College to Propose Revised Parking Plan to Town

Author: Chesley Thurber

The College's Office of Facilities Planning has designed a new parking proposal to present to the Middlebury Town Planning Commission tonight. The new plan is an adaptation of an earlier version introduced at a Planning Commission meeting on March 6 that received heavy criticism from the town, the College's music department and local and campus environmentalists.

The new plan proposes the creation of approximately 270 additional parking spaces for both student and event parking. According to the plan, an additional ring will be added to the Center for the Arts (CFA) lot, generating 100 new event parking spaces. Additionally, if approved by the town, a new lot to be named South Street Lot will be built adjacent to Porter Hospital and will create an additional 170 parking spaces for student use. Porter Field Road, the access road that connects South Street to Rte. 30, will be modified to serve the increase in traffic.

This new plan replaces an earlier proposal for the creation of 414 spaces that was rejected by the Planning Commission. In addition to increasing the size of both the CFA and the South Street lots, this proposal required a new access road to be built that would run adjacent to the CFA and create a new four-way intersection with Rte. 30 and Stewart Hill Road.

The Planning Commission noted several concerns in its decision not to approve the original plan. Firstly, the CFA lot expansion would have extended too close to the properties of residents of the Chipman Park community, violating a 100-foot buffer agreed upon between the town and the College. Residents of South Street said they worried that the proposal would lead to increased traffic and possibly speeding along that street. Finally, the four-way intersection to be created by the new access road posed possible safety risks.

The new proposal hopes to satisfy these concerns in its modifications. The reduction in the number of lots and designation of "event only" parking at the CFA lot aims to placate concerns of members of the Chipman Park community while a decrease in the proposed size of the South Street lot and measures to prevent speeding should please residents of South Street. The current proposal also does not include the construction of the new access road that had caused much protest on campus.

College environmentalists were the first to raise concerns about the access road. Constructing the road combined with salt applied to the road in winter would lead to severe damage and possibly the death of the large oak tree that stands between the CFA and Munford House.

More recently, the Music Department voiced objections to the road's proximity to its facilities in the CFA. According to the department, the noise from traffic along this road would severely affect the use of the music library, the single music classroom and, most notably, the acclaimed concert hall.

"It's just very detrimental," noted Visiting Instructor in Music Evan Bennett. Such noise, according to Bennett, would impede on the department's ability to teach and also on the its effort to attract performers to the College's renowned Concert Series. The concert hall, which has been described by professional performers as one of the best in the world, is one of the principle means of attracting professional artists to the College.

"Sound is our language, so to speak," said Bennett. "That means that pollution that makes that language less intelligible, less clear and less provocative really starts to limit what we can do."

Although the new access road is not part of the proposal being reviewed for permit at this evening's meeting, Facilities Planning Project Manager Mark Gleason stated that "a roadway adjacent to CFA has been part of the College's Master Plan for many years," and that "we will not be asking to alter the Master Plan, with regard to the new road entry to the CFA lot." The road is still effectively part of the College's long term parking plan. Gleason noted, however, that he hopes to expand parking "in a way that positively impacts the CFA rather than creating problems for those responsible for carrying out the programs offered in the building."

The new proposal, calling for fewer new spaces and no new access road, will be presented for a construction permit to the Planning Commission this evening. The Commission, which consists of seven members, meets on a biweekly basis at 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building to review all building permit requests. According to Middlebury Town Planner Fred Dunnington, the Commission seeks to ensure that building projects create no "undue, adverse impact" on the community. Such "undue impact" is defined as negative consequences that could be avoided through an alternative plan.

The proposal is simply the first step in the implementation of a long term parking plan originally designed by Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah.

According to Gleason, "As the College moves toward creating a pedestrian campus, we continue to need to expand and/or replace parking. Part of the parking needs to be an addition to the CFA lot, and we intend to pursue that with the Planning Commission this Wednesday night."