The redevelopment of Sugarbush Village comes in the form of a two-phase two- to three-building construction project to accommodate skier services and provide more residential space. Encompassed within the proposed buildings will be the children's and adult ski school, the rental shop, and a discovery center building. The three buildings total 32,000 square feet.
LOCAL AND STATE APPROVALS
The project requires local and state approval; the first application is required to amend the 2005 permits for a family center at Lincoln Peak. The application is for between 60 to 78 units but will most likely result in approximately 62 units. The 2005 permits allowed the resort to construct a 45,000-square-foot skier services building, a 39-unit building and the relocating and replacement of the Village lift and surface lifts.
Juli Beth Hinds, senior project manager for VHB Pioneer, was present at the January 7 meeting and reviewed a traffic study that details resort capacity during peak and off-peak times, including holidays and weekends.
HELI LOT
Hinds said the overall parking lot structure will not change as a part of the redevelopment project, while the temporary heli lot may be replaced at some point. The heli lot, according to Hinds, "was an unanticipated convenient parking lot; it was not a part of any permits and cannot be used unless the ground is frozen."
Hinds said that the "freak peak," or the highest observed capacity of parking lots, was measured across a two-year period; following the Valentine's Day storm of 2007, a total of 1,452 cars were observed, which exceeds the designed capacity. "If you remove the heli lot we're short 74 spaces," Hinds said.
LOTS ARE FULL
If the Lincoln Peak lots are full, Sugarbush employees direct excess traffic to Mt. Ellen, where the Slide Brook lift or Mad Bus can be utilized for travel between the two ski areas.
Lisai said he met with the Warren Fire Department on December 22 to discuss items of concern including emergency access, traffic flow and overall public safety. Concerns over vehicle traffic through the four-way intersection where Inferno Road meets the Sugarbush Access Road were addressed, specifically during peak times when cars are lined up along the road.
ACCEPTABLE FIRE ACCESS
Hinds said they have taken the dimensional specifications of the existing Warren Fire Department trucks and created a template and applied it to the intersection. Hinds said that "there are no points that physically limit the turning of a fire truck; we would find this to provide acceptable fire access."
Warren Select Board Chair Burt Bauchner said, "There are at least 20 days a year when cars are lined up all the way down the road. When cars are lined up and somebody has a heart attack in the village, how do they pass?" Bauchner continued.
DIRECT TRAFFIC
Sugarbush Resort owner Win Smith said that there is always an open lane and "when we have ambulance emergencies, people come out and direct traffic. . . . It's managed. We make sure we have a plan in place. If there is an emergency we can get out there and stop traffic, open a lane."
Hinds said the engineering standards do not require a roundabout, the addition of a turn lane, or the expansion of the intersection.
MURPHY'S LAW
Bauchner said, "My concern is public welfare, its residents; and it's Murphy's Law: The time that we need to get an ambulance through there because someone is having a heart attack, it's inevitably going to be a day when everyone is backed up on the road and a fire apparatus is going to try and get around that corner."
Pedestrian traffic on a section of Inferno Road between the village and the 22-acre site, utilized by Sugarbush employees during peak periods was also discussed as potentially hazardous.
Warren Zoning Administrator Miron Malboeuf said, "The reality is, as long as people park at the 22-acre site, someone is going to get on that part of the Inferno Road and try to walk to the ski area; at that point there is very low visibility and a good opportunity to get hit."
A TICKING TIME BOMB
Speaking on behalf of the select board, Bauchner added, "We consider this stretch of Inferno Road to be a ticking time bomb; we're just waiting for one SUV to slide into somebody. . . . The resort committed to build in a right of way, they were granted one extension, and we think that's enough."
SMITH DISAGREED
Smith disagreed, stating, "The number of employees I see walking there is nil to zero. We've changed our operating plan. We run the shuttle. The people there aren't our employees; they're mostly people walking their dogs along the road. The fewest amount of people walking on Inferno Road are Sugarbush employees."
DRB members cited several "homework assignments" to the development representatives before the next scheduled meeting February 4. DRB Chair Peter Monte urged continued meetings between Sugarbush and the Warren Fire Department to discuss emergency access, further traffic study, and examining the access to the 22-acre site.
Monte said officially closing the road to the 22-acre site may become an additional permit condition. Sugarbush development representatives will return to the DRB for continued review and final plan approval on February 4 at 7 p.m.
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