An Open Letter to the People of Old Lyme:
Dear Neighbor,
Guided change will allow Halls Road to better serve Old Lyme in the 21st century.
The proposed Halls Road Overlay District allows the private investment needed to create a new, mixed-use town center there, scaled to the needs of Old Lyme:
- Smaller scale housing for down-sizing seniors and young families,
- Browse-able retail street,
- Walkable, bikeable, living neighborhood,
- A viable alternative to Halls Road being dominated by highway services – its likely future without HROD.
For the full details on the Halls Road Overlay Zoning, please go to Town of Old Lyme website at https://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/343/Halls-Road-Improvements-Committee .
Halls Overlay Zoning has been fully reviewed and approved by the Old Lyme Planning Commission, carefully reviewed by the Old Lyme Economic Development Commission and the Old Lyme Zoning Commission has reviewed at several meetings and is now scheduled for its Final Zoning Hearing.
Opponents of Halls Zoning are ‘flooding the zone’ with wild exaggerations and outright lies. We need your help to show such scare tactics cannot work in Old Lyme.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION
Come and show your support for a better future for Old Lyme.
- SHOW UP at Zoning Hearing.
- BRING FRIENDS to show that people care about this.
- SPEAK UP at the Hearing.
WHAT: Old Lyme Zoning Hearing
WHEN: Thursday, 6:30pm February 27, 2025
WHERE: Old Lyme Middle School Auditorium
If you cannot attend please share this email with like-minded friends. Also please submit a Support Letter (Either copy, sign and email/mail this Support Letter or use it to write your own.)
Send via email or mail to below:
Postal: (must arrive before February 27)
Old Lyme Zoning Commission
52 Lyme Street, Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall
Old Lyme, CT 06371
Eric Knapp <[email protected]>
cc: Craig Bonatti <[email protected]>
Thank you for your time and your consideration of this important matter.
Sincerely,
Edie Twining,
Old Lyme.
Editor’s Note: The author is the Halls Road Improvements Committee Chair
The vast majority of opposition comments are derived or directly quoted from the HROD proposal. “no more than 40 dwelling units shall be built per 1 acre of land”. (HROD website 11/18/24), or from Bill Sweeney’s sales pitch from the hearing on 1-15-25. Listen to the recording. 200’ buildings fronting Halls Road, with 20,000sf footprint; (x3 stories = 60k on 3 floors with a 15’ MAXIMUM setback from route 1. And the area(s) behind the Qualifying Projects have murkey development limits, but would necessitate 3 story parking garages; what’s that tell you?
It’s a developers dream, never mind all the window dressing…….
The proposed plan is well thought out and sensible. We’ve had over ten years of “tweeking” the details. I have confidence that the board has done an exemplary job and that our zoning board will also look out for the town’s best interests.
Old Lyme needs other forms of housing, retail space that fits our changing times and a walkable downtown with such a mix. We are the one town in the shoreline that is a laggard in this area. I strongly feel that it will only add to our quality of life.
Prove me wrong:
Passing the Overlay does nothing to protect Halls Road from a new gas station and convenience mart.
Take 100 Halls Road for example. If zoning passes the Overlay, what is stopping the owner from putting up a gas station, a Chick-fil-A or a Cumberland Farms? Nothing.
For 8 years, the Halls Road Committee has scared us with visions of highway services but if you look at their actual regulations they do nothing to protect us. Simply flooding the box with over-priced housing and retail is not a strategy for protecting Old Lyme.
I would suggest,as Halls Road is rather homely even viewed while squinting your eyes,that the town buy up certain properties,tear them up and with the help of the DEEP,return the area to a managed forest/public park.As the area is in close proximity to the Lieutenant River,an extension of that ecosystem would benefit in many ways.A huge benefit would be a lowering of taxes as forests,grasslands and nesting birds only require basic maintenance.Well,that and a police presence to drive away derelicts and drug dealers.
I am sure most do not wish to see the street become completely devoted to servicing the highway and its travelers.There is no reason for this role at all here.The pressures of our auto-driven society are becoming greater but with a general agreement that looking like Old Saybrook or Niantic needs to be avoided,I’m sure a better way forward can be had.
Adding a great many apartments will put pressure on the town in the areas of the school system,road and parking lot maintenance,and more traffic in general.What would be nice,in a nod to the future,would be to put up a large number of EV charging stations near the BigY parking lot.By 2030,like it or not,the US auto industry will be mostly producing cars which are run by battery.Not gasoline.This would dovetail nicely into are reforested park area and not only look nicer but raise our collective property values.Give it some thought.
This is a wonderful idea, if we truly care about preserving what makes our town special, let us preserve its natural habitats as well as its quiet peaceful overall character.
I agree with Jonathan’s excellent back to nature vision for Hall’s Road except for the EV part. The U.S. auto industry is not abandoning gasoline any time soon, thankfully.