Date: Fri 17-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Conservation-Tilson-Woods

Full Text:

41-Lot Subdivision Gains Wetlands Approval

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Conservation Commission has granted a wetlands construction permit to

Tilson Financial, LLC, for Tilson Woods, a proposed 41-lot residential

subdivision on 61 acres on Washington Avenue and Philo Curtis Road in Sandy

Hook.

The approval granted to the firm September 8 followed the developer's making

significant changes to the plans which had been submitted to the commission in

June, said Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver.

Tilson proposes the development on a long, narrow strip of land along the

north side of Interstate-84, extending eastward from Washington Avenue to

Philo Curtis Road.

In connection with its wetlands approval, the Conservation Commission is

recommending to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) that the development

include right-of-way easements for a trail system, Mr Driver said. Having

trails accessible to the public in that area would provide a major link in the

town's open space network, he said.

Such trails would provide connections between open space land on the site, a

nearby natural gas pipeline right-of-way, Treadwell Park and Sandy Hook

School, Mr Driver said.

In granting the wetlands construction license, the Conservation Commission

approved the discharge of stormwater drainage. The stormwater will be piped to

drainage lines on Washington Avenue, not to a wetland to the north, Mr Driver

said.

Extensive erosion control measures would be taken to protect an off-site pond

from sedimentation which would emanate from an earthen embankment needed for

road construction, according to the development application.

If the P&Z changes the proposed subdivision layout, the development plans

would be subject to another wetlands review by the Conservation Commission.

The Tilson Woods subdivision application was scheduled for a P&Z public

hearing on the night of Thursday, September 16, after the deadline for this

edition of The Bee.

Tilson simultaneously submitted plans for Tilson Woods to P&Z and Conservation

Commission in June just before new, stricter aquifer protection regulations

took effect. Although almost all of the 61-acre site lies within the town's

Aquifer Protection District (APD), the development project will not be subject

to the new, tougher aquifer protection regulations approved by the P&Z which

went into effect June 21.

Most of the land in the proposed subdivision has one-acre residential zoning

and some land has half-acre residential zoning. The new aquifer protection

regulations have a provision which requires that new single-family houses

built in the APD be on at least two acres, a requirement which would have cut

in half the number of lots allowed in the proposed Tilson Woods.

The development site abuts the large town parcel which contains Treadwell Park

and Sandy Hook School. The developer proposes donating 8.3 acres of open space

for passive recreation as part of the subdivision proposal. That open space

would be divided into two sections, a five-acre section of which would abut

Treadwell Park on Philo Curtis Road.

To create road frontage in the proposed development, Tilson would build three

roads, totaling almost one mile of new road construction. One street would

link Washington Avenue to Philo Curtis Road. That street would run generally

parallel to the Iroquois natural gas transmission pipeline right-of-way and

I-84.