Quail Hollow—

Developer Pursues Court Challenge

Over Subdivision Rejection

By Andrew Gorosko

The developer of Quail Hollow, a proposed ten-lot residential subdivision in Sandy Hook, has filed a court appeal challenging the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) recent rejection of the development application.

In a lawsuit filed February 11 in Danbury Superior Court, developer/builder George Trudell, doing business as GLT Residential, LLC, challenges the P&Z’s January 20 rejection of Quail Hollow. The project would be constructed at the 29-acre site of a depleted sand-and-gravel mine and former junkyard off Philo Curtis Road.

Mr Trudell has a contract to purchase the site, which has a street address of 29 Berkshire Road (Route 34). The site’s current owners are D&H Homes, LLC; Berkshire Partners, LLC; and David D’Addario, et al, executors of the Estate of F. Francis D’Addario.

Road access to the site would be provided from Philo Curtis Road, in the vicinity of the Exit 11 interchange of Interstate 84. A 925-foot-long dead-end street known as Quail Hollow Lane would extend into the property from the west side of Philo Curtis Road. The site lies across Philo Curtis Road from Elana Lane.

Attorney Robert Hall represents GLT. The P&Z has a March 1 court return date in the case.

Because the site is a depleted and unrestored sand-and-gravel mine, the property has very steep slopes. Extensive regrading would be needed to make the basin-shaped site usable for home construction.

Court Appeal

In its lawsuit, GLT notes that on September 8, 2004, the town’s wetlands agency issued a wetlands permit for the project, which would allow ten single-family houses to be constructed on the site. That permit stemmed from a mediated settlement of a court appeal, which had been filed against the wetlands agency by D&H Homes, concerning a preceding wetlands application.

“Many of the existing slopes on the property are so steep that they pose a significant detriment to the development of residential…lots,” according to the court appeal.

The P&Z’s rejection of the subdivision application, based on the P&Z’s misinterpretation of its land use rules pertaining to slopes, was “arbitrary, capricious, illegal, and an abuse of discretion,” according to GLT.

GLT intends to resubmit an application for Quail Hollow to the P&Z providing certain additional information concerning slopes, according to the lawsuit.

In deciding to reject Quail Hollow, P&Z members agreed that the applicant did not provide the P&Z with mapping and information describing areas on the site that have slopes with greater than 25 percent grades, as is required in subdivision applications. Also, the applicant did not depict existing natural slopes with greater than 25 percent grades, which slopes must be deducted from lot-area calculations, according to the P&Z.

Also, P&Z members did not agree with the applicant’s claim that site restoration does not fall under their review powers.

P&Z members had decided that the site cannot be legally considered a preexisting, nonconforming land use, as was claimed by the applicant, because surface mining was conducted there more than 50 years ago, and has not occurred on the site for years.

In rejecting Quail Hollow, the P&Z decided that the application violates the subdivision regulations, the zoning regulations, and the sand-and-gravel regulations.

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

The Quail Hollow project 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.

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 the proposal. The developer appealed the rejection in court, but lost that appeal. The Newtown Village proposal drew heavy opposition from nearby residents.

Quail Hollow would be the second depleted local sand-and-gravel mine converted into a residential neighborhood.

In a similar 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.