P&Z Approves 25-Lot Sandy Hook Subdivision

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved Cider Mill Farm, a 25-lot residential subdivision on 138 acres in Sandy Hook, next to Lower Paugussett State Forest.

P&Z members approved the development plans in a 4-to-0 vote on August 30.

The developer plans to eventually seek P&Z approvals to expand the subdivision to 52 lots.

The P&Z is requiring developer M&E Land Group to post a $517,080 construction bond to ensure that work planned for the project is completed. M&E Land Group is a partnership of developer Thomas Maguire and engineer Larry Edwards.

The Cider Mill Farm development site lies north of the intersection of Charter Ridge Road and Yogananda Street. The site has frontage on Gelding Hill Road, Orange Pippin Road, Charter Ridge Road, and Russett Road. The site lies generally north of the Bennetts Farm residential development. The development site is the last sizeable piece of undeveloped land near Lower Paugussett State Forest.

The property formerly was known as Newtown Estates, a residential subdivision which was proposed in 1989. Although Newtown Estates had received the P&Z’s approval, the project never materialized for financial reasons. The general area for which Cider Mill Farm is planned has undergone heavy residential development during the past decade.

Cider Mill Farm is the largest residential subdivision to be approved by the P&Z since March 2000, when P&Z members approved the 40-lot Tilson Woods, which is now under construction in Sandy Hook, off Washington Avenue and Philo Curtis Road.

P&Z Chairman Daniel Fogliano noted August 30 that the development application for Cider Mill Farm is the second application which was submitted to the P&Z.

Last May, P&Z members voted 4-to-0 in rejecting the initial application, which did not meet applicable development regulations. The detailed motion to reject the initial plans listed a host of technical reasons for the rejection, including plan deficiencies concerning open space areas, potential house positions, lot frontages, building setbacks, and lot numbering.

The revised development application meets the regulations, Mr Fogliano said.

In approving the development, P&Z members specified that M&E Land Group must place permanent markers in areas with public access easements and open space. Approximately 21 acres of the 138-acre site is designated as open space land for passive forms of recreation such as hiking, horseback riding, and bicycling.

P&Z members also are requiring that open space areas adjacent to Chambers Road be permanently marked to make them obvious to the public.

The markings are intended to alert potential homebuyers and the general public that those areas are open for public use.

The P&Z is asking the developer to preserve as much of the thousands of feet of old stone walls on the property as possible. The initial 25-lot section of Cider Mill farm contains about 13,000 linear feet of stone walls.

The 25-lot section of Cider Mill Farm is the first phase of a three-phase project planned for the site. The developer plans to eventually create 52 lots on the property.

Last February, the P&Z held a public hearing at which several people living near the proposed development site expressed their concerns about the initial development proposal.

Those residents expressed concern that the development be designed to maintain the existing quality of life in nearby neighborhoods.