ROCHESTER — As planning moves forward for a 208 unit apartment complex at the corner of Cranberry Highway and Route 28, Steen Realty and Development Corporation came before the Rochester Planning Board to work out a solution for school bus drop offs and pickups.

Phil Cordeiro, a representative from Steen, initially told Board members at an Oct. 27 meeting that the stop would be on the private road that surrounds the planned Rochester Crossings, and the bus would turn onto Cranberry Highway. The bus stop would also share a stop with a bus route from the Greater Attleboro and Taunton Regional Transit Authority.

“Certainly we feel that it won’t create an aversion to traffic” to have the buses share the stop, Cordeiro said.

But one issue he mentioned was that bus companies don’t want to enter private sites such as a development. If there’s inclement weather, parents will want to park their cars on the side of the ring-shaped road, creating potential traffic. 

The Board agreed with Steen’s opinion on the matter, taking matters one step further.

Board Chair Arnie Johnson said that these days, parents will drive their kids to the bus stop even when the weather is nice.

“Signs are not going to work,” he said.

Johnson added that the stop could get in the way of emergency service vehicles. 

“To me, that’s not an option,” Johnson said.

Board member Gary Florindo brought up that anywhere from 25 to 30 kids could be boarding the buses to Rochester Memorial School and Old Rochester High School, and potentially more for Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School. With this, kindergarten students would be offloading and onloading even more frequently because of half days. 

In talks with the Old Rochester Regional School District, officials told Cordeiros that the district isn’t accustomed to having a stop inside private property, and it would approve the stop once there’s a project underway at the development. 

“I think moving anything internally is a better solution for everyone,” Johnson said.

Cordeiros said they would be happy to move the stop inside the development as well.

As the project moves towards approval, Johnson suggested potentially having a meeting between the Board, Steen Realty and the district to work out the details of the arrangement.

The public hearing was continued to the Board's Nov. 10 meeting.