Letter: Route 30 plan will impact abutters

We all know it’s a treacherous stretch of road between the firehouse and the highway entrances where there is no sidewalk at all.  We cannot leave our driveway without being in a car, and even then, it can take up to a few minutes to take a left out of our driveway onto Route 30, strictly depending on the kindness of someone slowing down and letting us out.  Though we knew some trees would be lost, and we would see and hear the Pike even more than we do now, it felt like a shaky tradeoff for folks to be able to travel safely on foot or even on bike through this corridor.  But since this devolved into being a 10-foot wide multi use path, we are against it.  

This current plan has much more impact on us as abutters, who already have our quality of life impacted by literally seeing and hearing the Pike and Route 30 right outside our home. We cannot afford to have even more sound/sight barriers stripped away.  As it stands now, we cannot talk in our front yard without significantly raised voices due to all the traffic noise, so we cannot imagine how much worse it must be for our neighbors across the street.

We would love to safely walk down the street where we live, but not at the cost of losing even more of our visual and sound barrier of the Pike. Not at the further cost to the direct abutters, who already deal with so much noise and traffic, and the sound, light, and air pollution they cause, sandwiched between busy Rte 30 and the Pike. Please think of those who must live with this change to their homes, property and quality of life.

Suzanne Hecker and Lelia Elliston, South Avenue