State Awards Old Lyme $800,000 for Sidewalks on Halls Road

OLD LYME–The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has gotten behind an $800,000 plan to install sidewalks along the northern side of Halls Road. 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker in opening remarks at Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting introduced the “really happy news” that the town had been awarded funding as part of the DOT’s Community Connectivity Grant Program. 

Gov. Ned Lamont and DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto in a press release earlier in the day announced the grant as part of almost $12 million spread out across 17 towns and cities to improve transportation safety and mobility.

Municipalities were eligible for up to $800,000 through the state program. 

The grant application, written by Selectman Jim Lampos, said the funding would cover construction of 6-foot wide, accessible sidewalks to connect historic Lyme Street to the commercial Halls Road on the north side. He identified existing “short sections of inadequate sidewalk or mostly no sidewalk at all” along the span. 

“Of particular concern is the safety of students who walk from the schools to the shopping district for after-school employment, restaurants, and shopping along a dangerous stretch of Route 1/Halls Rd with no sidewalks,” the application said. 

The sidewalk plan is a scaled back version of a broader proposal from the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) that was scrapped amid fallout from a broader proposal to allow apartments in the commercial zone. 

The HRIC has been controversial since it started in 2015 under Democratic then-First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder with a charge to consider a master plan for the commercial route. The result – honed over the course of dozens of public meetings, information sessions, and workshops – evoked images of village-like storefronts and apartments, a pedestrian bridge, more greenspace and sidewalks. 

But opposition came to a head earlier this year when more than 550 people filled the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium for a public hearing on changes to the town’s zoning regulations that would have incorporated a mixed-use option for developers. 

The Zoning Commission denied the application, and the Board of Selectmen subsequently put the HRIC on hiatus. Selectmen in May submitted the DOT grant application for the sidewalks, which they described as an area of common ground despite the wider controversy. 

“While consensus on zoning changes has not been reached, there is nearly unanimous support voiced in town meeting and social media for sidewalk installation and landscaping improvements on Halls Road,” Lampos wrote in the application.

Selectmen at the time emphasized the plan does not include a pedestrian bridge over the Lieutenant Bridge included in the HRIC’s original proposal. 

The town previously received a Community Connectivity grant when the The DOT in 2019 awarded a $400,000 grant for sidewalks on Hartford Avenue in the Sound View Beach area. The project was completed in 2022.

Shoemaker after Monday’s meeting said the town will be responsible for design and engineering costs, which have yet to be determined. She said selectmen in a December meeting will discuss the process and timeline.

She said it will be up to newly constituted Board of Selectmen – including herself, Lampos and newly elected selectman John Mesham – to decide whether the Halls Road Improvements Committee will be revived or a new committee will be formed to guide the project.

Municipalities selected to receive grants are expected to complete the projects within three years.

Lamont in the press release said the projects in the Community Connectivity program’s seventh round of funding help improve the quality of life across the state. 

“Connecting residents with their communities through these projects is vital to boosting economic development, creating dynamic town centers, and encouraging alternative modes of transportation like walking or biking,” he said. 

The state also awarded grants to:

• Ansonia: Safe Route to Ansonia Middle School and Ansonia Riverwalk Segment 8 ($789,000)
• Berlin: Hubbard/Griswold School Sidewalk Improvements ($800,000)
• Branford: Pathways Improvement Plan ($800,000)
• Bristol: Emmett Street Sidewalks ($569,106)
• Brookfield: Still River Greenway Trail Connector ($659,600)
• Chester: West Main Street Sidewalk Improvement Project ($477,010)
• Manchester: Downtown Manchester Cycle Track ($800,000)
• Marlborough: Town Center Sidewalk Extension ($348,224)
• New Haven: East Street Cycle Track ($786,554)
• North Haven: North Haven Connectivity Project ($784,000)
• Norwalk: East Wall Street Streetscape Improvements ($800,000)
• Plainfield: Shepard Hill Elementary School Pedestrian Safety Improvements ($800,000)
• Salisbury: Connectivity and Safety: Sharon Road from the Hotchkiss School to Lakeville Town Center ($800,000)
• West Hartford: West Hartford Center to Trout Brook Trail Bicycle Connector ($384,552)
• Wethersfield: Sidewalk Safety, Gap Closure and Expansion ($750,000)
• Windsor Locks: Old Country Road Pedestrian Improvements ($800,000)