Resident Assails Proposed New Development

To the Editor:

The five-acre property on the corner of Westview Road and Bloomfield Avenue has been purchased by a developer who proposes to build a three-story structure with 63 parking spaces.

One third would be retail, two-thirds residential rental. The community is concerned with traffic safety, child safety, and home safety. Not only will the development come and add the burden of costs for additional students at our neighborhood schools (and our taxes), but possibly put them in harm’s way.
One of the ingresses/egresses will be on Westview Road. Cars and trucks will be coming in and out of the development directly across from Everett Field, where there are children playing and attending games for nine months.

A multitude of cars and delivery trucks (for the planned businesses) will also be forced to drive down that narrow (19 foot) one-way street simultaneously while the parents park and let their children off for the games.

This will also cause congestion on Westview Road as the cars attempt to navigate the entry onto Bloomfield Avenue or up Elmwood Avenue (another unsafe area where children are dropped off for the games) to get to Westview.

In addition, there will be five to six months of loud, interruptive, vibrating drilling and blasting into hard rock in places dangerously close to some of our neighbor’s backyards. There is no assurance that there could be potentially extensive foundation damage as well.

A large 26 foot retaining wall will be erected causing further danger to the residents who live there or anyone who may shop there.

We and other concerned residents are asking those who are either directly affected or care for members of their community to attend the next board of adjustment hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Verona Community Center.

Thank you.

Kim Shafer
Terry Moore
17 Westview Road
Verona