Opinion piece: this article reflects the opinion of the author.
Let’s turn Rocky Hill into a safe, beautiful space where neighbors can walk, play, and connect. A place to be, not to pass through.
During the September 17, 2025 “Conversation with Rocky Hill Mayoral Candidates,” hosted by the League of Women Voters, Mayor Lisa Marotta stated that “We have a Sidewalk Master Plan.” Fair enough, I thought, we have a plan. I love a plan. But where is it?
At the time, the plan was nowhere to be found on the town website or records. I found it three weeks later within the “Town Council Meeting Packet” for the meeting of October 6, 2025. Anyone can receive these Meeting Packets by signing up for Documents-on-Demand, and downloading an attachment. The meeting packet was 82 pages long. The Sidewalk Master Plan would be found on Page 7. During the October 6, 2025 Town Council meeting, Town Engineer Steve Sopelak presented the Sidewalk Master Plan to the Town Council, commenting that it wasn’t very legible and of low resolution. Mayor Lisa Marotta commented that the colors on the map were not true to the color ledger. So, it’s not as if Town Officials were actively pushing this plan out to their constituents, many hungry for a walkable town, but the Plan did, admittedly, exist.. And after much prodding by residents, 2025 Sidewalk Master Plan is now published on the Town website.
This torturous journey to publish a document on a website is emblematic of our town’s struggle to build out sidewalk infrastructure. Residents have attended and watched meetings upon meeting, we’ve read one Facebook post after the next, but what Rocky Hill residents need is more open and clear communication, more urgency, and more shovels in the ground. I want to share what we know about sidewalk infrastructure projects in Rocky Hill, and what more we can and should be doing.
The slow pace of sidewalk development
Given the chaos at the federal level, it is understandable that Rocky Hill voters have a bit of electoral amnesia. The Trump Administration manufactures a news cycle and stirs dissent to distract the press and the people. No one can keep up with the manufactured chaos, known as “flooding the zone.”
The Marotta Administration does the opposite. It creates hype over a 1/3 mile sidewalk built in the 6th year of the tenure. It celebrates a pizza restaurant that replaced a pizza restaurant; an ice cream shop that replaced an ice cream shop; the Silas Deane Highway “streetscape” that replaced an existing sidewalk. Kelson Row Main Street’s sidewalk that replaced an existing sidewalk. That’s not really progress. Let’s review what we know about incoming sidewalk infrastructure.
Projects in the pipeline
These are the projects I could find through documents released by the town and discussed at meetings. For each, progress has been too little, too slow.
Glastonbury Ave (CTDOT Project L118-0004) from Main St to Washington St (“and the promise of a connection to the river”)
Aside from promised of “2026” there are no legitimate updates at the time of this writing. The much ballyhoed “connection to the river” is a misnomer, but don’t take my word for it. The Town Engineer Steve Sopelak says so himself:
“When asked ‘if people can get to the river’ the answer right now is not really because once they get to Washington Street, they are out of a right of way past that. They have enough of a right of way to squeeze this in on Glastonbury Avenue to Washington Street but once you get past that, there is either a tremendous slope on the north side or on the south side and that isn’t the Town’s property.”
For six years, a promise of a “connection to the river“ that the Town Engineer says is not feasible. In the end, this is an empty promise, leaving our friends, neighbors, and loved ones at risk.
Pedestrians walk along the narrow shoulder on Meadow Rd
Pedestrians walk along the narrow shoulder on Glastonbury Ave
Elm Street (CT DOT Project L118-0003)
from Elm Ridge Drive to Gilbert Avenue via State LoCIP funding (Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program)
The Sidewalk Master Plan says “2026” but there are no further updates at the time of this writing.
Century Hills (LOTCIP Project L118-0005)
$500,000 in state funding was approved for the installation of sidewalks in the Century Hills neighborhood. This will be matched by $98,000 from the town. The Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP), is managed by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) that delivers grants to small towns for economic development, community conservation, and quality of life capital projects. At a Town Council meeting on October 6, 2025, a town official announced that the sidewalk constructing “will begin on November 1, and take 6 weeks.”
By the way, we’ve seen the heavy lifting obtaining funds come from our state delegation, namely State Senator Matt Lesser and State Representative Kerry Wood. Our state officials continue to access funding, via Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP), or Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grants, and more.
