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Abutters of Pride station voice disapproval of expansion

Date: 7/26/2011

July 25, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Residents of Longmeadow Street and surrounding roads offered up strong opposition to a plan to renovate and expand the Pride gas station located on a busy section of Route 5 at a public hearing before the Planning Board on July 20.

Robert Bolduc, owner and CEO of Pride Stations and Stores, presented a proposal to the Planning Board for the 1730 Longmeadow St. property that included the addition of one fueling island and the expansion of the retail store from a 32-by-32 foot building to an 80-by-32 foot structure.

One thing everyone was in agreement on was the fact that traffic at that intersection is often congested and at times dangerous.

Resident Jay Ostrosky told the Planning Board that if the town and Pride were going to do something about the traffic situation, they should make sure they do it right the first time.

“This is an opportunity to fix the problem, but we have to be careful,” he said. “The traffic there is a disaster of astronomical proportions. Something obviously has to be done, but we have to make sure it is done right and we aren’t making the problem worse.”

Longmeadow Police Chief Robert Siano said that traffic issues at times have “gotten so bad we’ve had fisticuffs at the pumps.”

Bolduc said concerns such as those were the reason for the proposed expansion.

“We want to run a business as smoothly as possible,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want those kinds of things happening.”

Bolduc said the addition of the island, in addition to the purchase of property at 1734 Longmeadow St., will help reduce the traffic congestion that is often created by vehicles attempting to enter the station. The additional property sits on the border between Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“We would be improving the traffic problem by 25 percent because we’ll be getting 25 percent more cars into the store and off the road,” Bolduc said.

Bolduc’s suggested traffic flow would require vehicles to enter through two curb cuts on Longmeadow Street and one on South Avenue. Traffic would exit north via a second curb cut on South Avenue or south through a curb cut onto Connecticut Avenue in Enfield, Conn.

Siano proposed in his report, which was made public prior to the hearing, another traffic pattern which would require that no traffic be allowed to enter from or exit the directly onto Longmeadow Street.

Instead, traffic would only be allowed to enter and exit via South and Connecticut avenues.

He also said that Bolduc’s traffic plan does not take into account all streets that make up the traffic pattern of the intersection.

“The only thing this doesn’t show is the intersection of Booth [Street],” he said. “I think trying to have cars entering almost exclusively from Route 5 will only exacerbate the problem.”

Bolduc said that he was fine with implementing either plan, based on the board’s decision.

There were many objections to the addition of fueling stations.

Tara Ostrosky suggested the added pumps, with their close proximity to the road, could create a bottleneck under Siano’s plan.

Bolduc and the Planning Board agreed there could be a potential backup created by that scenario, but Bolduc downplayed it.

Residents also made the allegation that more pumps will attract more customers and therefore create more congestion.

Bolduc said other stations, such as the one located on West Street in Springfield near the North End Bridge, have similar traffic flows while dispensing much more gasoline and run “smooth as silk.”

Patricia Murphy, a resident of 1723 Longmeadow St., contested that the two stations cannot be compared because the Longmeadow Street location attracts traffic from Connecticut motorists who wish to take advantage of lower gas prices in Massachusetts.

“Cars are cars, whether they are from Connecticut or West Springfield,” Bolduc said in reply. “The fact of the matter is there are busier stations that currently run more smoothly.”

Murphy and others requested that a study be done comparing the proposed plan to similar stations that border Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Walter Gunn, chair of the Planning Board, said that no such study would be conducted. However, he ordered a traffic study be done at the expense of the company, which Bolduc agreed to.

“What the study will do is examine the traffic that exists today and then plug that data into a model that will then tell you which plan is more effective and whether having an extra island will make a difference,” he explained.

Gunn and others also expressed concerns with the lighting at the location, saying it appears to violate the town’s by-laws. Bolduc agreed to conduct a photometric study to see if the station’s LED lighting conforms to the town by-law.

The public hearing was continued until Sept. 7, by which time both studies are expected to be completed.



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