EASTHAMPTON — In an agreement with the Williston Northampton School, the city has exchanged Brewster Avenue for a portion of school-owned land at 198 Park St. — a site where officials aim to build a roundabout.
The transfer was approved by the City Council on July 10 and executed by Mayor Nicole LaChapelle on Aug. 22. It makes the once-public Brewster Avenue a private road owned by Williston, allowing the city to potentially expand Park Street and change a busy intersection on the road near South Street into a traffic circle.
“We already have a pretty tight traffic situation at the top of Park Street and it’s been exacerbated by South Street and that really weird intersection,” LaChapelle said, noting the city did not pay any money for the property.
Situated near White Brook Middle School, the intersection’s potential upgrade would be included in $109 million consolidated school project voters approved last May, but only if the project lands under budget, LaChapelle said.
The new school, which is expected to open in fall 2021, will be built on the existing White Brook site and will house prekindergarten through eighth grade. An anticipated increase in the number of students and families traveling and walking on the road when the new school opens prompted the city to look for solutions, LaChapelle said.
“The design process of the new school takes several years and it starts with a community vision,” she said. “When we went through that process the issue of traffic worsened.”
In 2018, an independent review completed by planning consulting firm Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc. gave the lowest level of service rating for left turns out of White Brook, saying that traffic lights or a roundabout could ease traffic on the street.
The exchange also helps mitigate safety concerns for Williston, as cars often drive fast on the pedestrian-heavy Brewster Avenue, said Ann Hallock, director of communications for the private Williston Northampton School.
Every building on Brewster Avenue is already owned by the school, Hallock said, noting that along with dormitories and faculty homes, the road also houses Williston’s middle school.
In addition to new housing already constructed in the area, a dormitory abutting the road is being built, she said. This development adds to a schoolwide vision of centralized student activity and lodging on a new quad near the road, she said.
“There’s just more student activity and more potential for there to be safety issues,” Hallock said.
During the dorm’s construction, Williston will be limiting through traffic by placing a gate halfway down Brewster Avenue, Hallock said. Although normally the road is one-way, construction vehicles and faculty residents will be able to enter and exit with two-way traffic on both Park and Main street sides.
After construction is over, Hallock said the school will determine long-term plans for street traffic.
LaChapelle said the city did not want to spend money to acquire the land because if the school project does not bid under budget, then the roundabout is unlikely to be built this time around.
The city, she said, has other concerns when it comes to improving infrastructure, including alleviating traffic problems on Main Street and Route 10.
“That particular roundabout would not be in the top 10,” she said of the city’s infrastructure priorities.
But even if the money doesn’t come together for the proposal, a roundabout could be built in the future, she said.
“We have control of the land,” LaChapelle said. “In 10 years or so, we could build that roundabout.”
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.