Hanover Heights Subdivision Resubmitted For P&Z Review

By Andrew Gorosko

To resolve legal issues raised in a court appeal that challenges the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) recent approval of a controversial eight-lot residential subdivision off Hanover Road, the P&Z plans to conduct a public hearing on a revised version of the development application.

The P&Z has scheduled a public hearing for April 20 on Monroe developer Robert Mastroni’s proposal for Hanover Heights, which would be built at a steep, rugged site of approximately 32 acres with a street address of 64 to 74-A Hanover Road. The property is near the intersection of Hanover Road and The Boulevard Extension.

In January, in a lawsuit filed in Danbury Superior Court, Kevin Fitzgerald and Robin Lozito Fitzgerald of 24 Old Farm Hill Road challenged the P&Z’s approval of Hanover Heights, listing the P&Z and Mr Mastroni as defendants. The Fitzgeralds live near the development site. Attorney Joel T. Faxon aided the Fitzgeralds in their appeal.

In the court challenge, the Fitzgeralds list a variety of flaws in the P&Z’s handling of the application, in seeking to invalidate the subdivision approval.

Through their lawsuit, the couple seeks to have the P&Z require that Mr Mastroni provide certain open space land at the development site, and require that the P&Z and other town agencies consider the Fitzgeralds’ offer to provide a right-of-way easement near the development site, among other requirements.

In a statement this week, Mr Fitzgerald suggests that the town pursue purchasing all or a portion of the Hanover Heights development site to protect the property as open space land. Such an open space acquisition could be linked to the town’s greenway system, he said.

Also, a town purchase of the site would protect an existing antique red barn on the property, which could serve as a trailhead for hikers, he said.

Both Fitzgeralds spoke in opposition to Hanover Heights at P&Z public hearings held last fall. Following lengthy review, the P&Z approved the project in January in a 3-to-1 vote with numerous conditions.

The P&Z conducted public hearings on Hanover Heights in December, November, and October. Some people living near the site had pressed P&Z members to consider their concerns when reviewing the development plans, in order to minimize the construction project’s adverse effects on the area. Residents had raised concerns about stormwater flow, domestic well water supplies, personal privacy, project aesthetics, the preservation of an old barn on the site, the need for blasting, and more broadly, the town’s increasing residential development and its implications for public education spending.

The site has R-2 (Residential) zoning, in which the minimum building lot size is two acres, excluding steep slopes and wetlands. A new dead-end street would serve the steep, rugged land, which is on the east side of Hanover Road. The project had earlier been proposed as a six-lot subdivision on a somewhat smaller site there. Initial plans for the project had been drawn in November 2003.