Ensuring public safety must remain the foremost concern, particularly when evaluating a project of the size advocated by Steven Venincasa and James Venincasa, especially on a less than minor road known for significant public safety issues.

The traffic consultant hired by Steven Venincasa and James Venincasa presented an updated traffic impact analysis that falls short in several aspects. These include conducting a study for only a brief four-hour period on a single day, overlooking crucial areas like the Providence & Worcester Railroad crossing and the intersection of Rice Road and Aldrich Avenue. Additionally, the study considered only one minor accident on Rice Road, near 9 Rice Road, while disregarding the wealth of crash data available from MassDOT, which is easily accessible to the public.

Within a 0.25-mile radius of the proposed project's single entry point at the intersection of Rice Road and Thomas Hill Road, there have been 13 documented accidents. One of these resulted in a fatality on South Main Street near the Rice Road intersection, where speed played a role. Additionally, there was another collision involving the same utility pole at that specific location. Interestingly, there are no speed limit signs at or near the intersections on either end of Rice Road or along Rice Road itself. It's important to highlight that there have been multiple rear-end collisions near the intersection of Providence Street and Rice Road. This emphasizes the necessity of reconfiguring this intersection to include turning lanes in both directions and, at the very least, traffic control signs.

The Millbury Board of Appeals ought to mandate a fresh, thorough traffic analysis covering a full 7-day cycle, spanning 24 hours each day. This updated study becomes essential due to the initial traffic assessment being conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when many individuals were either working from home or reducing their travel significantly compared to typical patterns.

We gathered 1,054,919 MassDOT Crash Data records from January 1, 2018, to November 27, 2023, covering the entire state. Our focus was specifically on incidents near the proposed Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project. Using GPS coordinates, we plotted these accidents onto a Google Map for visualization (view below). Our analysis revealed significantly more information than what the traffic consultant provided. It's crucial for the traffic consultant to address and clarify these discrepancies and why only one minor accident is included in the updated traffic impact study, when clearly residents and the Millbury Planning Board members identified more accidents during the previous public hearings.

Mapping out 382 crash records within a 1-mile radius provides profound insights. Each orange vehicle icon denotes a crash report without injuries or fatalities (351), purple ambulance icons signify crashes with injuries (29), and blue skull and crossbones indicate fatal accidents (2). Some icons overlap due to clusters of accidents.

The information represented herein is directly from MassDOT Vehicle Crash Data which originates from accident reports.

Ignoring public safety, as these developers seem inclined to do, is both imprudent and irresponsible. Their project documentation reveals a narrative of over 1,000 vehicle trips per day anticipated to/from the proposed Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project alone. This estimation could be undervalued due to the use of an abbreviated single day, four-hour traffic study that overlooked crucial areas like the Providence & Worcester Railroad crossing and the intersection of Rice Road and Aldrich Avenue. Additionally, the traffic impact study misrepresents the alterations made to Rice Road since the initial traffic impact assessment was conducted.

This evening, Wednesday, November 29, 2023, starting at 7:00 PM, the Millbury Board of Appeals will host the inaugural public hearing for the Chapter 40B Rice Pond Village project at the Millbury Memorial Junior/Senior High School located at 12 Martin Street in Millbury, Massachusetts. This proposed development is planned for 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts, featuring three buildings each standing 4 stories or more. The project includes a total of 192 apartments, with 25% of them designated as affordable housing in perpetuity and 75% being market-rate units.