The next public hearing on the proposed zone text change is scheduled for May 7 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall, 84 South Main Street. I recently spoke with Jeff Curley of W/S Development because I wanted to get permission to film at the Shoppes of Farmington Valley. He was nice enough to call me back and told me he would make the appropriate contacts… a Christine Carpenter… so that I could film at the Shoppes. I asked Mr. Curley for a copy of the six minute video presentation given to the Town Council in April. Unfortunately I received the disk but cannot download it because I have the video player but not the video file. They did not include the file when they sent the disk. I am hoping and get permission to film soon. I hope they are not waiting until after the May 7 public hearing.

I do have a proposal that I am planning to present to the Town Plan and Zoning Commission on May 7th. It is an alternative to the “Lifestyle Center” up in the Northend of town. I will post this idea within a week on the website.

I finally got to the Hawley Lane “Mall” shopping area located on Hawley Lane in Trumbull. I filmed for a few minutes the traffic moving in and out of this area. The video you see shows the left hand side with the stores, which is on the Trumbull side of Hawley Lane. The right hand side showing the CVS and the Merritt Office Park is the Stratford side of the road. There are two lanes on both sides. As you can see the traffic seems to be moving at a pretty good pace and it is constantly busy there. I have been frequenting this area for over 20 years and I have never seen it back up. My use of this digital camera needs some work. I unfortunately did not get the traffic coming in off Nichols Avenue which is four lanes–three lanes and two left turning lanes into Hawley Lane. The mall is surrounded by Rt 8 and the Merritt Parkway. Up ahead past the Hawley Lane mall on the Trumbull side is the Marriott Hotel and a small medical office complex. On the Stratford side there are condominiums and single family homes going the length of Hawley Lane which comes out to Main Street. To be honest, the traffic moves because these people do not go 25 mph. They go well over. Frankly I have never seen a problem on that road. Judge for yourself when you see the video. There are a lot of stores in this area. Behind the Hawley Lane Mall is Best Buy and Target. Cheshire will have to make some traffic changes if this Northend development takes place.