OPINION LETTER August 14, 2015
Save the Whipple Hill corridor To the editor: As a resident of Bayberry Road, I dread the incursion of 20 new homes on Whipple Hill (”Neighbors voice concern about proposed Danvers development,” Aug. 11). The destruction of vegetation, traffic and noise will adversely impact our neighborhood forever. But if a development must be built, a cluster subdivision is the best option for all town residents. Under the proposed cluster plan, a contiguous tract of open space (essentially, the Park-to-Clark Connector) will be preserved and kept in its natural state. This is precisely what the Town of Danvers 2009 Open Space and Recreation Report recommends. With a conservation restriction on this green space corridor granted to the town, an important environmental and ecological system will be saved. Biodiversity and a balance of species will be preserved. Wetlands will be left undisturbed in an area already dealing with major water issues. Trees will continue to cool and moderate temperature. A natural noise buffer will be left intact. And the one of the town’s greatest assets — Endicott Park — will be enhanced. Personally, residents will benefit from a cluster, rather than a conventional, development plan. Studies show that green space correlates with: improved physical health, specifically through reduction of noise and air pollution; a greater sense of emotional well-being due to positive influences on mood, concentration, mental fatigue, self-discipline and physiological stress; improved quality of life, including a greater sense of privacy and aesthetic satisfaction; faster recovery from illness and hospitalization; and, even, lowered mortality. Due to these and other benefits of green space, home values in the area should hold steady or increase.
The town, however, needs to negotiate access to the protected open space. All residents should have the right to traverse these historic woods from Endicott Park to Clark Farm and then to Gates Field, Highlands School, and the Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial. This pathway could, in the future, become part of the town’s own Heritage Trail. For the safety of everyone, however, a traffic impact study should be conducted. Bayberry Road is a dead end, a loop, off Route 62. In 2003, the average daily traffic count on a weekday at Route 62 and Bayberry Road was 25,581. As any commuter knows, the volume has increased tremendously during the past 12 years, especially with construction of Conifer Hill Commons’ 90 rental units, the opening of Essex North Shore Technical High School in Middleton, and expanding employment in Beverly, specifically at Cummings Center. Traffic and safety problems will only increase. St. John’s Prep Middle School, with a complement of teachers and administrators, will serve 300 students in grades six through eight. A drug rehabilitation center proposed for construction on Lindall Hill will have 220 beds and 30 additional outpatients daily. Owners of the center say it will be the sixth-largest employer in town. The volume of vehicles entering and exiting Bayberry Road, the only access to the new development, will multiply. Twenty households with two cars each, making only two trips per day, means an additional 160 vehicles spilling in and out of the development. Construction vehicles: that’s a concern for another day. A cluster subdivision on Whipple Hill is the lesser of two evils. The devil is in the details.