January 14, 2008

Target, Lowe's, traffic... and more?

It's no wonder that John Leone and the chamber of commerce is worried about the impact of the shopping center going in at the intersection of Route 229 and I-84.
Take a look at the plans and it's obvious this is going to be a major blow to Bristol retailers as well as clogging up one of the few roads into the Mum City.
The worst part, for Bristol anyway, is that Southington has already shown with Route 10 that it's capable of turning a state highway into a congested mess. This plaza could be the beginning of yet another nightmarish stretch of suburban box stores, like Route 6 in Bristol.
Bristol would gain nothing more from the looming catastrophe than yet another place to spend money out of town. What it would lose is perhaps immense.
Officials are right on the money to focus attention now on how to keep Route 229 from becoming an overdeveloped wreck of a road. With ESPN, Lake Compounce and several industrial parks dependent on its use, that just can't be allowed to happen.



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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems like Southington is merely helping Bristol with it's isolationist plans .

I mean Bristol has closed roads .... removed travel lanes .... removed turning lanes all in the very recent history .
Add to that the idea of turning Downtown into a 'pedestrian friendly ' area and the Southington developement fits like a glove .

Anonymous said...

Oh wow a Lowes and a Target! I'm excited. :-)

Though seriously now... it's in Southington - what can we really do about it anyway beyond requesting politely for enough of a roadway around the new development. Which should be in place anyway.

Anonymous said...

Rt 229 needs to be expanded to 5 lines (2 each direction, plus turning lane in middle)from I-84 to where Rt 72 will tie in near riverside drive. that is the only way to improve traffic flow on this stretch of road.

southington and bristol need to work together with the state DOT to make this a reality.

-billy from bristol

Anonymous said...

Where is Frank when he is needed?

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be an issue if Bristol had the stores in town, people wouldn't have to flood 229 coming and going.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the last post. If Bristol got some decent stores, we wouldn't have to leave town.

Look how much Torrington has now. They have a new Target, Bed & Bath, Panera, Famous Footwear, etc. I do alot of my shopping up there now.

BRISTOL HAS NOTHING!!! We are forced to leave our own city to shop elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Bristol needs stores!!!! We have only Walmart to shop. We have to go out of town if we want to buy anything that is not at the Dollar store. Tell me that you buy clothes at the dollar store or Job Lot or Ocean State. We have a lot of stores for low income consumers. What we need is quality stores in Bristol if you want Bristol to survive. What Bristol needs is a shopping center like Plainville. All this work to put a highway in, to go where???

Anonymous said...

We don;t even have Ocean State Job Lot anymore. It is getting worse and worse.

Anonymous said...

If you recall, Bristol had the opportunity to put in a Target on rte. 6 but would not give up part of Kern park to make the plans work. Sounds to me like Leone and some city officials are having a case of sour grapes. Southington is thinking outside the box....it is a community that is experiencing a lot of growth and needed to find ways to keep taxes down....why not attract some large retail store to help with the tax base. Bristol shold take notes. Leone needs to retire sooner than later!

Steve Collins said...

That's not correct. When Target wanted part of the park, it got it. The city made the deal (illegally, as it turns out). But Target pulled out and the project fell through.
When another developer eyed the same sliver of the park for an unknown commercial venture, officials learned they couldn't do it because some vigilant citizens called them on it.
And that was that.
But the city never stopped the Target project.

Anonymous said...

The city never really helped the Target deal either. Rosenthal was too busy helping Ken Johnson get real estate contracts.

Steve Collins said...

Just for the record:
In the summer of 2002, the city agreed to sell the Kern Park acreage to Preston Road Development so that it would be possible to put a 125,000-square-foot Target store on the Mahannah farm property.
Without the city land’s inclusion, developers said, they couldn’t do the project because of wetlands concerns.
Initial drawings showed the back of store sitting on the city land, with another 4 acres devoted to wetlands mitigation. The city sought to keep the other 4 acres even though developers offered to buy them, too.
The Zoning Commission agreed to change the zone so the store could go in.
So the City Council and the Zoning Commission both agreed to what the developer wanted. It was the developer who dropped the ball, probably because Target wasn't interested anymore.

Anonymous said...

I'll take ESPN expansion over some of these stores.

But with Rosenthals attitude, we seem to get neither.

Oh well, what are we to expect.

Anonymous said...

