Representatives from Walmart presented an updated traffic study for their proposed Tobey Road location on March 8 and discussed how the move would impact residents of the Great Hill Estates mobile home park, located a short distance away.

Great Hill Estates residents have been vocal in all public hearings concerning Walmart, which is hoping to move from its East Wareham location to a 152,000-square-foot store at the corner of Tobey Road and Cranberry Highway in West Wareham.

"It's all about the safety, the ability of us to get out of our driveway," said Sheila Monaghan, vice president of the Great Hill Estates Association, told the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Walmart representatives during a joint hearing of the two boards on March 8.

Residents of Great Hill Estates are concerned that the increased traffic on Cranberry Highway (Route 28) from Walmart would make it dangerous for residents who want to exit the mobile home park onto the highway.

Residents say it's already difficult to make a left-hand turn out of their neighborhood with the increased traffic brought by Wareham Crossing, and Walmart would only add to their difficulties.

Shaun Kelly, traffic engineer for Vanasse Associates, the firm working on the traffic study, said that a new study reduced the time it took to exit Great Hill Estates from 50 seconds to about 30 seconds.

The reduction in time occurs because the new study takes into account a traffic light that the A.D. Makepeace Company will likely build at the intersection of Charlotte Furnace Road and Route 28 in West Wareham in conjunction with development projects they have planned in the area.

That traffic light, in combination with the traffic light at the intersection of Tobey Road and Route 28, will regulate traffic in a way that too many cars will not collect together at once, reducing the likelihood of traffic being backed up on Cranberry Highway, thus causing problems for Great Hill Estates.

Included in Walmart's traffic plan are two lanes heading southbound on Cranberry Highway and the addition of a right-turn lane onto Tobey Road.

Walmart's traffic study addresses the hours required by the state in such evaluations  -- the weekday evening peak of 4-6 p.m. and the Saturday peak of 12-2 p.m.

But Monaghan said those hours would not be problematic since residents, who are mostly retirees on a fixed income, will most likely be exiting the park from 10-3 p.m.

"Other times, traffic is just as high [as if it] were 4-6 p.m.," Monaghan said.

But, Kelly argued, the addition of the lanes on Cranberry Highway actually help regulate traffic in the area.

"The worst scenario is to do nothing," Kelly said.

Members of the Planning Board and the Zoning board of Appeals noted that they would most likely tie any acceptance of Walmart's plans to a one-year review to ensure that traffic situations are functional and acceptable to town residents.

Walmart plans to build its store on land that has been zoned as both commercial and industrial. That is why the project falls under the purview of both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, as both handle the different types of zoning, according to Planning Board Chair George Barrett.

The Planning Board continued the public hearing to Monday, March 19 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall cafeteria. The board will develop recommendations on Walmart's traffic plan and present those recommendations in another joint public hearing of the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, scheduled for Wednesday, March 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall cafeteria.