Thursday, April 20, 2000 Older Editions

Article 81: More traffic? More plans needed, says Ballardvale group

By Rebecca Lipchitz

Proponents of the Ballardvale Master Plan, Article 81, have reduced the article in scope and in budget in hopes it will be approved at Town Meeting.

Ballardvale resident Chris Huntress, a planner by trade, says the article has been modified since it was printed in the warrant.

Ballardvale blues -- Trains and traffic.

Proposed at $100,000, the plan was recommended for approval by selectmen.

But if the budget is reduced to $40,000, the article will have the approval of selectmen, Planning Board members and the Finance Committee, Huntress says.

Huntress says he is "fairly confident" that the project could be done for $40,000, because he has discovered some of the proposed research has already been done. He also plans to reduce the scope of the project by eliminating efforts to change current zoning bylaws.

The focus of the Ballardvale Master Plan, he says, will be to plan for expected changes to the neighborhood that will occur as a result of current zoning bylaws.

One report Huntress plans to incorporate is the Townwide Master Plan, adopted in 1992.

"We're not going to plan independently of the town's Master Plan. But how it will effect the studies, it's hard to say at this point," he says.

He says the goal is to document traffic volumes and work within existing zoning laws to regulate traffic flow through the neighborhood, and make the area more pedestrian friendly.

He also plans to research the maximum capacity of development for the adjacent industrial area, so Ballardvale is prepared for its effects.

"I don't think its realistic to say we're going to stop growth in Lowell Junction, but we can certainly plan for it," he says.

Ballardvale was built in the late 1800s to house mill workers of the Marland Mills. In anticipation of Interstates 93 and 495 and Route 125, Andover planners zoned the area next to Ballardvale, known as the Lowell Junction Road area, as an industrial area that could be served by highways.

Development in the industrial area has led to increased traffic through Ballardvale, which residents say is losing its rural, residential quality.