Speed limit reduction proves contentious

Another Tuesday election and another Monday night selectboard meeting in the Charlotte Library.

The Nov. 4 meeting was moved to the library because town hall was set up for the next day’s general election.

The library was cozy and packed for the first part of the meeting with people who had come to address the board’s vote to reduce the speed limit on Ferry Road west of Greenbush. Some wanted the board to rescind the decision and others came to support it.

The issue was one of the first discussions out of the meeting’s starting gate, and the commenters on both sides of the issue were impassioned.

In August, the selectboard passed a motion reducing the speed to 25 mph on Ferry Road west from Greenbush Road for almost half a mile to the train tracks and from the train tracks to the Lake Road intersection to 40 mph.

Road commissioner Junior Lewis said he found out about the change in speed limits when town administrator Nate Bareham called to ask him to get new speed limit signs.

Lewis was surprised by how much it had been lowered. He said that, at a meeting before the speed limit was lowered, the selectboard talked about lowering the speed to 35 on the hill going down to the train tracks. He supported this reduction, he said, because that is what was recommended in a plan the town got from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.

Lewis didn’t monitor the Aug. 12 meeting when the change was made, so he was surprised by the number of phone calls he got complaining about the change and because, when the town lowers speed limits, it usually lowers them in 5 mph increments.

Jack Pilla, who lives on Ferry Road where the speed limit was changed to 25, said he was happily surprised by the board’s decision to reduce the speed more than he expected. But he fully supports it.

Board member Natalie Krammer had kicked off the discussion by saying she was happy that the speed limit discussion was back on the agenda because it wasn’t properly warned.

However, member Lewis Mudge called for a point of order, saying it had been warned correctly. He said he had proposed the reduction to 25 mph, and the board didn’t vote on it at that meeting. Two weeks later at another meeting it was voted on and approved 4-1.

Town administrator Nick Bareham said the speed limit vote had been posted in the usual places such as The Citizen, the senior center, the post office and the corner store in East Charlotte.

“I agree with Lewis (Mudge) that we had talked about it two weeks before the vote on Aug. 12,” Pilla said.

People had until Sept. 25 to come up with a petition opposing the change, but that didn’t happen, Pilla said. “So, what is your legal basis for even changing this?”

At the Aug. 12 meeting, Frank Tenney was the only selectboard member voting against the speed limit change. Krammer not only voted for the speed limit reduction at that meeting, she seconded Mudge’s motion for the change.

Rosemary Zezulinski, who lives on Ferry Road west of Lake Road beyond where both speed limits were reduced, said she hadn’t spoken out against the reduction when it was previously discussed because she didn’t think the selectboard would reduce the speed more than the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission’s recommendation of reducing the speed to 35 mph.

“Setting speed limits too low merely punishes the motorists who otherwise would obey the law,” Zezulinski said. “I ask the board to reevaluate the studies and guidelines regarding traffic protocol and make a decision based on the evidence.”

Rachel Daley, who also lives in the vicinity of the 25 mph speed limit reduction, said it seemed like the message from the opposition to the change was to raise it “to accommodate people who want to break the law.”

She travels this section of road a dozen times a day by car, bike or foot, she said, and it seems absurd to cater to people who want to speed up and down the hill.

Damaris Herlihy, who lives at the top of the hill, said the studies that opponents to the change cited did not take into account pedestrians.

Several opponents said they had been passed by cars since the speed was reduced, and they thought this was dangerous. Some said their vehicles won’t make it up the hill at 25 mph, particularly in snowy conditions.

Board member Kelly Devine said, although she had voted for the reduction to 25 mph, she hadn’t fully supported that decision. Nonetheless, she and the rest of the selectboard did vote to reduce the speed to 25 mph. And there was an appeal period.

“It’s feeling a little bit like we’re in a tough position here for the town,” Devine said. “We didn’t hear from anybody during that appeal period.”

She said she wanted more time to consider the speed limit decision because, if the board voted to rescind the decision, it will then hear from a lot of people who support the 25 mph speed limit.

After hearing a lot of comments on both sides of the issue, chair Jim Faulkner said, he thought the selectboard was facing a quandry: “When you talk about safety, which way do you go? Is 35 safer than 25? That’s what I’m hearing.”

Faulkner said he believes the selectboard needs to consider the opinions it had heard and do some more research. And there were other items on the night’s agenda the selectboard needed to work on.

The discussion ended with the board not taking any action and moving on to other matters.

Shortly after the change in topic, attendance at the selectboard meeting had shrunk noticeably.