P&Z Critical Of  Subdivision Plan

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are reviewing revised plans for Newtown Hunt, a 21-lot residential subdivision proposed by a major home developer for a broad, wet area in Hawleyville.

Toll Brothers, Inc., wants to build the houses on 114 acres lying west of Hawleyville Road and east of Farrell Road. Almost half of the site is wetlands.

The site is the area where Joy Brewster had proposed construction of the sprawling, controversial Connecticut Exposition and Performing Events Center (CEPEC) in 1995. After heavy protests from Hawleyville residents, the P&Z rejected proposed zone changes that would have allowed Ms Brewster to proceed with planning for the CEPEC project.

 The Toll Brothers’ development application for Newtown Hunt was the subject of a P&Z public hearing earlier this month at which P&Z members reviewed reports from town staff members, who found numerous deficiencies with the development application.

The health department and town engineer withheld endorsements for the project, stating the plans contain too many deficiencies for an approval.

The developer submitted insufficient information to the P&Z for an adequate review of the project, according to Elizabeth Stocker, the P&Z’s planner.

Noting that the site contains much wetland, Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver, in a report to the P&Z, stated the Conservation Commission placed a long list of conditions on the site’s development when it granted the developers a wetlands construction permit last October.

The Conservation Commission approved the 21-lot development proposal, having rejected Toll Brothers’ earlier plans, which called for 26 houses on the site, plus the placement of a 20-foot-thick layer of fill over wetlands.

Due to the site’s location in a flood hazard area, some house lots may have to be constructed to meet the town’s rigorous flood hazard standards, according to Mr Driver.

After reviewing town staff members’ reports on the proposal, P&Z member James Boylan told the developers, “I’ve never seen anything with so many problems or questions raised as this [application]… This is ridiculous.”

P&Z member Stephen Koch said the number of issues raised by town staff members on the project is “mind boggling” and suggested that the P&Z reject the application “without prejudice” to allow the developer to resubmit a new application with the deficiencies corrected.

Attorney John Fallon, representing Toll Brothers, told P&Z members the developers don’t want the project rejected. Mr Fallon said Toll Bothers had prepared detailed responses to the various criticisms of the project by town staff members.

 “We have worked hard on the wetlands application. We have worked hard on this [P&Z] application,” he said, adding the developer has worked hard with the town engineer recently in seeking to meet town requirements.

Mark Lancor, representing Toll Brothers, told P&Z members that if the developers had received copies of the town staff members’ reviews of the project sooner, they would have been better prepared for the public hearing.

Mr Fallon provided P&Z members with thick copies of the developers’ responses to town staff members’ critiques of the plan, adding, “This application will conform to what you expect from a top quality developer.”

Mr Lancor said the criticisms of the project are minor. “These [town staff] comments are not substantive... Most of them are small items,” he said.

Mr Koch said the P&Z will place a legal advertisement in a newspaper stating when the public hearing on Newtown Hunt will resume. The P&Z has slated that session for April 20.

In assembling its development application, Toll Brothers is combining several land parcels.  The site lies primarily in an area with two-acre minimum residential zoning.

Pocono Brook, a tributary of Pond Brook, runs through the site, as do the Algonquin and Iroquois natural gas transmission pipelines. The site has a varied landscape with fields, thickets, hedgerows, brooks, excavated ponds, wetlands, and watercourses. Some of the site is flat while other portions are steep and rocky. The developer proposes a trail system and open space network.