Should the immediate neighborhood have continuous issues for the expansion?

I love the arts and RAC is great institution as it is. Is the expansion worth the negative impact it will have on its neighbors forever?

I am writing to ask that the city of Rye turn down the request of the Rye Arts Center (RAC) to change the zoning. I live across the street at Blind Brook Lodge (BBL) at 66 Milton Road and agree with what the BBL Board and the other BBL homeowners and nearby homeowners have brought up as reasons we don’t want the expansion- safety of children, traffic and parking. We are trying to think long term for our neighborhood and don’t see how this will enhance it. After all, the expansion should be an enhancement for all not just for those who go to the RAC for classes and performances, right?

Aside from aesthetic issues - the proposed rendering is not in keeping with the neighborhood and parking in the front of the building will be unattractive, there are also hard facts we can’t change which are the reason I am not in favor of this expansion. Please try to see this granularly as the homeowners in the immediate area do before you decide on this.

• We cannot widen Milton Road – it’s too developed. There is only 1 lane in each direction with no room to expand and parking is on 1 side only (when there isn’t an entrance to a school or church).
• There is no egress available for the RAC expansion except onto Milton Road. Exiting onto Richard Place isn’t possible because of property lines and the wetlands. Exiting onto Midland would require a reconfiguring of Rye Rec (after they just redid the pickleball courts etc). Imagine the traffic back up could easily go over to the roundabout by Grace Church/Palisade Road/Milton Rd and possibly to the light by Citibank during peak times. This would then cause Rye’s downtown more traffic. If there was another egress – then I would be for this.
• The streets around RAC have limited parking (1 side only on Milton) and some streets (e.g. Palisade) and the roundabout offer no parking at all. The immediate spots on Milton Rd (outside BBL) are taken by BBL residents from April – November every day, all day. So where is the overflow going to? There’s a small amount of street parking alongside 2 sides of Christ Church – that’s it!
• There aren’t other side streets to park on. On the west side of Milton Rd, there’s no side street for .5 miles from Rectory St. to Parsons St. and it’s .6 miles on Milton’s east side between Palisade and Apawamis Ave.

5. Half of the newly acquired property is wetlands which cannot be developed into parking or be used for the building. So only 1 acre is useable property. This is very limiting.

• Unless your finances change dramatically, currently over 50% of your budget is from classes. So in order to support your new 20K sq ft facility, you’ll have to have many more classes. More classes mean more employees and more class attendees. This will cause a large increase in traffic driving to RAC (and require parking). Currently on school days at peak times- there are Milton Road traffic backups from Parsons St. up to BBL (66 Milton). In the near future, with an expanded RAC curricula, are we going to have traffic in the afternoons for drop offs and then pick-ups? Getting in and out of BBL’s parking lot (at 75 Milton) will become more difficult and time consuming. Is that fair to RAC’s neighbors?

Ideally, the expansion should be self-contained regarding parking, shouldn't it? The plans show 25-28 new parking spots. In an ideal world, RAC would need double this- don’t you think? On a high volume nite – when RAC is having an opening with say 100 cars and classes are in session and it’s a Thursday nite when Rye Rec host the cornhole league on the basketball courts and the food trucks are there -and people are using the tennis courts, skate park and softball fields (which happens weekly) - where are all these people going to park? Shouldn’t Rye residents have access to parking at Rye Rec too (aside from the small Midland Rd parking lot)? There won't be street parking for overflow- they are always taken. This will take away from the benefits of RAC.

In addition, BBL’s private parking lot and BBL’s gardens are located right next door to RAC at 75 Milton. Regularly, I mean daily, people mistakenly park in our lot to go to Rye Rec or RAC. With increased demand for parking, BBL will have to put up gates to keep our parking lot private. So on top of the increased traffic (not to mention noise and dirt from construction), we will have to make room for and put up gates which are a capital expense incurred only because of the RAC expansion. IS RAC going to pay for our gates and their maintenance? Is that fair to your neighbors?

Again and most importantly- with increased traffic on Milton Road – there is increased danger for the children. Often BBL owners see the children hesitating at the current crosswalk (right by the RAC entrance) and stop traffic at the crosswalk to get them across. Cars driving down Midland seems to forget it’s a crosswalk. So this is the proverbial accident waiting to happen. History shows there was a fatality on Milton Road right at the crosswalk (which wasn’t there at the time). It involved a BBL employee when there was far less traffic, so maybe BBL owners are a bit more sensitive to the danger.

Please consider the safety of the children crossing Milton Road, the Rye residents using Rye Rec and the detrimental impact this expansion will have on those homeowners in the vicinity of the Rye Arts Center. There are many of us whose day to day lives will deteriorate with this expansion. There must be another way to enhance both RAC and its environs- don’t you think?

Marianne Shea

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