OLD LYME – The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen on Monday pressed pause on the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC).
Selectmen at their regular meeting agreed to the move in the wake of months of controversy involving the future of a short span of road lined with outdated strip malls set between two highway interchanges. At the center of the dispute was a proposal from the Halls Road committee calling for the creation of an overlay district in the commercial zone that would allow apartments and condominiums to be built above, or behind, ground-floor businesses set close to the street.
Months of vocal opposition to the group’s work culminated on April 14 when the committee’s vision for Halls Road was rejected in a 4-1 vote by the Zoning Commission. HRIC chairwoman Edie Twining resigned a few days later after six years at the helm.
Many residents – more than 1,200 in an online petition and more than 500 packed into an April public hearing – did not see eye to eye with the committee.
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker in a phone interview Tuesday said the town’s three selectmen agreed to put the Halls Road committee on a “hiatus.”
There are currently four vacancies on the nine-member committee, according to the town website.
“All three of us so much appreciate all the work the Halls Road Improvements Committee has done over the years, and we just want to plan for the best way forward,” she said.
Shoemaker and HRIC member Paul Gianquinto will meet with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) on May 5 to discuss unfinished business involving a plan for physical improvements to Halls Road. Representatives of the DEEP have been in talks with town officials about the possibility of transferring ownership of the state’s property on the east bank of the Lieutenant River to Old Lyme, as long as the town agrees to build a fishing pier and parking spaces there.
Shoemaker said she will bring the topic back to the Board of Selectmen for discussion after she and Gianquinto meet with the state.
As part of the HRIC plan to make the road safer and more passable for walkers and bikers, selectmen in 2023 hired AI Engineers of Middletown to come up with plans for a pedestrian bridge over the Lieutenant River and a trail system between Lyme Street and Halls Road. The designs were funded with $135,000 in federal American Rescue Plan money and a $28,500 grant through the Connecticut Recreational Trails program.
Shoemaker said selectmen on Monday concurred with a longstanding call among residents to put sidewalks on the road.
She said she’s had preliminary talks with the town engineer about what those sidewalks might look like but did not yet have specific details. She was also exploring grant options through the state to cover construction.
The Halls Road Improvements Committee was introduced by Democrat Bonnie Reemsnyder in 2015 with the goal of advising the Board of Selectmen on how best to develop a master plan for the area. The result evoked images of village-like storefronts and apartments, a pedestrian bridge, more greenspace and sidewalks.
But Reemsnyder successor Tim Griswold, a Republican, called the vision too grandiose. He said at the time that he preferred to focus on building sidewalks one segment at a time before considering such broad plans. He withdrew a previous zoning proposal to create a Halls Road Village District before it could go to public hearing.
The recently rejected overlay district application was signed by Shoemaker in November. The proposal was represented at the public hearing by William Sweeney, the attorney for the Halls Road Improvements Committee since 2022.
Shoemaker emphasized HRIC members serve at the request of the Board of Selectmen.
“We’re going to put them on pause for a little while,” she said.
Leave a Reply