Guilford’s Planning & Zoning Commission approved a special permit for U-Haul’s controversial proposed 50,000 square foot facility for truck rental and self-storage. The use and scale of the structure does not accord with the goals of the Plan for Conservation and Development or the Route One East plan. Dozens of citizens have pointed this out.

U-Haul, on a hilltop location boosted by additional filled land, will loom over town, day and night. The illuminated buildings and the trucks lined up outside them will function as a giant billboard at the highest point on Route One in Guilford. Town Planner George Kral admitted in the meeting that two or three feet of fill had been added on the hilltop site without a permit being required of the owner. Slack enforcement of existing rules is problematic. And the environmental impact of that fill? Unclear.

No one wants to live near a U-Haul. It lowers the value of nearby residential real estate. There are very few jobs on a self-storage site. A “Yes” vote signals automobile- and truck-oriented corporations that they and the traffic they generate are welcome here. Guilford can do better by calming traffic and moderating the effect of existing bad commercial buildings, not by introducing over-scale new ones.

Residents have asked for better zoning enforcement, more sidewalks, better pedestrian access to town, and improvement of a dangerous intersection at the angle of Route One with Route 146. These would be straightforward goals for sound planning.

Dolores Hayden

Guilford