Save the Ville Petition Signatures Certified

The Save the Ville group has won the right to a special town meeting regarding the New Britain Avenue relocation plan, according to Town Clerk Paula Ray, whose office finished verifying 1,764 signatures this afternoon.

The Town Council voted 4-3 in favor of the relocation plan, which would demolish several homes and businesses in order to reroute New Britain Avenue, during the Nov. 15 meeting. The council did so at the recommendation of the Unionville Traffic Committee, which created the plan in an effort to ease traffic problems through Unionville center.

The traffic committee spent the past year seeking out the recommendations of the community at various meetings. In presenting the plan to the council and the community, committee spokesman John Vibert and Police Chief Paul Melanson, who together visited property owners who would be directly impacted by the plan, said the majority of property owners were in favor of it.

But at a public hearing scheduled at the discretion of the council, Wall Street residents and nearby business owners spoke up against the plan, then garnered a wave of support when they organized the Save the Ville group.

The date of the Special Town Meeting on the New Britain Avenue relocation plan is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 19 at p.m. at Farmington High School. The Town Council is scheduled to vote on the meeting date at the Tuesday council meeting at Town Hall at 7 p.m.

The possibility remains that one of the council members could make a motion to overturn the vote.