Bristol complains about traffic for Bristol! I need to laugh about this! Oh man my gut hurts from laughing so hard!! Ok I can type now...Serious! Why in the hell did Bristol buy a mall before investing into getting Rt 6 fixed knowing that RT 72 was coming? RT 6 is the main artery of this city not downtown. RT 6 has tons of potential...but well we ever see it? It always great driving up RT 6 to see single family homes next to a box store! makes for a great city!

Anonymous said...

Southington is expanding.
Southington got Yarde Metals.

Southington has a Town Manager.


Any correlation?

Anonymous said...

HOw come our City Planner and our Development Director weren't on top of this SOONER?

Of course, they both live out of town: is that a factor?

Anonymous said...

"Sounds to me like Leone and some city officials are having a case of sour grapes."

"Sour grapes" means showing disinterest in something that you can't have, not whining about something you don't like. Don't make me have to tell you again.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous @ 2:31 PM:

What is it exactly that Mr. Rosenthal and I should have been "on top of" sooner?

Speaking only for myself, I'm well aware of (and have been for some time) the potential impacts that development of the area around the Rte 229/I-84 interchange in Southington may have on Bristol. However, in this situation, no one entity is in a position to address these impacts on its own; a regional approach will be necessary, requiring the involvement and cooperation of several players in addition to the city: the Town of Southington, the Central CT Regional Planning Agency (which has sought funding - unsuccessfully - for a study of the Rte 229 corridor for several years), and the CT Department of Transportation (after all, it's their road).

What my residing in another town has to do with this is beyond me, but I'm certainly willing to become enlightened. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with you further. Feel free to call me at my office (584-6225).

Anonymous said...

Mr. Weiner:
As City Planner, aren't you supposed to be leading the charge to "plan" things for the city?
Aren't you supposed to alert other Departments of changes such as this?

Including the Mayor?

Or, are you, as is usually claimed, just a high priced Zoning Official?

Anonymous said...

alan l. weiner said...
To Anonymous @ 2:31 PM:

Feel free to call me at my office (584-6225).

January 17, 2008 7:59 PM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


You may be interested in knowing that call i.d. will trace you and the unionized assault team WILL be immediately dispatched to uncover all the criminal activities you have been involved in ... such as ... grass too long ...NOT wearing seat belt ... use of cell phone while driving ... snow on you vehicle in the winter ... etc....etc...etc...

Bob Merrick said...

Developing a Target and Lowes next to exit 33 is NOT an example of thinking outside the box.

Retail development near the highways actually increases traffic problems not only on the secondary roads but on the highways as well.
This defeats the purpose of a highway which is a free-flowing, high-speed connection between urban centers and 1st tier suburubs. Anyone who travels I84 between Hartford and Waterbury can sympathize with the traffic problems.

The developments near the highways are destructive to the other businesses that are contained within their host community and that of surrounding communities.

Mr. Weiner is correct that a regional approach needs to take place to prevent one community actions from having serious negative consequences on surrounding communities and the region in general.

In my opinion, one of the reasons that Bristol hasn't followed the path of similar cities of its size is due to the fact that it was relatively self-contained, had limited access to high speed travel and served its residents well. This is demonstrated by the commitment of many long-time residents who have chosen to stay in Bristol.

For more information there is an interesting presentation I have included on Unite Bristol's "Featured Video Topics" by Andres Duany, an expert in urban planning and development. Go to www.unitebristol.org and use the menu feature to play the 10 part series.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should change the name of our Planning Commission to "Reaction Commission" and our Planner to "Reactor".

Anonymous said...

Bob Merrick said...

"In my opinion, one of the reasons that Bristol hasn't followed the path of similar cities of its size is due to the fact that it was relatively self-contained " <------ political speak for Taxpayers get ready and bend over .

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Not certain exactly who this is or his function , but , I might suggest he take a ride on any main thoroughfare in any State and discover the location of market places .

Anonymous said...

See if you could locate some of the council members from Frank Longo's term as mayor, I seem to remember him saying to make Middle St. to Rt.84 a 6 lane road before it gets cloged with bussiness on both sides of the road, instead of Rt. 72 extenstion.

Anonymous said...

read Stacy Mitchell's Big Box Swindle and you'll understand exactly why Bristol only has a WalMart to shop in as "anonymous" has written...and how for every dollar that you spend in Bristol at that or anyother Big Box OUT OF STATE corporation means, only 13 cents of it stays in your town for all thos road improvements you need and WILL need...in other words 87 cents of every dollar you so mindlessly spend buying cheap crap from China will destroy what little else you have in town and won't pay to improve the town's quality of life whatsoever.
BUY LOCAL & put your money where your house is!