Boston Sunday Globe
By Leslie Anderson
Globe Correspondent
Isadore Singer has taught mathematics long enough to know that simple arithmetic cannot predict human behavior in traffic jams.
So when he considers the traffic that could be generated by a 245,000-square-foot office park proposed off Route 111 in Boxborough, he thinks of his daily shortcuts through Cambridge to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I've seen over the years what traffic does to local streets, and I'm a culprit," said Singer, a professor whose specialty is geometry and physics.
"I have about six different routes that I take. We all want to avoid traffic messes."
Singer was one of several Boxborough residents who wrote to selectmen last week urging that a comprehensive traffic study be conducted before the Planning Board grants a special permit allowing the Gutierrez Co. to build an open space-commercial development near Interstate 495 and Hill Road. Under the proposal, 34 of the 56 acres would be preserved as open space.
The Planning Board, which is in the final stages of drafting its decision, is scheduled to meet again on Aug. 5. Planning officials say they are doing what they can to insure that traffic does not become a problem if the office park is built. They have reviewed traffic studies and are putting conditions on any approval of the proposed development, they say.
But un his letter to selectmen, Singer wrote: "Traffic mitigation as recommended by the Planning Board...is inadequate and won't work. The Board is recommending a bandage for a major hemorrhage."
While a traffic study commissioned by Gutierrez predicted that few motorists would use nearby Hill Road as a shortcut to the office park, opponents argue that the study did not take into consideration other office parks that have been proposed along Interstate 495.
"If you've got too many buildings and too many people trying to get from one point to another, they're going to seek relief on side streets," Singer, who lives in an 1860s farmhouse on Hill Road, said in an interview last week. "The first step is to try to get an independent traffic survey that's much broader in its content than the standard ones commissioned by developers."
In another letter sent to the selectmen last week, Hill Road residents Cliff and Margaret Stockley added up the new office space that is either proposed or recently constructed in the region. In Boxborough alone, they found six projects, including Cisco Systems, totaling 2.75 million square feet.
Outside Boxborough, along Interstate 495 between Routes 90 and 93, they listed five office projects totaling nearly 3.5 million square feet. One of those is a 390,000-square-foot office park proposed by Gutierrez at the other end of Hill Road in Littleton.
"Our town has now become a 'Work in Progress' town, working to become an office juggernaut park," the Stockleys wrote to selectmen.
"Speculative excess by developers is contributing to the urban sprawl we are witnessing in Boxborough, which will ultimately bring a large transient work force through our town on a daily basis, congesting our road system and destroying the rural quality of Boxborough."
David Birt, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he was "reluctant to interfere" with the Planning Board's deliberations because it is a separate town board elected by the public.
"I moved into Boxborough 28 years ago," he added. "If I had taken the advice then and pulled the ladder up behind me, a lot of people who are complaining now wouldn't live here."
Town planner Alicia Altieri said the Planning Board has reviewed several other traffic studies that have been conducted in Boxborough. And chairwoman Karen Metheny said the board has put "fairly stringent controls in place" to prevent and correct any traffic problems that may arise from the Gutierrez development.
A license plate survey conducted by the developer's traffic consultant conluded that vehicles are not currently using Hill Road, which runs parallel to Interstate 495, as a shortcut to other office buildings in the area. But additional measures would be taken to keep commuters off the scenic road, which is lined with pastures and historic buildings.
Cunningham Road, which connects Ward and Hill Roads, would be blocked off at Route 111. Signs, and possibly a gate, would also be erected to discourage commuter access. Route 111 would be widened at Ward Road, and provisions would be made for a traffic signal if needed.
To preserve a buffer of mature trees shielding the office complex from Hill Road, the developer also agreed to place 122 of 1,000 parking spaces in reserve to be developed as a last resort -- although neighbors want those spaces eliminated entirely.
"We're putting on as many conditions as we can to make this permit better than a traditional site plan," Metheny said.
She stressed, however, that the Planning Board cannot prohibit development on the property. Of the entire parcel, 35 acres is zoned for commercial development and 19 acres is zoned for residential development.
That doesn't mean that the Planning Board isn't listening to the public, Metheny added. In the coming months, she said the panel will reexamine the town's zoning map for possible changes at next spring's Town Meeting.
"As we go through the master planning process, we will find out what the ideal balance is between commercial and residential development and also take into consideration what's happening in other communities," she said.
"In terms of this application, we're doing as much as what the bylaw allows us to do. And the bylaw does not allow us to turn this development down."