New Paving and Lights Make Main Street Safer for Pedestrians

By Ruth Melville

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Norfolk resident Bob Gilchrest, the town of Falls Village has a newly redone town center, designed to be both safer and more attractive.

The Falls Village project was instigated by safety concerns. There used to be no sidewalks through the town, and one winter a pedestrian walking in the road was almost hit by a snowplow. In 2013, the town applied for and received a Main Street grant from the state for $450,000 to redo the street and walkways to provide safe foot travel and handicapped access. The grant required that the project be completed by June 2015.

Gilchrest is originally from the Danbury area, where he had his own landscape architecture firm. He wanted to relocate to the Northwest Corner and was happy to get a job with the Canaan-based firm Allied Engineering, where he says he is a “jack of all trades,” doing both landscape architecture and architectural design. The Falls Village project is one of the first jobs he’s completed since moving here.

A photo of the same general area as above, taken before the redesign.

The first step was to develop an overall plan. To meet the goals of increased safety and accessibility, Gilchrest wanted to clearly separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic, put in pedestrian crossings, slow traffic speed through town and enhance lighting. But he also wanted “to maintain the historical integrity” of the town, and to provide “a sense of pride, place, arrival.”

To ensure community involvement, the town formed a Main Street Committee, composed of neighbors, business owners and town officials. Gilchrest and Allied Engineering held several public meetings to present their ideas and address local concerns, the biggest of which was overall skepticism about such major changes to a town relatively untouched by time.

Sidewalk width was a point of considerable controversy. Gilchrest proposed a width of five feet, the amount of space required for a wheelchair to turn around, and for two people to walk side by side easily. Many objected, fearing that was too wide and would make the town look like Disneyland. To ease residents’ fears, Gilchrest made life-sized renderings of the proposed walkways. Now residents tell him, “This isn’t as wide as we thought it was going to be.”

The new sidewalks run from the Kellogg School at one end of town to the Falls Village Inn at the other. New curbs narrow the road and mark off the pedestrian walkway, bump-out islands calm traffic speed, and crosswalks provide safe places to cross the road. A particularly visible crosswalk was installed in front of the senior center.

Gilchrest chose street lamps reminiscent of gas lighting of the mid-nineteenth century. The lights operate on a timer that changes with the seasons. Gilchrest hopes the town will also use the light poles to put up banners celebrating local events.

The new plantings are appropriate to New England. Gilchrest planted about 30 trees, trying to find a balance between diversity and design. He reintroduced elm trees, planting new varieties with very good disease resistance. A variety of flowers and shrubs ensures that there are blooms from May to October. Students from Housatonic Valley Regional High School were invited to take part in discussions about plant selection.

.First Selectman Patricia Mechare praises Gilchrest highly. “He’s a terrific guy,” she says. “It was a wonderful experience working with Bob. Everything went smoothly, and the project was completed on time and on budget. This was a challenging project, and he kept everyone on an even keel, giving good advice along the way.”

Gilchrest is pleased with how the process has turned out. The new sidewalks and crosswalks have made a major difference in safety, and everyone walks more, which lends itself to more interaction with neighbors. Kids can walk, ride their bikes or skateboard. “The transformation is really amazing,” Gilchrest says. “It’s had a bigger impact than even I expected.”

“The naysayers are happy now,” he adds. People have stopped him on the street to tell him that “this is the best thing that’s happened” in Falls Village. Mechare agrees, “Of those who had trepidations, almost all have come to me to say what an improvement it is.”

“The greatest part of the project,” Gilchrest says, “is the community getting together. Not the design, but how the design is used.”

Photos courtesy of Allied Engineering, Inc.