By Jarret Liotta

WESTPORT — What many have indicated will be a new Amazon store opening at the former site of Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Post Plaza is not expected to have a significant impact on Post Road East traffic congestion, according to consultants.

Following questions about the traffic study raised at the last meeting, the Board of Selectwomen — acting in the capacity of the Local Traffic Authority — on Wednesday morning gave unanimous concurrence that the project at 1076 Post Road East will have no substantial impact on traffic on the state road.

“We found that the original way we did it actually had the highest level of trips,” said Christopher Mclean, senior staff engineer with the consulting firm Langan, regarding their revised traffic study.

Owing to the fact that the new store could potentially be a larger operation beyond a standard supermarket, the board asked earlier this month that the applicants revisit their projected traffic numbers.

Though no one named the alleged Amazon “elephant in the room,” Mclean restated the BOS’s request to run new numbers based on the hypothetical, “What if this was a Costco or a discount supermarket?”

“We thought this may not be a traditional supermarket,” First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker said.

“We were trying to get a range of numbers and examples so we could see really truly if the standard data was wildly off, what would be the impact,” she said.

“We feel comfortable,” Mclean said of the assessment, which accounted for twice as many vehicles entering the shopping center.

“The overall intersections (would) operate similar to the way they do today,” he said.

Mclean said the truck traffic would be entering and exiting through the Church Street South entrance — something previously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission — with space marked in back by the loading docks for the trucks to turn around.

“Their only route out is to exit onto Church Street South as well,” he said.

Also asked about use of the Post Plaza lot for both overflow parking for the adjacent Little Barn restaurant to the east, and parents of Greens Farms School students parking on the west side of the property by Morningside Drive South, Mclean indicated it shouldn’t be happening at all.

“Parking at this property should be for this property only,” he said. “It’s technically private property and we feel we shouldn’t be accounting on our site for other parcels.”

The town was required to approve the concurrence for the state’s Office of the State Traffic Administration as the last phase of this application.