BRATTLEBORO — The town is opening the door to the public for ideas on the future of a troubled stretch of Black Mountain Road, launching a scoping study that officials stress is exploratory only and does not commit the town to any specific redesign, closure, or reclassification.

“We’re just examining possibilities — not committing to anything,” said Brian Bannon, Brattleboro’s assistant planning director and the municipal project manager for the study. “This is the moment for people to tell us what they see out there, what they’re concerned about, and what they think might work.”

Black Mountain Road’s troubles are well known to town crews.

The steep, narrow corridor sits tight against Crosby Brook, and the outer edge of the pavement has been steadily eroding for years. Heavy storms have repeatedly washed out the roadbed, forcing emergency repairs that Bannon said typically cost the town around $100,000 per washout, depending on the severity.

“It’s always kind of eroding away,” he said. “It’s in constant repair.”

The town has not yet estimated what it would cost to fully rebuild the road to modern standards, but Bannon said the price tag would likely be significant.

“That’s what we’re trying to get at — does it make sense to do anything, and if so, what?” he said.

Complicating matters is the presence of a sewer line beneath the roadway, which means the town cannot simply abandon the corridor entirely. Any long‑term solution would need to maintain access for utility maintenance, even if the road were no longer open to general vehicle traffic.

The erosion is more than a maintenance headache. As the road edge collapses into Crosby Brook, it sends sediment downstream into a waterway already listed by the state as impaired for sediment. If conditions worsen, Bannon said, the town could face new regulatory obligations to reduce pollution, financial obligations that could extend to nearby commercial properties along Putney Road and the roundabout.

“If it triggers a compliance determination, then other properties, such as the Crossroads area, would have to make a contribution to cleaning it up,” he said. “We want to avoid that. I think everyone does.”

Town officials hope that stabilizing the corridor, whether through narrowing, regrading, or other erosion‑control measures, could improve water quality and help prevent the brook from slipping further into regulatory scrutiny.

Town staff and MSK Engineers, the consultant hired through a state grant, say the study is meant to gather information, understand community priorities, and evaluate a range of possible approaches.

The roughly one‑mile section under review runs from 460 Black Mountain Road to Kipling Road.

One concept the study will examine is whether the town could narrow the roadway and restrict it to non‑motorized use, creating a new bike and pedestrian connection between Black Mountain Road and Kipling Road. No such connection currently exists in that part of town.

Because the sewer line requires the corridor to remain accessible, Bannon said a narrower, more stable path could serve dual purposes: protecting the brook and reducing maintenance costs while offering a new recreational link.

“That would be kind of neat, to have a nice walking path or bike path there,” he said during the discussion. But he emphasized that the idea is only one option among many. “We’re not committing to any sort of pathway. We’re just looking at whether it makes sense.”

The segment under review has no homes along it, and the town has previously discussed closing it to vehicles. For now, the road remains open.