I want to apologize to my readers. I made a mistake!! The Planning and Zoning Commission special meeting on Rt. 10 LLC aka the Lifestyle Center/Housing proposal, will take place WEDNESDAY, Jan 16th NOT Tuesday, Jan. 15th as originally reported.

The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers. Here is the agenda:

PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION

SPECIAL MEETING

Wednesday – January 16, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. – Town Hall – Council Chambers

I. CALL TO ORDER

II. ROLL CALL

III. DETERMINATION OF QUORUM

4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

5. BUSINESS

1. Petition for a Zone Map Change      P.H. 09/24/07

Cheshire Route 10 LLC       F.T. 10/13/07

1953 and 2037 Highland Avenue,     P.H. 10/22/07

I-691 and Dickerman Road     P.H. 11/14/07

Change from Interchange Zone to Interchange     P.H. 11/26/07

Special Development District     MAD 01/30/08

2. Combined Application for Zone Change To and   P.H. 09/24/07

Approval As, An Interchange Special Development   F.T. 10/13/07

District and Approval of Interchange Special    P.H. 10/22/07

Development Project       P.H.  11/14/07

Cheshire Route 10 LLC       P.H. 11/26/07

1953 and 2037 Highland Avenue,    MAD 01/30/08 

I-691 and Dickerman Road

Mixed Use Development

            3. Aquifer Protection Application     P.H. 09/24/07

      Cheshire Route 10 LLC       F.T. 10/13/07

      1953 and 2037 Highland Avenue,     P.H. 10/22/07

      I-691 and Dickerman Road     P.H. 11/14/07

   Per Section 47.6 – Mixed Use Development    P.H. 11/26/07

                     MAD 01/30/08

6. ADJOURNMENT

Now I received some information from a resident on three new proposed mall/shopping centers to be constructed in nearby towns. I know TWO will be in North Haven and one right around the corner in Southington near Cheshires proposed Lifestyle Center .

Here is the info I receivedfrom a local resident:

Soon we’ll have malls wall to wall where you can shop, shop, shop until you drop and eat, eat, eat until you can’t walk or talk. Who needs anything more in life?  

(1) Southington Commons – 280,000 sq ft Mall

Average traffic passing daily 24,000 cars

This will be just 2.6 miles from the W/S mall to the intersection of  84 and W Main St . For Southington residents it will be closer than the W/S mall.

http://www.northstarcenters.com/southington_ct.htm

Checkout the map

http://www.northstarcenters.com/southington_map.htm

(2)  North Haven – Eclipse Development Group has started a 200,000 sq ft mall across from Home Depot and near BJ’s.

(3)  North Haven – Rabina  Properties will transform the 170 acre Pratt and Whitney site into a $500,000,000 mall with upscale shops,  a hotel and housing. It will be on rt 5 near the Big Y.  For Cheshire residents this will close, from the start of Cook Hill it will be 7.4 miles away  and 7.0 miles to the W/S mall.  

Oh this is great news, especially for Cheshire. I mean come on, North Haven and Southington at least have an up on Cheshire because they know how to deal with hordes of people from their town and other towns without going hysterical (and you all know what I am talking about). I predict within 10 years, probably sooner, the Shoppes at Cheshire will be closed if some people don’t start changing their behavior. I keep mentioning it, because I know what people say about Cheshire; most of it is good but for people who have to drive through this town on a daily basis: it isn’t good. Cheshire has the ticket ticket ticket reputation. North Haven and Southington don’t. So guess who will make out?

If you wanted to go to a restaurant or a bar, have a few drinks and drive home around midnight or 1 a.m., what town would you rather be in if you were to engage in this practice? Southington, Cheshire or North Haven? Answer this honestly!!

Speaking of tickets, the Cheshire Police Department would be out of business in Manchester, New Hampshire. They all drive like Ms. Daisy, SLOW. They actually drive the speed limits in that town. I have seen a few speeders, like 35 mph but that is rare.

But guess what happens, the traffic is constantly backed up. There is gridlock all over the place. Ask my son who lives up there. I was just up there this past weekend. It is slow.

Again, I am not talking about doing 60 or reckless driving, but the fact is  many of the surfact street speed limits like the 25 mph was put into effect in the early years of automobiles. Number one, cars did not go that fast and number two, there were not that many cars or trucks in the first place. It was a luxury item. In fact, there were many people that predicted that cars were a “fad” and would DIE OUT!!

Now there are over 200 million motor vehicles in the United States. Traffic is snarled. Speed limits need to reflect this. People need to flow along at a smooth rate–not a high rate of speed, but a rate of speed that will keep vehicles from snarling. Case closed.

Now to touch on another pet peeve of mine: snowplowing. I am not blaming the crews of the Public Works, I blame the administration.

 On Monday, I got up and went outside with my husband to start the snowblowing. There must have been at least a foot of snow piled at the end of my driveway and others in the area. Why! Why is this happening?

It is happening because the plow does not come out in our area often enough I am sorry to say. Our area is sort of isolated now because our original street is cut off. It was cut off when the street was extended 10 to 12 years ago when the rest of the development was finished. One cannot get a foot of snow piled up in large chunks at the end of ones driveway if the street was being plowed every two to three hours. No, it is getting piled up because the street was not plowed until 6 or 7 a.m. this morning that is why!!

Also the town must understand that we are at a higher elevation here and we actually get more snow, so this area must be plowed more often. It was horrible this morning, having to spend nearly an hour hand shoveling the big chunks off to the side. You could not snowblow it. The chunks were frozen. And why were they frozen? Because that snow laid on the street all night that is why!!

I thought my spouse was going to have a heart attack shoveling it. Let’s face it, he isn’t getting any younger and neither am I. Besides, I don’t have power of attorney on him so everytime he starts shoveling I panic. I have a feeling this commentary will fall on deaf ears once again, so I better call up Baillie Hall and Hirshman and get that POA form ASAP!!

I want to finalize my thoughts on this subject with a message for Ms Dispatcher at the Police Department. I don’t care how angry someone is, you don’t hang up on people. Do you know why you are even at the CPD? It is because of people like myself that kept hammering the town to hire more women and minorities at the CPD that is why!!

Ok, that is enough of that.

Now I have gotten correspondence from several people who have told me that I need to stop bitching about Cheshire. I don’t always bitch about Cheshire! But they claim I do it too much, so I am going to tone Undergroundtownhall down a bit (at least for a while).

I try to offer positive solutions to some of our issues here and I try to say what is on my mind. And I do try to cover a variety of topics.

I am going to speak some more about my feelings on the Town Government (not the people who work for the town) after Wednesdays meeting.  I promise I will try to tone it down. But you know you all love it!!

As most of you know, I have been working in Hartford at a major corporation doing a consulting project. I did manage to dig up a few facts about the city which is quite interesting.

Hartford is ranked the SECOND POOREST CITY IN AMERICA.  The first is Brownsville, Texas.

Approximately 56 percent of Hartford families have incomes LESS that $25,000 per year. Twenty-nine percent of households in Hartford are headed by a single female.

The per capita income in Hartford is $13,428 per year. The per capita income for Connecticut is $28,766.

Approximately 23.4 percent of Hartford families make LESS than $10,000 a year. Twenty-two percent of the population in Hartford does not have a high school diploma. The state average is 10 percent.

Demographics in Hartford: over 41 percent Hispanic (any race); 38 percent Black; 28 percent White and two percent Asian.