AMHERST — Four roundabouts, in quick succession, could line South East Street between Main Street and Route 9 as part of improvements to accommodate traffic anticipated from a new elementary school and a housing development at the former East Street School.

“This is what we feel is the best solution for this corridor,” Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring told the Town Council Monday. “There are other solutions, but we feel this is the best solution.”

The council voted unanimously to refer the conceptual plan, prepared by CDM Smith of Boston in a July 2024 report titled “Fort River Elementary School Traffic Engineering Services,” to the Town Services and Outreach Committee for a report back by Dec. 16.

The plan shows one roundabout at the intersection of Main, North East and South East streets; another just to the south at the main public entrance to the new school; a third at the bus entrance to the school; and the fourth at the intersection of South East and College streets.

“This plan will allow for improved traffic flow along the corridor with the least impact to the East Common and adjacent properties,” reads a memo from Mooring and Town Manager Paul Bockelman.

Mooring said CDM Smith’s plan is based on intersection analysis and traffic counts, as well as information gathered from the installation of a new traffic light at the entrance to the school. The idea is to both slow traffic and provide better safety.

Councilors had questions, but understood changes are need as part of having the school with up to 575 K-5 students on the street, essentially consolidating the enrollment currently at Wildwood and Fort River schools.

“I appreciate this study,” said District 4 Councilor Pam Rooney. “It looks intriguing.”

“Wow, it’s a lot of roundabouts in a short span,” commented District 4 Councilor Jennifer Taub, observing she had recently bicycled that stretch of road.

Bockelman said the road is a difficult place to have a school and the traffic option being recommended by the consultant is radical in some ways, understanding that there may be disagreements with elements of the plan.

If the four-roundabout plan or some similar plan is approved, then Bockelman said officials will come up with a funding plan. “We have to know what direction you want to go to,” Bockelman said.

Mooring said if funding is ready, construction could begin before the school opens in the fall of 2026, though more than likely work would begin around the same time classes start in the new building.

There are no cost estimates yet, or whether the anticipated savings in the school project, with up to $8 million or so in a contingency fund, could be directed toward the roadwork.

District 1 Councilor Cathy Schoen wondered whether there would be a way to deal with the extension from Belchertown Road that runs behind a Northampton Cooperative Bank/Greenfield Cooperative Bank branch at 390 College St..

Schoen said this extension is dangerous, as people don’t stop at a stop sign at South East Street, instead viewing it as a runway that “threatens kids, threatens bicycles, and threatens cars that are coming in and out of the school.”

The CD Smith report states that this road helps with traffic flow. Mooring said if that road becomes an entrance and exit only for the bank and nearby apartments, or a pedestrian and bicycle only path, other changes may have to be made to the plan.

When the Amherst Savings Bank branch was originally built between College Street, South East Street and Belchertown Road in the 1970s, replacing an ice cream stand called Frosty Cap, bank officials seeking a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for a drive-through told officials the connecting spur would be discontinued. But 50 years later, that road has remained intact, with Rooney noting that it offers a convenience to drivers who don’t want to stop at the nearby traffic light.

Council President Lynn Griesemer said she would like to see more focus on the Route 9 state highway and the volume of traffic that roundabout would handle. “I personally think we’re being shortsighted with regard to Route 9,” Griesemer said.

District 5 Councilor Bob Hegner said challenges with customers getting out of the Cumberland Farms convenience store onto Belchertown Road, as well as from apartments across the street, should also be addressed in any traffic plan.

Meanwhile, Mooring told councilors that a preliminary plan for sidewalks on East Pleasant Street from Pine Street south to Olympia Drive could be ready before next spring. In 2022, four years after an initial appeal was made, some design work was done on the sidewalks that would essentially connect the University of Massachusetts campus to the Cushman section of town.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.