Brunswick’s “Wilbur’s Woods” House Project Will Be a Blight: Schaeffer

After much middle of the night reflection, I have reached at least two conclusions:

First, Wilbur’s Woods needs to be renamed “Bottleneck Woods,” because that is how it is best described.

Second, the Project needs to go to “ALL STOP” condition because as proposed it is completely unworkable, and will be a blight upon the neighborhood and Brunswick itself for having approved such an insult to residential life.

The following considerations force me to reach this conclusion:

After reading the original Fast Track approval process with attendant discussion, it is obvious that Deputy Chief Emerson of the Fire Department has unresolved concerns about the overall subject of emergency services access to all residences in the Project.

66 bedrooms, where each could accommodate two persons, means 132 persons could desire to take up residence on the 4.87 acres of the project. Some could be children, of course, but the nature of the design argues against that; it is simply not a child friendly layout and design, and children would be put in danger because of the lack of outside play space and the exceptionally cramped parking accommodations.

132 persons over 4.87 acres works out to 27 persons per acre, not allowing for landscaped places, parking, etc. That is simply an unreasonable, unworkable load in a confined space like Bottleneck Woods.

Parking is allocated at one space per bedroom, means it will accommodate one adult per bedroom with a vehicle of their own. When we got married, we lived in a one bedroom apartment for 5 years before we bought our own house. We each had jobs, and we each had a car. If couples are not the case, it is reasonable to expect that roommates could share premises, two to a bedroom (twin beds).

Any way you look at it, 66 parking spaces for what will likely be well over 100 driving age adults is completely impractical and unworkable. There is no overflow parking, and no on-street parking either. If you can’t park on project premises, you are SOL, as the old saying goes.

The 66 parking spaces will of necessity have to be assigned and so marked clearly as to which residence they belong, not only because of space limitations, but because the MSHA regulations will require wiring stubs be installed to accommodate EV charging stations at each space, and they will be connected to the electrical feed for each individual unit. The possibility that someone other than the resident of a given unit could charge their car in the wrong assigned space is a recipe for some serious arguments, if not fights.

What is going to happen if you come home from work, at any time of day or night, depending on your shift, and you find that someone has parked in your spot, and you have absolutely nowhere to park. Do you park on a lawn or landscaped area? Do you park behind the offender to block them in, thereby blocking traffic flow, and likely blocking three parking spots. This is especially problematic in the parking area for the 18 apartments, since they are tucked tight to the entry road that gives the project the name Bottleneck Woods.

We’ve all had experiences in parking lots where sloppy parkers on either side of an “empty space” do a poor job centering their car in their space, and make the empty space so narrow as to be unusable because if you can even fit your car in, you can’t open your doors. What happens next in this scenario? How much reckless “park anywhere you can” behavior will become the norm, making things miserable for everyone, and dangerous as well when it comes to emergency access for Fire Engines, EMT’s, and/or Police.

The circumstances just described are dangerous, unworkable, and reflect incompetence and lack of foresight on the part of the Developers and the Brunswick Planning Department and its associated citizen boards.

Accordingly, the Planned Approval of the project should go to ALL STOP immediately!