Washington Street (Town of Rocky Hill Capital Improvement Project)
⅓ of a mile of sidewalk is underway. By the Town’s own data, Rocky Hill has added 11 miles of sidewalks on town roads since 2000. That’s 4/10 of a mile per year over at 25 year span. So 1/3rd of a mile in 2025 is behind even that meager pace.
Don’t get me wrong. Washington Street is good and I will directly benefit. We’ll take it, but ⅓ of a mile is not the kind of progress the Republican majority should boost after six years of Mayoral and Council majority control.
And what’s next? That, we absolutely do not know.
The town is supposedly pursuing other infrastructure projects, but we don’t know much about them. Little has been shared with the public concerning the limited walk and bike access along France Street, and New Road to the Rocky Hill Community Farm, or walking and hiking trails at the Rocky Hill Community Farm. Per the Town Council meeting on October 6, 2025, they will be bidding Phase II for Century Hills “next year.” No further updates at the time of this writing.
Moreover, little has been said about a “bike route linking neighborhoods”. That was pitched three years ago, via a 2022 story about a pedestrian friendly “town center” that is not aging particularly well. That’s good public relations (in advance of the election cycle, three years ago), but what have we actually seen on the ground?
“Rocky Hills Plans Walkable Village Center with Sidewalks and Bike Route Linking Neighborhoods and Waterfront.” Hartford Courant “Smoothing Rocky Hill” (October 19, 2022)
And here we are three years later. Is there a walkable village center, or a bike route linking neighborhoods, and the riverfront? I am writing this draft on October 19, 2025, and I know of no plan, so where’s the plan? There is no credible plan.
That’s it. We have a collection of small projects and vague gestures at much needed action. As a resident of this town I want more, much more, in terms of infrastructure.
We can do more
Rocky Hill could have amazing infrastructure if we followed a few basic steps.
- New sidewalks, new multi-use trails, or stone dust paths or greenways, are popular tools that can in fact help develop a town center or village district.
- Working with what he have: Spearhead cooperative multi-town efforts to educate road users to treat selected sidewalks as ‘multi-use paths’ that can begin to connect our communities. Pedestrians have the right of way, always.
- Engage with the Town of Wethersfield to connect the Great Meadows into a unified regional “State Greenway”. Tap into the state funding and benefits of this distinction, as Wethersfield does already.
- Encourage Town of Rocky Hill officials to apply for more grant funding. If it takes 3-4 years from grant funds to shovels, let’s keep the cycle going (e.g. what is in the pipeline after Century Hills, and after the Glastonbury Ave/Elm Street?)
- Pursue the Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program, which allows municipalities to work with their COG (Council of Governments) to apply for funding for a variety of transportation projects, such as pedestrian and bicycle initiatives, construction of turnouts, overlooks, and viewing areas, recreational trails, and vulnerable road user safety assessments. The following was awarded in February 2025.
- Town of Wethersfield awarded $1.08 million in sidewalk funding.
- Glastonbury multi-use path $2,360,000
- Bloomfield Greenway $5,320,000
- Hartford Bicycle Boulevard $1,120,000
The Town of Rocky Hill did not apply for Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program. That could be funding for gaps on France Street, or for a connection to the Rocky Hill Community Farm along New Road.
- Pursue the CTDOT’s Community Connectivity Grant Program to increase pedestrian safety. $229,200 was awarded to Cromwell in 2024.
“Improving walkability and safety in our rural, suburban, and urban communities are core focuses at CTDOT.” Deputy Commissioner Karen Kitsis.
- Finally, we can build better and more robust Town Committees and Commissions including Planning and Zoning, Parks & Rec Advisory Board, and Sustainable Rocky Hill Taskforce
Rocky Hill needs to do a better job. Rocky Hill needs fewer Facebook posts, fewer promises of coming #soon, or “next year,” and more shovels in the ground. Rocky Hill needs more sidewalks. It needs new leadership, now. Vote Row A for Allan Smith for Mayor; and for Town Council Democrats Zach van Luling, Mukesh Desai, Miriam (Mimi) Lifshitz-Theroux, John Emmanuel, and Melissa Kaplan; and Board of Eduction Democrats Jennifer Baron-Morfea, Jessica Loffredo, Maria Mennella, Tom Cosker, and Kristen Dudanowicz
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