Date: Fri 17-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Whispering-Pines-P&Z

Full Text:

Scaled-Back Whispering Pines Plan Filed With P&Z

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

PSD Partnership has submitted a revised version of its proposed Whispering

Pines residential subdivision to the town in which the number of building lots

are reduced and the volume of excavation is decreased.

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members in April rejected an earlier

version of Whispering Pines, citing concerns over excavation, grading,

drainage, erosion and sedimentation.

When PSD proposed 19 lots for 26 acres in Sandy Hook in the vicinity of Cherry

Street, Pine Street and Narragansett Trail at an April 4 public hearing, the

development plan drew strong protests from people living in that area.

The revised subdivision request includes 16 lots on 26 acres. The amount of

excavation needed for the project would be reduced from approximately 50,000

cubic yards to 38,000 cubic yards. The excavation work would fill the

equivalent of 3,800 dump trucks, with each truck holding 10 cubic yards of

material.

To get the proposed subdivision down to 16 lots, the developers are

eliminating two of 15 lots on the proposed Miya Road, and eliminating one of

four lots on Narragansett Trail.

At the April public hearing, residents living near the development site said

building Whispering Pines would damage their well water supplies, worsen

existing traffic hazards in the area, and put strains on the public school

system through increased student enrollment.

At an informal April 29 planning session, P&Z Chairman Stephen Adams asked the

PSD partners if they couldn't reduce the amount of excavation to less than

38,000 cubic yards.

Mr Adams said "You've gone a long way (toward) reducing the amount of material

to be removed. Can you make it any less?"

PSD Partner Larry Edwards responded he doesn't know of a way to take less than

38,000 cubic yards of material from the site in light of town regulations

concerning slope grading and sight lines for traffic.

Under a 16-lot subdivision plan, approximately 10 acres of the 26 acres on the

site would be cleared of trees, according to Mr Edwards.

Mr Edwards asked if a 16-lot development is approved and built, whether the

developers would be able to request a re-subdivision of property from the P&Z

to increase the number of lots.

P&Z members, however, asked that the proposed development's lot lines be drawn

so that the property can't be re-subdivided in the future.

The development plans received by the planning and zoning office in Town Hall

South would allow PSD to seek more than 16 lots in the proposed subdivision at

some future time, by seeking a possible re-subdivsion and lot line revision.

P&Z members have told the PSD partners that the partners will always face one

major, recurring concern of residents - whether the wells drilled for new

homes will deplete meager existing underground water supplies in that area.

A P&Z public hearing on the revised Whispering Pines proposal has been

tentatively scheduled for June 20.

David Thompson, the town's environmental official, said PSD won't need to

resubmit its revised plans to the Conservation Commission for review. The

wetlands construction license which was granted to PSD for the formerly

proposed 19-lot subdivision is applicable to the proposed 16-lot development,

Mr Thompson said.