Groton planners want residents to describe their vision for Poquonnock Bridge
Groton — Poquonnock Bridge originally was developed as a village, and town planners will ask residents Monday how to reinforce that concept.
The town budgeted $30,000 last year to study potential future development in the historic center of Groton, and consultant Union Studio Architecture and Community Design of Providence will present its initial work at 6 p.m. on Monday in Groton Public Library. The consultant then will ask residents what they’d like to see in the area.
“This is sort of the first kick off” of the process, Assistant Planning Director Deborah Jones said. “The consultants have done an inventory about the historic structures in the area, and they’ve given some thought about where (village) boundaries might be, but before anyone gets too far down that road, we have to get some public input.”
The boundaries of Poquonnock Bridge vary depending on who you ask, but Jones defines them generally as Poquonnock Plains Park to the east, Buddington Road to the west, North Road to the north and as far as the railroad tracks at South Road to the south. Boundaries for development will be part of Monday’s discussion, she added.
The village history has been studied before. In 1992, James Gibbs, an architect and planner with Mystic Environmental Design Group, compiled a history and photos of dozens of buildings with historic value in Poquonnock Bridge. He wrote of the Poquonnock Bridge Baptist Church, dedicated in 1871 and the first church building in the village; the Town Hall, built in 1908 and later expanded; and the structure at 15 Fort Hill Road, known as the Daniel Morgan General Store in 1868, and home to a post office and, later, a telephone.
The railroad created a busy center of activity, described by the late historian Carol Kimball in “The Poquonnock Bridge Story.”
“Trains whistled through the Poquonnock plains five or six times a day,” she wrote. “The trip from Noank to Groton Bank took only 11 minutes and cost 20 cents.”
Jones commented, “There was industry, there were race tracks, there was a railroad going through. It was a really interesting section of town, mostly because it was flat."
Today the area has evolved into a mix of houses, offices and business, with a jumble of seven different types of zoning to match, including commercial, residential, multi-family, office/multi-family and industrial.
“It is a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” said Town Councilor Lian Obrey, who plans to attend the meeting. “It might be an ideal place for a whole different theme, and I’m kind of hoping people might come in with ideas that people haven’t even thought about.”
The neighborhood offers little-known assets like a boardwalk tucked along the Poquonnock River, which the town might make more use of, Obrey said. “It’s a nice area and I don’t think most people know it’s there,” she said.
After Monday’s meeting, the consultant will review the comments collected, compile its findings and make recommendations to the Groton Zoning Commission about potential changes. The commission is rewriting the town’s zoning regulations to make them more user friendly and may consolidate zones.
The consultant’s report on Poquonnock Bridge is expected by the end of the calendar year, Jones said.
"It was settled as a village," Jones said. "The idea is to reinforce that village structure."
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