The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved creating a two-lot residential subdivision on a semirural parcel lying on the northeast corner of Mt Nebo Road and Ox Hill Road. The scenic narrow dirt Ox Hill Road links Mt Nebo Road to Hundred Acres Road.

P&Z members on June 15 unanimously approved the subdivision proposal for 27 Mt Nebo Road, which was submitted by property owner Grassy Hill Builders, LLC, of Southbury. The P&Z agreed to cut the 6.71-acre parcel into two building lots. Lot 1 would be 2.29 acres, and Lot 2 would hold 2.75 acres. The land is in a R-2 (Residential) zone (as illustrated above; image courtesy Google Maps).

No new roadway would be created for the project, but the section of the dirt Ox Hill Road alongside the subdivision would be widened to 18 feet. The parcel being subdivided has about 750 feet of frontage on Ox Hill Road, which is about 3,000 feet long.

As a condition of the approval, the town will receive roughly 1.6 acres of undeveloped open space land for passive forms of recreation. The subdivision regulations require that at least 15 percent of a development parcel be designated as open space.

The Conservation Commission had recommended that the P&Z accept a "fee in lieu of open space" from the developer instead of open space, but P&Z members opted instead for the land donation, deciding that the 1.6 acres was important land to preserve.

Civil engineer Fred D'Amico, of D'Amico Associates of Oxford, represented the applicant at the June 15 P&Z public hearing. Mr D'Amico told P&Z members that the each lot would be served by individual domestic water wells and septic waste disposal systems. Those septic systems will be designed by an engineer.

Topics raised by members of the public attending the hearing included: whether blasting would be needed to create the subdivision, the deteriorated condition of Mt Nebo Road, the road improvements to be made at Ox Hill Road, the project's potential effects on nearby water wells, the desirability of open space land, and the preservation of trees at the site, among others, according to P&Z records.

In approving the subdivision plans, P&Z members agreed that the project is consistent with the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development, as well as the Comprehensive Plan.

The project received a wetlands/watercourses protection permit approval on May 30.