LANCASTER - In an attempt to answer questions directly, members of the Capital Group planned four meetings to discuss their North Lancaster development, The Landing Lancaster.

The second meeting took place on Zoom and focused on traffic concerns and briefly the land swap deal with the town.

The advertised traffic expert at the meeting was Sam Gregorio, senior design engineer and project manager from The Engineering Corp. (TEC), who authored Capital Group’s traffic study.

Gregorio explained where all the data points came from for the traffic study, including reference materials such as the trip generation manual from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), U.S. Census population and work/home journey data of how people commute, Google Earth and Waze data, and from actual drives.

The vehicle trip summary showed how many cars and trucks would be added to the existing traffic for the area at different time periods, based on what would be entering and exiting the site on McGovern Boulevard.  For instance, there would be around 1,230 vehicle trips during morning and evening peak weekday hours.

However, Gregorio said they’re “conservative numbers.” Maynard Crossing showed that the ITE manual overestimates use by 20-30%, even if 10% is COVID activity.  He said there’s also trucks removed from the vehicle trips because JB Hunt and Central Mass Sand & Gravel won’t be operating.

There should be about 450 trucks a day, with less than one truck a minute during morning peak hours and about one truck per five minutes during the PM peak.

MassDOT and Lancaster are doing scheduled transportation improvements on Route 70/117 and Route 2 over the next several years.

Capital Group plans to do some “interim measures” and other improvements on town and state roadways, Gregorio said. These include a new traffic signal, pedestrian and bike lanes, and turn lanes at McGovern Boulevard and Lunenberg Road (Route 70), signal timing upgrades on Main Street where it meets both Lunenberg Road and Seven Bridge Road, an interim acceleration and deceleration lane extension on Route 2’s Exit 103, and an interim traffic signal at Lunenberg Road and Fort Pond Road.

It will “remove the queue” for the general public at Route 70 and Fort Pond Road, Gregorio said.

He said Capital Group is doing some “ancillary items” to improve infrastructure and thus traffic like having two stops on a MART bus route at the mixed-use development, a bike and pedestrian bridge for walking from the site to existing local stores like Kimball’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, and on-site services like laundry or carpooling.

This also includes a Transportation Monitoring Program (TMP) from first occupancy to five years following full occupancy.  Capital Group will monitor the site and local intersections for traffic and parking issues, looking at projections versus reality, to make sure it’s what they said it would be.  If not, there would be additional mitigation.

Capital Group is “bound to mitigate,” Gregorio said, if the numbers are over 10% off, with possible changes including signal timing and turn lanes. He said the guarantee is in the Mass. Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA) permit where it says they are committed to this.

Gregorio said there would be “a little congestion” during peak hours on the Lunenberg Road at Old Union Turnpike roundabout, but said it wouldn’t be worse than what currently exists, and the rest of the time the “pattern will change with the ramps used differently” on and off Route 2.

The ramp at exit 103 on Route 2 would be widened one to six feet, but they’re not planning to touch “even one tree,” as there’s already a clear zone and shoulder big enough.

He said they did discuss a Route I-190 ramp directly to the site with the federal highway agency, but for a variety of reasons it couldn’t happen, including environmental damage.

The peer review was submitted by TEC in July and was conducted on behalf of Lancaster by Vanasse & Associates. They responded with 11 “cosmetic comments,” according to Gregorio, many of which generated updates or clarifications to the traffic study. This included notations that the trip generation numbers will rise with restaurants or coffee shops on the site, and specifications on turn lanes.

The proposed 40R development is included in the traffic data, but recent serious or fatal accidents may not be, as they take years to show up in official crash reports. The TMP program could also be expanded.

Capital's full traffic study is available on thelandinglancaster.com.

Steve Boucher, owner of North Lancaster LLC, who sold the land to Capital Group’s 702 LLC, and his attorney Tom Bovenzi spoke about the land deal.

Boucher said he bought the land in the late 1990s, and worked with the town on title and other issues from 2012 to 2017. In October 2017, Boucher entered into an agreement that Lancaster would be given land for conservation use under the proviso that a permit would be granted under the IPOD zoning that existed at the time, which never happened.

Bovenzi said the town never requested more time and that the agreement expired after failure to perform on both sides, but Bob Depietri, from Capital Group, blamed the town and showed documentation that the agreement states the land is given to Lancaster after the mixed-use development is fully completed.

No one from Capital Group could say how the land agreement now requires a zoning change, despite repeated questions from residents.