Editor, The Smithfield Times:

Concerning the multi-warehouse complex proposed for the immediate outskirts of the Town of Windsor: 

The 2022 Annual Average Week Day Traffic (AAWDT) for Route 460 east of the Town of Windsor is 16,543 Vehicles Per Day (VPD). By comparison the same 2022 AAWDT for Route 17 between the Carrollton Fire Department, Sugar Hill Road and Crittenden Lane is virtually the same, 16,556 VPD (a difference of 13 VPD.) In other words, Windsor and its Lovers Lane residents are already having the same difficulty as Sugar Hill Road residents have trying to turn left onto Route 17 during peak hours.

Two years ago there were five accidents at the Sugar Hill Road/Route 17 intersection, prompting more Sugar Hill residents to turn right and down the road to make a U-turn to go left.  But in the Lovers Lane case there is no median (the four lanes are not divided) and a U-turn is impossible. 

If approved, the warehousing project will make Windsor traffic worse. To go left, Lovers Lane citizens will have to work their way back to a traffic light through backroads to eventually go left. Crazy! Nor will traffic light improvements to the World Market intersection fix the problem no more than the Omera/Cedar Grove Road traffic lights near Sugar Hill Road have prevented its traffic problems. 

Besides warehousing being inappropriate at a principal town entrance and main thoroughfare, Windsor citizens absolutely have legitimate concerns with traffic safety, life and limb being threatened. This problem is exacerbated as Isle of Wight has the largest proportion of senior citizens in southeast Virginia, a population who will not be able to react fast enough or navigate this heavy in-and-out traffic of speed and danger. 

The Town of Windsor needs a bypass like the Town of Smithfield did years ago to address its traffic problems, which are projected to be much worse even without the warehousing complex.  If you recall the U.S. 460 Corridor Study was considering such a bypass 14 years ago.  

The warehouse project should be disapproved.

 

Thomas Finderson

Carrollton