Committee weighs bus‑and‑parent traffic alternatives, cautions over athletic‑field loss

Chair opened the meeting and turned the discussion over to Rebecca Bushek, who presented two traffic alternatives that would reroute buses and parent vehicles for the proposed school site.

Bushek said the so‑called "Don Bergerman" plan would have buses and cars enter from South Street, wrap around the parking lot and exit onto Conant Drive. Implementing that layout would require widening the drive aisle by roughly 31 feet to provide a 12‑foot bus loading lane, a 12‑foot bypass lane and a 6–7‑foot pedestrian divider; the change could take up most of the south athletic field and force relocation of 30–38 staff or Abbot Downing parking spaces.

"If you were to implement this option, you would need to widen that drive aisle that wraps around the parking lot by an additional 31 feet," Bushek said, adding the change could eliminate the southerly athletic field and still require students to cross bus traffic to reach parent vehicles.

Committee members and parents debated the tradeoffs. A parent and roadway engineer said separation of bus and parent flows is the safest outcome, but acknowledged that fully separated routes would push traffic into the Noyes Street neighborhood. "I would definitely choose the buses over the parents every single day," the parent said, summarizing a preference to protect neighborhood streets from parent traffic.

The group discussed stormwater impacts: a committee member asked whether moving the rain garden would undermine on‑site stormwater treatment. A designer explained that runoff currently drains to Bow Brook and that modern permitting requires on‑site treatment; if the rain garden is removed, project costs could rise to accommodate alternate treatment measures.

Questions about emergency response and right‑of‑way surfaced repeatedly. Several committee members noted that some proposed lane configurations (for example, two lanes in and one lane out on South Street) could create confusion and slow emergency responders. The Transportation Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) and the city's traffic operations staff had reviewed earlier options, and staff said the newest variations had not been through traffic operations at the time of the meeting.

By the end of the discussion the chair asked whether anyone wanted to make a motion to change the board‑approved configuration; no motion was offered. The committee elected to move forward with the existing plan while the design team refines alternatives that could allow some buses to exit via Princeton Street and reduce pressure at the main intersection.

The committee asked staff to document impacts precisely (estimated parking spaces affected, fields at risk) and to bring traffic‑operations and emergency‑services feedback back to a future meeting before any formal change was made.