Circ EIS considers only narrowly defined needs

Note: The following are excerpts from comments filed by R. Stuart Hunt of Westford on the Circ EIS. You can also download Hunt's full comments (a 6 page pdf document).

I would like to express my opposition to the plan for extending the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway as outlined in the various "preferred alternatives" selected by the EIS study consultants.

Vermont is a special place which shall forever be remembered as a small and personal place.  It is a special place where the air is clean, the skies are bright, and has an abundance of wildlife, open space and is full of all sorts of people who greatly appreciate such things.

As far as I can tell the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released this Summer was completely biased towards considering the narrowly defined needs of the people who live near the area to be circumvented, namely Essex Junction, as well as by people who currently are facing traffic on their way to the interstate highway in Williston. 

However the EIS only cursorily mentions that the outlining areas, such as where I live, won't be affected because development has "already spread with the assumption that the Circ. Highway will be built."  I postulate that this is a preposterous assumption, and it is clear that the extension of an additional loop of interstate highway around the county will invariably lead to ever more rapid expansion of the suburbs out into the hinterlands and country. 

If people now live as much as 45 minutes away to get to a job in Burlington -- you can be sure that they will move ever further out if the opportunity presents them to zip around the county via superhighway on their way to work. This means new housing developments in places such as Fairfield VT, which is currently a mostly rural community. ...

At present there are a wealth of possibilities for relieving the existing traffic in Essex Junction and at the I-89 entrance near Tafts' corner, where the true traffic problems arise periodically.  A new exit where the Circ. was to have split off I-89 in Williston, or near old-town Williston, would do a lot to relive the traffic around the intersection of I-89 and route 2A near all the shopping plazas. 

Additional improvements such as "smart" traffic lights -- which can adjust signal times according to traffic patterns, the utilization of web-cams for pre-trip planning, and the efficient transmission of traffic information for use with on-board GPS systems - all of which can allow travelers to adjust their travel patterns according to current traffic patterns. ...

I would also like to say that there was no proper discussion given in the EIS to the wealth of possibilities that could be done with the existing Circ. rights-of-way.  Among them are what could amount to a great step to create one of the most beautiful and self sustaining metropolitan areas of the entire nation -- which I envision as a circumferential park -- with a series of parallel small roads and paths setup to accommodate a wealth of alternative methods of transportation -- seemingly the types of transportation supported by a large portion of the County's population. 

In particular, a bicycle path for self-propelled wheeled transportation path, a foot path for walkers and joggers etc., another path for small motorized transportation vehicles such as snowmobiles, dirt bikes and all terrain vehicles, and another rough and windy dirt path for wildlife observation, horse-based transportation, dog walking, and even for moving livestock when needed.  Then, along these parallel paths, there could be another right-of-way for a light rail system -- which could literally loop along the Circ's right-of-way down to Burlington and then back along I-89 past the big box stores etc. ...