Op-Ed: Halls Road Overlay District—A Personal Perspective, Recommendation and Suggestion

Editor’s Note: This op-ed was submitted by Nancy Hutchinson of Old Lyme. She is the Chair (U-Republican-endorsed) of Old Lyme’s Zoning Board of Appeals but writes here as a private citizen.

The decision being considered by the Old Lyme community and Zoning Commission (ZC) is not simply a binary choice between approving a Halls Road Overlay District or denying one.   

What is being decided is:

• whether the current Halls Road Overlay District (HROD) proposal is the best for Old Lyme and whether it can deliver on the stated objectives of the Halls Road Improvement Committee (HRIC) Master Plan. As a reminder, these latter are creating a safe, walkable, bike-able, mixed-use town center along Halls Road that provides a stronger future environment for local businesses and easing the shortage of smaller-scale housing types in Old Lyme (Ref. 1.)
  
  and/or 

• how the proposed HROD can be improved, and who should take the lead in improving it?

As stated in the 11-18-2024 HRIC presentation (Ref. 2), there are two distinct workflows involved in implementing the objectives of the HRIC Master Plan, and I thank the HRIC for all their efforts towards both. 

One workflow, the ‘Sidewalk Project’ (the original charge of the HRIC), is focused on public improvements to Halls Road, to enhance safety, walkability, bike-ability, green spaces, and connectivity to the historic and cultural heart of Old Lyme.  Components of the ‘Sidewalk Project’ include Crosswalks, Bike Paths, Landscaping, Lighting, Open Space, Walking Bridge and Trails. 

The second workflow, ‘Overlay Zoning’, is focused on private improvements to Halls Road, by proposing a HROD and ‘Design Guidelines’.  Importantly, the benefits of the HRIC’s ‘Sidewalk Project’ and ‘Design Guidelines’ can be realized/leveraged without approval of the current HROD proposal – it is not an ‘All or Nothing’ decision.

A primary focus of the HRIC’s current HROD proposal is the creation of a new, street-facing commercial ‘Shopping Street’.  The HRIC hopes this can be brought to fruition by proposing changes to the Old Lyme Zoning Regulations that are intended to incentivize individual private developers to, piece by piece, create a cohesive ‘Shopping Street’ over time. 

However, there is no guarantee that a cohesive ‘Shopping Street’ will be the ultimate outcome, and, if implemented in an undesired piecemeal manner, cannot be easily undone.

The current HROD proposal seeks to incentivize individual developers to construct pieces of the desired ‘Shopping Street’ by requiring they construct a “Qualified Project” (QP), with customer-facing commercial businesses that serve walk-in trade on the first-floor facing Halls Road, in order to take advantage of new, optional overlay district zoning regulations that would allow mixed use and small-scale residential units to be established in the existing C-30 district.  

Importantly, as the HROD is currently written, NO QP means NO mixed use or small-scale residential development—period.  Thus, one concern is that a QP requirement could disincentivize the establishment of mixed-use and small-scale residential development along Halls Road. 

To make the construction of street-facing QPs more attractive to private developers, the HROD proposal would allow QPs to be up to 200 ft. in length, with a footprint of up to 20,000 sq. ft., with a maximum of three (3) stories and a maximum height of 35 ft., all within 0-15 ft. of the Halls Rd. right-of-way (per HROD Section 5.14.4.3). 

Many in the community feel this is too large and does not reflect the character of Old Lyme. Of note, in response to questions raised at the Jan 15 Zoning Commission Special Meeting as to whether the maximum size of the QP should be reduced, the HRIC attorney explained that the larger size was needed to make building QPs commercially attractive to private developers.  

If QPs need to be so large to be commercially attractive, perhaps forcing their construction in order to allow any mixed-use and small-scale residential development along Halls Rd. is not a good idea. Would large QPs attract the desired type of small local businesses?  Would large QPs be a visual improvement over existing green spaces with mature trees along Halls Road?      

One claimed benefit to businesses of creating a new QP-driven ‘Shopping Street’ with street-facing store fronts along Halls Rd. is that customers will have the convenience of ‘on-street’ parking in front of their store, which would be allowed per the current HROD (Section 5.14.8 – Parking Requirements).  However, Halls Rd. is also US Rte. 1, and there are some inherent drawbacks with trying to establish on-street parking along this section of US Rte. 1.  

First, as depicted in the Halls Road Master Plan Booklet (Ref. 3, page 9), after the installation of bike lanes and sidewalks adjacent to the existing traffic and turning lanes on US Rte.1 (Part 1), the Master Plan proposes the addition of parking along both sides of Halls Rd. once the desired QPs are constructed and a new ‘Shopping Street’ is established (Part 2).

However, unlike Lyme Street, which has parking on both sides of the street, US Rte. 1 is a more heavily traveled road, with traffic from I-95 often flowing onto it, especially in the summer season. On-street parking would necessitate customers backing up onto heavily trafficked US Rte. 1, which seems inherently unsafe and may further hinder traffic flow. 

Also, as depicted in the Halls Road Master Plan Booklet, is the fact that the east side of the current 90 Halls Rd. (BigY-Bowerbird) shopping center parking lot is several feet lower than US Rte. 1, making access to the new QP street-facing business entrances less convenient for customers who park in the ‘rear’ parking lot, which would be the only option if on-street parking on US Rte. 1 is deemed unsafe. 

Thus, some of the purported parking benefits of establishing the aspirational street-facing ‘Shopping Street’ along Halls Road seem questionable.  

A final concern relates to the inherent site constraints within the Halls Rd. C-30 district (septic limitations due to soil types, wetlands, flood zones, current development, etc.) and the potentially unrealistic expectation of the extent of new development that can be supported within the HROD as envisioned in the Halls Road Master Plan without significant infrastructure investments (e.g,. sewers). 

As my comments on this topic are already captured in a 2.5-page document posted on the Zoning Commission Meeting Materials website (Ref. 4), I will only summarize one key recommendation here: since development capacity is limited, switch the priority of the HROD from creating a new commercial ‘Shopping Street’, to creating mixed-use and small-scale housing—to meet the greater need.  

I believe, in combination, the above concerns are sufficient to justify denial of the current HROD proposal.  I recommend the generation of a revised HROD proposal that defines how limited mixed-use and small-scale residential development can be achieved at a scale that fits Old Lyme’s rural character and is feasible within the inherent site constraints of the Halls Rd. C-30 district.  

When combined with the HRIC’s ‘Sidewalk Project’ and proposed development ‘Design Guidelines’, a reprioritized, revised HROD can go a long way towards helping to establish Halls Road as a safe, walkable, bike-able, livable mixed-use town center that would both help to meet an important local housing need and to enhance local foot traffic and the commercial environment for our local businesses.   

I suggest that a reprioritized, revised HROD proposal be drafted in conjunction with the Old Lyme Zoning Commission’s on-going efforts to re-write the town-wide zoning regulations, which will enable the revised HROD proposal to be developed in context with the broader town-wide development needs and opportunities.    

References:

1. HRIC Halls Road Proposals:  https://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2616 and https://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2895 
2. HRIC 11-18-24 presentation on HROD Zoning:  https://ct-oldlyme.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/2548/11-18-24-Presentation-HROD-Zoning
3. Halls Road Master Plan Booklet: https://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/336/Halls-Road-Master-Plan-Booklet-PDF 
4. Hutchinson Comments submitted Jan 9 2025:  https://www.oldlyme-ct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2702