Date: Fri 14-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Tilson-Council-land-swap

Full Text:

Developer Asks Town For Land Swap

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

A local developer wants the town to swap two acres of land with him so that he

can build a house on Valley Field Road.

"There's a lot of water running through my property, but if we swapped

two-for-two it would make a nice homesite," builder Charles W. Tilson told the

Legislative Council at a recent meeting.

Mr Tilson said the land is next to six acres of town-owned open space. A swap

would be good for him and it wouldn't hurt the town, he said.

"We have to look at it from what's in the town's best interest," said

Councilman Pierre Rochman. "We just had a community forum on residential

development. By making a land swap, we will have another house and more kids

in the school system. That's not doing the town any favors."

The Planning & Zoning Commission, in recent action, recommended that Mr

Tilson's request be denied. Mr Tilson's wife, Cindy, who is a local realtor,

wanted to know why they hadn't been informed of the P&Z action.

"It's not required because P&Z is only giving an opinion to the council,"

First Selectman Bob Cascella said. But Councilman Joseph Borst, a former P&Z

chairman, said the "polite thing for P&Z to do is to carbon copy the

landowner."

"I'll benefit from this swap but the town has benefitted from the Tilsons many

times over the 200 years that my family has lived here," Mr Tilson said.

He said his family sold the land for the high school to the town and he

recently spent $150,000 to widen Valley Field Road and Alberts Hill Road as

part of a road agreement while building houses there, and he has 65 acres next

to Treadwell Park that he plans to develop.

The council decided to table the request to the June 19 meeting and invite P&Z

Chairman Steve Adams to attend to explain the commission's recommendation for

denial.