Date: Fri 12-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Wedgewood-Maguire-Edwards

Full Text:

Wedgewood Subdivision Gets Final Approval

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Wedgewood, a controversial residential subdivision planned for Taunton Hill,

has received final approval following a court appeal.

M&E Land Group, the development partnership headed by Thomas Maguire and Larry

Edwards, now has permission for home construction on the more than 25-acre

Wedgewood site east of Taunton Hill Road and west of Cannon Drive. Cannon

Drive is a dead-end street which extends westward toward Taunton Hill Road

from Birch Hill Road.

Earlier this fall, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members instructed the

town attorney to settle a lawsuit against the town that M&E had filed over

P&Z's rejection of a previous version of Wedgewood. The matter has now been

resolved.

The approved Wedgewood project signals the creation of 12 new home building

lots. M&E received town approval in 1996 for the "first cut" on the property,

creating a "building lot" there for an existing house on the site.

Last June, P&Z members turned down the developers' second version of

Wedgewood, involving 13 new building lots, citing the application's failure to

meet land use regulations concerning water storage facilities for fire

fighting, and also concerning the presence of rear lots on land in a one-acre

residential zone.

P&Z members rejected the first Wedgewood proposal in December 1996, saying the

development would create drainage problems in the area. That proposal involved

14 new building lots.

The lawsuit M&E had had pending against the town concerned P&Z's rejection of

the first Wedgewood proposal last December.

The approved version of the development met the requests made by P&Z in recent

talks between representatives for P&Z and the developers.

Under the terms of the lawsuit's settlement, the developers agree to

reconfigure and relocate a stormwater detention basin. They, however, are not

required to provide water storage tanks for firefighting as is typically

required in new subdivisions.

In the final version of Wedgewood, both of the initially proposed rear lots in

a one-acre residential zone are eliminated. More open space land is provided

than in the initial version of Wedgewood.

Taunton Hill Road area residents strenuously protested developing the

Wedgewood site when the matter was first aired at an August 1996 P&Z public

hearing.

The residents have voiced concerns over new development possibly depleting

their existing well water supplies; potential drainage problems; additional

traffic on the already hazardous, narrow and winding Taunton Hill Road; and an

increased construction density in the area.

Throughout the development application process, M&E has maintained that

Wedgewood would have no adverse effect on area water wells and that the

proposal meets applicable land use regulations.