Traffic concerns persist for the proposed The Hathaway project

Traffic continues to be a topic of concern for The Hathaway, a 300-unit 40B project with a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments, especially since it would be built on the already busy Hathaway Road. 

During the Zoning Board of Appeals’ Thursday, June 11 meeting, board members and those involved with the project discussed the intersections where traffic would be most affected and how improvement needs could be addressed.

According to Jeffrey Dirk, the managing partner at Vanasse & Associates Inc, the most affected intersections would be 140N and 140S, Route 6 and Hathaway Road, and Route 6 and Slocum Road.

He said that if he had to rank the intersections in terms of impact, the 140N and 140S intersection would see the highest increase in traffic congestion.

“If you look at impacts related to the project, that’s where we have more concentrated traffic,” Dirk said.

In his calculations for traffic conditions, Dirk factored in projects the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has planned along Route 6 near Burger King and Slocum Road.

He noted that the Commonwealth “already has projects committed on that section of road” that would improve traffic conditions.

Chair Michael Medeiros and residents were skeptical of the decision to factor these projects into the traffic study, pointing out that the Department of Transportation has been promising them for years and that there has still been little progress.

“The commitment to improvements is bothersome for me because … I’ve been hearing about these incidents since at least five, six years, and I haven’t seen a single thing happening in these areas,” Medeiros said.

Resident Tom Babington said that he emailed a project manager at MassDOT and learned that the project near Burger King has been in the works since 2014, with the engineering work about 75% complete.

He added that the traffic study didn’t appear to take into account the traffic exiting Cumberland Farms near the intersection of Route 6 and Slocum Road.

If the Zoning Board of Appeals approves the project and a building permit is issued, the developer would contribute $30,000 to a traffic improvement fund managed by the town, according to Matt Eckel, a consultant with the law firm Fletcher Tilton.

Eckel noted that the money’s use wouldn’t be limited to improvement projects in the neighborhood around the development, as the Town of Dartmouth would be able to spend it however they’d like.

“That would be at the town’s discretion,” he said.

Through a fair share analysis, it was determined by traffic engineers that the developers would be required to contribute a minimum of $5,700 to improvement projects, according to developer David Calhoun.

Fair share analysis is an engineering practice used to determine how much a developer should contribute to traffic improvement projects. These would be projects to negate the effects  the development could have on traffic, Calhoun said.

“When you total everything that we were supposed to be contributing for based on the fair share, it was only $5,700,” he said.

Calhoun said that the applicants decided that instead of contributing the $5,700, they would put $30,000 into a fund for the town to control.

“The question is, is the $30,000 acceptable, and I think what that comes back down to is the conversation with your consultant, as well as with DPW, to figure out what is it that the towns sees as infrastructure needs within the town,” Dirk said, “And is the $30,000 … sufficient to accomplish that.”

Medeiros said that when he looks at the project’s effects on traffic, he sees it as an “additional contributor to an already ongoing significant problem in our town.”

“I don’t know how in good conscience I can actually vote on something that’s going to worsen that situation significantly,” he said.

The next meeting for The Hathaway will be held on Monday, June 29 at Town Hall, beginning at 6 p.m.