Speeding Hospital Hill Development: Damaging Blow to City Neighborhoods?

Residents of South Street and other neighborhoods that will be affected by the Hospital Hill development are concerned about the multitude of potentially devastating environmental impacts that will result if Phase One of the Hospital Hill development is allowed to begin without a full and complete Environmental Impact Study of the entire project as a whole.

South Street is a thickly settled residential neighborhood, with a majority of the homes being owner-occupied single family dwellings. Residents and city planners are committed to maintaining South Street as a residential neighborhood. In order to do so, the impact of traffic and construction in the neighborhood must be addressed more thoroughly than it has been thus far.

The proposals contained here do not seek to shift the impact of the development onto other neighborhoods, but rather to consider a model that minimizes such impact on the South, Earle, Grove, Laurel, Chapel, West, and Clement Streets neighborhoods. Traffic calming measures are an important first step. However, such measures do not counterbalance the current plan to build a new road in the location of the current Earle Street and to transform South Street into an automobile connector. The investment in a South Street/Earle Street automobile gateway is short-sighted, is not in keeping with city planning vision, and creates untenable traffic impacts on the South Street neighborhood. more>>>