The Branchville section of town—the area around the intersection of Route 7 and 102—developed over time with the Branchville railroad station as its focal point. Though commuters still use the station regularly, Branchville’s role as a small business hub has fallen off over the decades, town officials said in seeking a grant seek to revitalize the area.
With a vision of sidewalks, street lamps, footbridges, and crosswalks encouraging street life and sparking a business revival in Branchville, the town is seeking a nearly $2-million state grant to begin improvements in the area.
“As it exists now, the area does not have an identity that is similar to what is found throughout the remainder of the Town of Ridgefield,” Town Engineer Charles Fisher wrote in the $1.9-million grant application.
“Construction of sidewalks, site amenities, pedestrian bridges, and the realignment of the Route 7 and Route 102 intersection will immediately promote and establish the area as a village district and invite travelers to stop and explore the area’s businesses and restaurants,” Fisher said.
“The improvements will also take advantage of the area’s chief landmark, the Branchville railroad station, by linking it with the business areas west of Route 7 through the construction of two pedestrian bridges over the Norwalk and Cooper Pond rivers. Riders of the Metro-North Railroad along with those traveling Route 7 will be able to safely walk throughout the business area and patronize the establishments.”
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the $1.9-million grant application to the state Wednesday night, Feb. 3.
“Are we going to get it? Who knows?” First Selectman Rudy Marconi told fellow selectmen. “But anytime there’s money available, why not?”
The state had sent out a notification late last year that about $20 million was available under a Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented Development grant program, Marconi explained Monday.
The grant application follows up on a Transit-Oriented Development study of the Branchville area that the town is nearing completion on, with a $256,000 state grant.
“This Transit-Oriented Development study is a long-range plan that will allow us to begin to file applications for grant money both at the state level and federal level, that will assist in the development of Branchville, Ridgefield’s lost child,” Marconi said Monday, Feb. 8.
To receive money under most state and federal grant programs, studies are generally the first step.
The plan outlined in Fisher’s grant application is intended to create what he describes as a “walkable community.”
Major elements of the development plan outlined in the grant application include:
• “Construction of two 70-foot pre-fabricated pedestrian bridges over the Norwalk and Cooper Pond Rivers providing pedestrian access between the Branchville Railroad Station and the businesses west of Route 7.”
• 1,700 feet of concrete five-foot-wide handicapped-accessible sidewalks connecting Branchville’s businesses, railroad station and “ultimately Branchville School.”
• 32 decorative street lamps.
• Reconfiguration of the Route 7/Route 102 intersection, including “pavement realignment and traffic signalization improvements which will promote safe pedestrian passage through the intersection.”
• “Landscape plantings designed to soften the look of the existing streetscape.”
• “A decorative sign welcoming visitors and shoppers to the area.”
Three crosswalks — or “traffic signalization improvements which will promote safe pedestrian passage” — are planned, according to Fisher.
One would be across Route 102, near its intersection with Route 7. The other two crosswalks would cross Route 7, with one north of the Route 102 intersection and one south of the intersection. Fisher said he imagined they’d be push-button crosswalks, rather than being programmed into the light’s regular cycle, but that was a detail he hadn’t thought out completely at this point.
Fisher opened the grant request with some history:
“The Branchville section of the Town of Ridgefield, located within the vicinity of the intersection of Routes 7 and 102, developed over time utilizing the adjacent Branchville Railroad Station as its focal point. Since its construction in the mid-1800s, service related businesses, small-scale manufacturing plants, and single family residences centered on the station. With the expansion of the highway network between Danbury and Norwalk, Branchville’s growth stagnated within the study area.
“Recognizing the area’s potential for growth, the State of Connecticut provided funding for the study of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) within the Branchville area. The goal of the study is to encourage mixed commercial and residential development that utilizes the multimodal transportation characteristics of the area.
“While the study is on-going and expected to be completed by the end of this year, several initial improvements have been identified that will address the immediate needs of Branchville. Chief among those needs is the improvement to the pedestrian facilities and intersection improvements which will link the Branchville Railroad Station to Branchville’s commercial area ultimately fostering increased private investment.”
The schedule included in the application envisions a period of design, surveying, permit and easement securing, and bidding from July 2016 to August 2017, followed by a year of construction from September 2017 to September 2018.
Fisher and Marconi envision more work with later projects — presumably with state grants financing them — including the reconstruction of the Portland Avenue bridge, over the Norwalk River, at the south end of the railroad station.
Marconi told the selectmen that despite the state’s well-publicized fiscal problems, the transit-oriented development, or TOD, projects are a priority.
“Even though there are issues, there seems to be a lot of money dedicated to TOD,” he said.
Still, officials admit there’s a “send it and hope” aspect to grant applications.
Both Fisher and Marconi shared a notion that the project might be crowned with the placement of some iconic object at the intersection — like Main Street’s fountain, Cannondale’s cannon, or the town clock in the village — though neither, at this point, claimed to have a specific idea what it might be.
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