Quail Hollow—

Eight-Lot Residential Subdivision Approved For Depleted Gravel Mine

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved the construction of Quail Hollow, an eight-lot subdivision of single-family houses planned for a 29-acre site at 11 Philo Curtis Road, the location of a former sand-and-gravel mine.

At a January 19 session, P&Z members approved the construction proposal from local developer George L. Trudell, II, doing business as GLT Residential, LLC.

Voting in favor of the application were P&Z Chairman William O’Neil, Lilla Dean, Jane Brymer, and Robert Mulholland. P&Z member Dennis Bloom recused himself from voting on the application, stating that his property abuts the development site.

In a discussion on the Quail Hollow application before the vote, Mr O’Neil said the town health department has confirmed that groundwater quality in the area is good. Mr O’Neil noted that in the past, a section of the site had been used as a junkyard.

The site lies across Philo Curtis Road from Elana Lane. The property is near Bishop Circle. The site is adjacent to the Exit 11 interchange of Interstate 84. The site is currently owned by Berkshire Partners, LLC; D&H Homes, LLC, and the estate of Francis D’Addario, according to documents filed with the P&Z.

The P&Z approved Quail Hollow with a number of conditions.

The developer must post a construction performance bond in the amount of $310,150 to cover the cost of road construction, the planting of ornamental trees along the project’s dead-end street, the installation of building-lot pins, and the construction of a shared driveway for two building lots.

Also, a fee in lieu of open space in the amount of $86,000 must be paid to the town. That fee would be paid in eight individual $10,750 installments at the time of sale of each building lot. The town uses such funds for the acquisition of open space elsewhere.

Also, the developer must place conservation easements on slopes on the site that have grades greater than 25 percent to prohibit those slopes’ disturbance.

Before receiving building permits for the project, the developer must file with the town a policy for aquifer protection that will apply to the property during site preparation and construction. The site is in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone that lies above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The aquifer is the source of two public water supplies and hundreds of individual domestic water wells.

In another condition, the P&Z is requiring that the developer receive the approval of the town engineer and the public works director for the design of a stormwater treatment system on the site. Also, the developer must receive state approval to connect the site’s stormwater drainage system into the state’s nearby stormwater drainage system.

The P&Z is requiring the developer to place plaques or painted signs on all storm drains that state that those drains are located above the Pootatuck Aquifer and that dumping is prohibited.

In reviewing the aquifer protection implications of the planned construction, P&Z members agreed that the project would have no significant adverse impact on the aquifer.

In late 2004, Mr Trudell had proposed Quail Hollow as a ten-lot subdivision, a development plan which the P&Z rejected for a variety of reasons, including development issues posed by the presence of steep slopes on the site. The P&Z had decided that the ten-lot development application violated the subdivision regulations, the zoning regulations, and the sand-and-gravel regulations.

Mr Trudell appealed that rejection in Danbury Superior Court in early 2005, but later withdrew the lawsuit.

The developer plans to extend a dead-end street from Philo Curtis Road onto the sandy site. The dead-end road would serve all eight building lots. The road would be lined with newly planted pin oaks and sugar maples. A 30,000-gallon underground water storage tank would be installed for firefighting use.

A section of the site that contains three vernal wetland areas will be off-limits to development. Construction must be kept at least 150 feet from the vernal wetlands, according to the Conservation Commission, which reviewed the project as the town’s wetlands protection agency.

The site has R-2 (Residential) zoning, which requires that single-family houses have a minimum lot size of two acres. But because steep slopes and wetlands cannot be included in such lot-size calculations, the site will yield only eight building lots.

Most of the topsoil was stripped away from the property in the past. Youths have used the former surface mine for recreation with all-terrain vehicles.

In the past, residents living near the Quail Hollow site have expressed a desire to have the land developed with new homes. Those residents have complained that the former mine has been the site of all-terrain-vehicle use, and also of parties where alcohol is consumed, posing a persistent nuisance to the neighborhood.

Development would require that topsoil be brought to the site to create a suitable base for plantings, such as turf, shrubs, and trees in the now-sandy and largely sterile environment. Slope regrading would be done for the sake of safety and for aesthetic reasons.

In September 1996, a team of developers proposed Newtown Village, a 96-house complex, including 24 “affordable” houses, for the Philo Curtis Road site. The P&Z rejected that proposal. The developer appealed the rejection in court, but lost that appeal.

In March 1999, a judge upheld the P&Z’s rejection of that high-density condominium complex, ruling that the protection of water quality in the Pootatuck Aquifer overrode the need for affordable housing. The developers had proposed building a small-scale sewer system on the site to dispose of wastewater.

The Newtown Village proposal drew heavy opposition from nearby residents.

Quail Hollow will be the second depleted local sand-and-gravel mine converted into a residential neighborhood in the past several years.

In a similar albeit larger project, in March 2002 the P&Z approved a 20-lot residential subdivision off Toddy Hill Road, near Sugarloaf Road, in a depleted former Newtown Sand & Gravel quarry. That project, which is now built, is known as Quarry Ridge Estates.