In April, 2004 The Town Council of the Town of Wethersfield created a Silas Deane Highway Advisory Committee. This Committee was charged with the responsibility "to encourage, maintain, and enhance the vitality and environment of the Silas Deane Highway". The Committee was asked to review the Master Plan prepared in 1987 for the Highway and provide a report to the Council. On October 4, 2004 the Committee presented a preliminary report of its findings to the Town Council. It is available for download as a PowerPoint presentation [82 KB] or in Adobe PDF* format [123 KB]. The Committee was authorized to solicit public comments on this report and held a public information meeting on December 9, 2004.
In the Fall of 2004, the Town entered into a unique partnership with the Town of Rocky Hill as the communities decided to pursue the revitalization of the Highway together. The first joint effort was the submission of a collaborative application for State funds through the STEAP - Small Town Economic Assistance Program. In late September of 2004 the Towns were notified of a successful award of $500,000.
The Towns agreed that an updated Master Plan was needed to act as the blueprint for the revitalization of the Highway corridor. In May, 2005 the Towns selected the firm of Fuss and O'Neill of Manchester, Connecticut to lead the master planning program. The Fuss and O'Neill team consists of Ferrero Hixon Associates - Landscape Architects, James Vance - Architects, Planimetrics and RKG Associates. In February, 2006 RKG Associates prepared a market assessment for the Silas Deane Highway Corridor, available for download below.
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Market Assessment for the Silas Deane Corridor [190 KB PDF* file] |
Public workshops on the plan were held on October 5, 2005 and March 27, 2006. The draft of the final plan "Vision For Reinvestment" is available below.
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Fuss & O'Neill June 2006 Report [7.4 MB PDF* file] |
On June 1, 2006 the Town was awarded an additional $500,000 through the State of Connecticut's STEAP program to fund additional capital improvements to the Silas Deane Highway.
The Silas Deane Highway Advisory Committee was disolved by vote of the Town Council on June 19, 2006. The Committee's meeting minutes are archived online. Contact the Planning and Economic Development Department at 721-2837 for more information.
*These linked files are in Adobe's Portable Document Format. To view them you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer. It is available for free download at:
