Site Need Further Traffic Study

Perhaps the third time will be a charm for representatives of Thurloe Kensington Corp., the company seeking to build a drive through bank and building to house three restaurants near the entrance to the Merrimack Premium Outlets.

Gordon Leedy, the director of land development with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. met with the Planning Board on behalf of Thurloe Kensington Corp. on Tuesday night with revised plans for parking and traffic flow addressing concerns from their

At that meeting the board granted four waivers, including one for the number of parking spaces required at the site, as long as the applicant came back to the board with improved plans for parking and access to and from the site.

On Tuesday, most board members agreed that improvements had been made in terms of the site layout to make parking and pedestrian access around the site safer, but there were still concerns from a few of the boards members regarding the entrance and exit to the site, which will be between Industrial Drive and Premium Outlets Boulevard, which runs directly up to the mall.

Leedy said he thought the last meeting with the board was productive and the requests and suggestions made it a better site with better traffic circultation.

“I think this is a big improvement over what we saw before I'm in favor of this, of these changes we've seen tonight,” Nelson Disco told Leedy.

Chairman Robert Best also had compliments to give, saying he like the internal flow of traffic much better and he was pleased with sidewalks that were added when the building that would house the restaurants – a coffee shop with a drive-thru, a sandwich shop and a to-be-determined restaurant – was shifted in position.

However Alastair Millns, who was particularly concerned with the traffic flow in and out of the site at the last meeting, still had concerns Tuesday night.

He showed up to the meeting with a traffic flow chart of his own and questioned the likelihood of a car being able to make a left out of the site during the peak traffic flow in the middle of the day. Millns asked whether it would make more sense to make it a right turn only out of the site, have cars travel up toward the mall and make a U-turn to get off of the property. Leedy said his concern with something like that is that there will be people who ignore the right-turn only sign and take an illegal left turn, making it even more dangerous.

He also said he didn't think traffic would be as big of an issue as it seemed as the expected heavier draw at the site, for the coffee shop, would be earlier in the day before the mall is even open.

Millns said he thought an alternative is much needed because he envisions serious traffic issues at the intersection and he is concerned that regular accidents at the intersection will cause people to become “disenchanted” with shopping at the outlets.

“I want this mall to be a success,” Millns said. “It's best thing that's happened to Merrimack in a long time.”

Board member John Segedy asked the Planning Department staff to look into the possibility of a traffic signal at the intersection, despite Leedy's protestation that the intersection doesn't meet the eight or nine warrants that need to be satisfied to require a light at the intersection. Leedy said it is unlikely any engineer would sign off on a plan for a light at that intersection.

Best asked Leedy to send copies of those requirements for the board to review suggesting that perhaps seeing what the requirements are might help satisfy them that there are fewer problems with the intersection than they think.

Disco suggested as the planners go back to the drawing board, they also consider the possibility of limiting the hours in which left turns from the site are permitted, which might help allay some conerns during heavier traffic periods.

Leedy said they would take another look at the traffic patterns and the matter was tabled until May 15 at 7:30 p.m.

The property for the restaurants and bank was subdivided off from the Merrimack Premium Outlets Parcel and acquired by Thurloe Kensington Corp. The project is not directly related to the construction of the Premium Outlets.