As Longmeadow moves closer to a funding vote later this year on its new middle school, we are still waiting and wondering,where are the traffic studies? A preliminary traffic analysis was conducted in April of 2024, but the design of the new school property with regard to traffic access points has changed making this study outdated. So, this begs the question, how can the town be proceeding with the design of the new school at this location if they do not have a valid and complete traffic study? Was a second more comprehensive traffic study conducted? If so, where is it and why has it not been released? If bringing an additional 350 students to the Williams site results in traffic levels of service that violate the town’s zoning regulations, don’t we want to know about this now, before moving forward? It seems that we are forging ahead with this project and worrying about the consequences later.
As we get closer to the end of winter, the window is quickly closing to conduct a traffic study during a time of year when less students are walking and biking to school, and more parents are dropping off and picking up their kids due to the weather. Don’t we want to know the true traffic impact on our roads and neighborhoods of bringing an additional 350 kids to the Williams site? Shouldn’t the Longmeadow Planning Board be looking into this and working to protect the town and the abutters? To the Planning Board Committee I ask, please don’t look the other way and allow this project to violate our zoning regulations just because it’s for a new school. We can all agree that the middle schools are in bad condition and need attention, but let’s not solve one problem by creating a new one. To the residents of Longmeadow, you should be asking, where are the traffic studies for this project?
Bill and Terry DeGiulio
Longmeadow
