Police Commission Reviews Traffic Safety At Fairfield Hills

By Andrew Gorosko

Because the Fairfield Hills core campus now has two major uses in place, in the form of Newtown Municipal Center and Newtown Youth Academy, the Police Commission, in its role as the local traffic authority, is reviewing what measures may be taken to better control traffic flow at the town-owned site.

Police Commission members discussed the traffic topic at a March 2 session in considering ways to prevent traffic accidents from occurring at the redeveloped site in the geographical center of Newtown.

Last fall, the renovated building formerly known as Bridgeport Hall, which had served as the central dining and kitchen facility at Fairfield State Hospital, reopened for use as Newtown Municipal Center, a town office building intended to draw together most town government agencies under one roof.

In late 2008, the privately operated Newtown Youth Academy, a sprawling recreational sports facility with multiple athletic uses, opened to the public at the site formerly occupied by Bridgewater House.

Also in 2008, the town began using a new baseball field equipped with night lighting towers positioned next to academy.

The town purchased the approximately 185-ace Fairfield Hills campus from the state in August 2004 for redevelopment into municipal and commercial uses. The former state psychiatric hospital closed in December 1995.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told Police Commission members March 2 that he has discussed the creation of directional signs at Fairfield Hills with Robert Geckle, the chairman of the Fairfield Hills Authority. Such signs would be posted to aid people in finding the various agencies located there. The authority is reviewing creating a signage plan to direct visitors to their destinations, the police chief said.

Chief Kehoe explained that due to the extensive perpendicular parking that is positioned along three sides of the municipal center, motorists drive out perpendicularly into the traffic that is traveling on the roads along three sides of the municipal center, posing accident hazards.

“There have been a lot of near misses with people pulling [vehicles] in or out,” he said.

The municipal building has two long rows of perpendicular parking spaces on its north and its south sides, as well as one row of such parking on its east side. The roadway along the west side of the building is not open to traffic.

Chief Kehoe asked whether the U-shaped roadway that arcs toward the youth academy should be made a one-way street instead of its current two-way traffic design. That road encloses an area holding both conventional parking lots and turf sections.

Police Commission Chairman Duane Giannini suggested that agency members consider the prospect of a one-way street serving the youth academy. The topic needs “careful thought,” he said.

Such a traffic design would amount to a traffic diversion, and traffic diversions can be beneficial or be problematic, he noted.

Mr Giannini urged that commission members study a site plan for the Fairfield Hills core campus at their April 6 session in considering the best traffic design for the property.

Chief Kehoe noted that since the campus has reopened for public use, there have been problems posed by distracted drivers and by vehicular speeding.

“Is ‘traffic calming’ necessary?” he asked. Traffic calming involves a variety of physical measures employed to reduce motorists’ travel speeds through a given area. A thorough example of traffic calming in this area exists along the west side of the New Milford Green.

Mr Giannini urged that agency members visit the Fairfield Hills property to gauge the traffic aspects of the site in view of their upcoming decisionmaking on traffic issues there.

Traffic regulations for Fairfield Hills would include setting certain speed limits for motorists traveling on the property.