Brookheights Developers To Resolve Environmental Protection Problems

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have asked that the town conservation official help Brookheights, LLC, resolve environmental protection errors that it made during the early construction work at the controversial seven-lot Brookheights residential subdivision overlooking Pond Brook.

At a July 7 P&Z session, Conservation Official Rob Sibley explained the various environmental protection mistakes that the developers made on the steep, rugged 29-acre site near the intersection of Obtuse Road and Pond Brook Road. The site is in a heavily wooded area on the south side of Pond Brook Road, east of Obtuse Road, near the Brookfield town line.

Mr Sibley had asked the P&Z for guidance in dealing with the environmental violations. As the conservation official, Mr Sibley enforces the town’s regulations on wetlands protection.

Road construction has begun on the parcel, Mr Sibley noted. “This is a very sensitive site,” he said. Pond Brook is a trout stream that carries water from Taunton Pond to the Housatonic River.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the wetlands construction aspects of the project, which includes the construction of a reinforced-concrete bridge across Pond Brook, a stream that occasionally floods. The developers gained that DEP approval after the town’s Conservation Commission, serving as the local wetlands agency, had rejected the project.

Although tree clearing for road construction has occurred, there were no sedimentation/erosion controls in place when that work was done, Mr Sibley said. Without such controls in effect, when it rains, soil on the construction site erodes, resulting in sedimentation problems.

Environmental protection measures were not in place when the developers crossed Pond Brook to accomplish the site work, Mr Sibley said.

The developers violated the “construction sequence” for the site, which addresses the sequence of actions required to safely develop the property, Mr Sibley said.

Mr Sibley noted, however, that after the various violations were brought to the developers’ attention, they made extensive repairs at the site in seeking to comply with the regulations.

Engineer Jay Keillor, representing Brookheights LLC, said the environmental violations at the site are being rectified. Mr Keillor and Raffie Aryeh are the developers.

Brookheights LLC is seeking guidance from the DEP regarding the best way to construct the bridge that will span Pond Brook, Mr Keillor said. Bridge construction may be delayed until next year, he added. That bridge will provide access to the site from Pond Brook Road.

P&Z member Lilla Dean suggested that Brookheights LLC name a liaison to the town to keep open the lines of communication between the developers and town land use officials.

Mr Keillor said Kenneth Kuntz would serve in that role.

P&Z members then voted to endorse Mr Sibley’s enforcement of the environmental violations, and urged that he work to resolve the problems posed by the construction errors.

The Brookheights project has encountered a variety of delays since its inception, involving environmental, technical, and legal issues. The project has drawn stiff opposition from some residents living in the area, based on their environmental concerns.

In November 2004, which was almost five years after the initial mapping for Brookheights was drawn, the P&Z approved Brookheights in response to a Danbury Superior Court judge’s August 2004 order to do so. The developers had appealed the P&Z’s April 2003 rejection of the Brookheights project and won that court appeal.

In its lawsuit, Brookheights, LLC, claimed that the P&Z rejected the development application even though the proposal conformed to the town’s land use regulations.

The P&Z placed many conditions on the November 2004 Brookheights approval. The conditions require that the designated open space areas on the site must be permanently field marked before any building permits are issued for the project.

All public access easements on all building lots must be trailblazed and permanently field marked. Such markings allow potential homeowners and the general public to know the locations of public access easements and trails. Easement areas are open to pedestrians, equestrians, and bicyclists, but not to motorized vehicles.

The P&Z is requiring the developers to preserve as many of the stonewalls on the site as possible.