Letter to the Editor: Halls Rd. Overlay District Will Allow Old Lyme to Remain a Small, But Walkable, Vibrant Community

To the Editor:

The Halls Road Overlay District Plan offers our community the opportunity to develop a small but vibrant town and community center. This area has been in urgent need of long-range planning & development and now we have it – after years of dedicated committee work, multiple surveys, community input sessions, and revisions in response to every conceivable authority.

Today, people are demanding mixed use because it provides convenience, flexibility, and a range of experiences within a smaller neighborhood. To reject this plan is to choose to maintain a 1950s approach to 21st century conditions, retaining a commercial district that is a relic of a time when enthusiasm for the automobile and suburban life put greater distances between people and their town centers.

Without at least the potential for a mixed-use, walkable town center where people can live, work and shop, our little shopping district will continue to limp along without the support that a mixed-use neighborhood provides for retail. There is no pedestrian traffic and no walk-in trade, which is the one remaining attraction for retail investment in the era of Amazon. Instead, new off-ramp convenience stores and franchises will continue to replace local merchants. 

I personally know several people whose professional and personal contribution to this community is unique and highly valued but who choose to live elsewhere because they cannot access the resources that are convenient for their young families and lifestyle here.

For some, the idea of any change to our beloved community is scary, indeed some appear to find it so threatening as to suggest nefarious and corrupt motives on the part of the planners. I urge you not to be influenced by those who harbor these irrational fears and suspicions. Without a plan that at least allows (does not require!) change that will make Old Lyme more attractive to younger families, single households and other individuals who want and need to live within walking distance of essential services, the aging and unattractive traffic strip that has become half of our town center will continue to be an embarrassment and a lost opportunity which will not come again in our lifetimes.

The Halls Road Overlay District plan now presents the Zoning Commission with an opportunity to choose: between the potential for a walkable town center where people can live, work, shop, and enjoy participation in a neighborhood and a community, or a Route 1 extension allowing drivers to speed quickly though and out of town, bordered by half-empty parking lots and decaying strip-malls where the only available new business options are gas stations and convenience stores.

I urge the Zoning Commission to make the right choice.

Sincerely,

Katy Klarnet,
Old Lyme.