WINDHAM – The Windham Town Council has unanimously adopted a Complete Streets policy, encouraging the development and improvement of town streets and roadways that are accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as motorists.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the council voted 6-0 to adopt the policy. Councilor Matt Noel did not attend the meeting.

According to Town Manager Tony Plante, the policy does not impose a “cookie cutter” style of development for roadway improvement projects across town, but is rather meant to encourage improvements that are accessible to a wider array of transportation methods.

“Our fixation really has been on vehicular mobility,” Plante said. “It has not been on bicyclists or pedestrians or really even thinking about those. Not all amenities will be right in every place but it’s ensuring that they’re part of the consideration.”

The vision contained within the policy emphasizes the needs of people of all ages, including “future users.”

“The town of Windham Complete Streets Policy advocates for the fundamental concept that all streets and roadways should be designed and operated to be safe and accessible for all current and future transportation users whether they be pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders or vehicular motorists, regardless of age or ability,” it reads.

The policy calls on the town to give “due consideration” to bicyclists and pedestrians from the “very start of planning and design work” on street planning and design projects. It also encourages more context-sensitive roadway development, which takes into account surrounding land use.

The policy also calls for the inclusion of a variety of specific facilities and amenities in future transportation improvements. It calls for buildings in North Windham to be “set to the front of the property line on both sides of the road to create a human-scale environment.”

The policy also calls for the “inclusion” of sidewalks, crosswalks, esplanades, street trees, landscaping, benches, bike racks, on-street parking, bike lanes and shared drives.

According to the policy, the town will define annual performance measures that will track implementation of the policy.

At the meeting, Town Planner Ben Smith, said the town has 768 acres of roadway right-of-way. The Complete Streets policy, Smith said, recognizes the town’s roadways as “public land.”

“What is a complete street?” Smith said. “It’s a street that’s designed for all users. It’s maintained for all ages and abilities regardless of how you choose to get around. It also takes context of the surrounding land use into account. So wide-open country roads aren’t the same as village streets – they’re not the same as commercial subdivisions and so forth. Each road should be viewed in its own context.”

Town Councilor Donna Chapman expressed concern that new bike lanes would go unused.

“My concern is that all of a sudden we’re getting into all of this, and yet your rush hour traffic now is backed way up even further than it was before because you’ve lost a lane for a bike lane for nobody in it,” Chapman said. “How would we protect against that?”

Chapman suggested that the town adopt a new comprehensive plan before moving ahead with the Complete Streets policy.

“I think this is a good idea,” Chapman said. “But I think we really need to have that vision first.”

Councilor Tommy Gleason was not persuaded that the policy needed to wait for the new comprehensive plan, which is expected to be adopted in several years.

“I understand what your saying 100 percent,” Gleason said. “I think what you’re going to see with the comprehensive plan is a lot more people are going to want what you just said, bicycle lanes and walking.”