Dozens of local residents who packed Town Hall Tuesday night left disappointed when the Zoning Board of Review postponed a hearing on a proposed new Dunkin’ Donuts in Gooding Plaza.

The board received a letter before Tuesday’s meeting from attorney William P. Dennis, requesting the hearing be postponed pending another traffic study the Bristol Town Council has requested, Zoning Board member Bruce Rogan announced. The proposed Dunkin’ Donuts would be free-standing with a drive-thru, directly in front of the existing Dunkin Donuts in the plaza’s main building. Owner Christopher Prazeres, of Seekonk, Mass., proposes building the store on Hope Street, between the Defiance Fire Company and the BankNewport, just south of the Hope Street-Gooding Avenue intersection.

Residents — especially those who live across Hope Street from the plaza in the Fales Road neighborhood — decry the proposal, saying it will only make an already impossible traffic situation even worse. They talk of waiting upwards of 10 minutes just trying to get out of their neighborhood, especially in the afternoon when traffic in the congested area is at its worst.

“It’s so dangerous up here, it’s ridiculous,” said Fales Road resident Nick Conti. “It will definitely make it worse with the drive-thru.”

A traffic study conducted between 7:45 and 8:45 on a Thursday morning last December determined that adding a drive-thru would nearly double traffic to the building, increasing car trips from the current 109 per hour to 187 per hour, at peak times. Despite the increased trips, Gordon R. Archibald, Inc. engineers determined the impact on traffic would be minimal. Wait times at the Hope Street-Gooding Avenue light would only increase an average of half a second per car, the report indicates. Backups on Hope Street wouldn’t be much worse, as only three more cars per hour would be turning left into the plaza, the engineers estimate.

Residents take issue with those numbers, particularly criticizing the time of day and especially the time of year the study was conducted. There is generally less traffic in Bristol in the winter, especially in that part of town, where Colt State Park and Bristol Town Beach draw many more visitors in warmer months. Given that there are no concessions inside the park, visitors are likely to stop at the nearest location, residents say. A brand-new Dunkin’ Donuts with a drive-thru, directly on Hope Street, fits the bill.

Several residents have also expressed concern about firefighters being able to get to the station when there is a call. With only six parking spots on fire company property, the volunteer firefighters park in the area where the new Dunkin’ is proposed — which is also town-owned land leased to Gooding Plaza. While Fire Chief Michael DeMello has said there will be no impact to the fire company or public safety, volunteer firefighter John Coccio disagrees. 

“If we can’t get to the station, we can’t get the truck out,” Mr. Coccio said after the Zoning Board meeting Tuesday, adding there are already occasional delays leaving the station due to traffic. “It’s getting to be ridiculous, and it’ll only get worse.”

Mr. Coccio was one of several area residents complaining after Tuesday’s meeting that it is already too late in the year to do another traffic study. Counting car trips in fall or winter when warm-weather tourists have already left is pointless, they say.

“They’re gonna do it in December again,” Mr. Coccio said. “Make sure you do something in June.”

The Zoning Board voted unanimously to continue the hearing indefinitely, not knowing when the new traffic study would be done. Mr. Rogan assured the residents that “all parties entitled will receive a new written new notice, and a new public notice will be published,” when the board reschedules the hearing.