Following a March 15 public hearing, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members unanimously approved a two-lot residential subdivision at Cherry Grove Farm, a rural expanse near the intersection of Platts Hill Road, Beaver Dam Road, Palestine Road, and Hundred Acres Road.

P&Z members approved the application from GRC Construction, LLC, for the site, which has an address of 70 Platts Hill Road. The property has R-2 (Residential) zoning, in which two acres is the minimum lot size for residential development.

The terms of the subdivision approval by the P&Z would allow the Newtown Forest Association (NFA) to proceed with its plans to acquire a large section of the farm from GRC for preservation as open space land for passive forms of recreation. The private nonprofit NFA, which is a land trust, has conducted a fundraising drive to pay for such a real estate acquisition.

In its approval, the P&Z agreed to waive several requirements for subdivision applications, when considering the simplicity of the application and the large open space area that would be created, P&Z Chairman Don Mitchell said.

The requirements waived include: calculations for earthen cutting and filling, the mapping of parks and playgrounds, road improvements, bonding for surveyors' building-lot pins, stormwater management plans, and an archaeological study of the site. P&Z members agreed that if some of the land near Beaver Dam Road is the subject of a future resubdivision application, then all the waivers that were granted to GRC would be invalid and those waived requirements must be met by the future developer.

In approving the subdivision, P&Z members decided that the project is consistent with the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development and with the Newtown Comprehensive Plan.

P&Z members agreed that the town will allow the NFA to own at no cost what would typically be town-owned open space land. In effect, the NFA's planned purchase of approximately 17 acres, when coupled with the town-sanctioned NFA ownership of approximately 13 acres of open space, would result in the preservation of nearly 30 acres of open space at the parcel.

The land parcel's overall size is 45.8 acres. When a 9.8-acre lot is lopped off that parcel by GRC as its "first cut" of the land for sale to another party for possible future development, about 36 acres would remain.

Besides the nearly 30-acre open space area, the site will contain two lots with buildings. One of those lots now holds a cluster of farm buildings that face Platts Hill Road where a person plans to buy and restore those structures and live there. The other lot on Palestine Road would be the site of new construction, where a purchaser would construct a four-bedroom house, a detached garage, a shed, and a swimming pool.

Some building-lot boundary line revisions are planned to minimize the size of the two lots that will hold the existing farm buildings and the new construction, in order to free up land for its sale from the developer to the NFA.

The subdivision application received a wetlands/watercourses protection approval from the town's land use agency staff and was not the subject of an Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) public meeting or public hearing.

Builder/developer Greg Carnrick of GRC Construction told P&Z members that the farm is a local "historic landmark," adding that his acquisition of the property took several years to accomplish. The land has the potential to be the site of 13 houses, he said. But such development would not be popular with people living in the area, he added.

Through negotiations with the NFA, Mr Carnrick said he learned how nearly 30 acres at the site could be preserved as open space, he told P&Z members. Also, the town's Land Use Agency has provided him with guidance on the land preservation issue, he said.

Mr Carnrick said it was not his initial intention to have so much open space preserved, but he added that nearby property owners want to keep the old farmland undeveloped.

Public Comment

During the public comment section of the hearing, developer Doug Samaha spoke. In 2016, he gained P&Z approval for a six-lot residential subdivision at a 13.8-acre site at 60 Platts Hill Road, across Beaver Dam Road from the GRC subdivision site. Mr Samaha asked why he was required to make some road improvements to Beaver Dam Road and Mr Carnrick is not being required to do so.

George Benson, town planning director, said the road improvements that Mr Samaha made were requests from the town engineer which Mr Samaha agreed to implement. The town engineer made road improvement requests to Mr Carnrick, but Mr Carnrick chose to challenge those requests and the P&Z does not have the authority to require such road improvements, according to P&Z records.

Mr Samaha said he wants a section of Beaver Dam Road paved, when considering that he made certain improvements to that road as part of his subdivision project. The P&Z, however, does not have the power to require such road paving, Mr Benson said.

In the days before the P&Z public hearing, Mr Carnrick had said that if he was required to pave a section of Beaver Dam Road as a condition of his subdivision approval, the planned transaction to sell open space to the NFA would be in jeopardy. Mr Carnrick had stressed that no buildings in the GRC subdivision would have frontage on Beaver Dam Road.

Bart Smith, representing NFA, told P&Z members that Mr Carnrick has been open to the NFA's many ideas about open space preservation. (See related story, "NFA Preservation Of Cherry Grove Farm Appears To Be Done Deal") The preserved open space at the farm will allow significant public access to Cherry Grove Farm, Mr Smith said.

NFA was able to raise funds for the open space acquisition in less than three months through donations from several hundred contributors, he said.

Dee Davis, representing Newtown Bridle Lands Association (NBLA), said the equine group will work with the NFA to maintain the trails on the farm that are used for horseback riding.

Bob Eckenrode, representing NFA, said the subdivision represents a perfect situation for the NFA, for the developer, and for the town.

The preserved open space amounts to "a legacy that we can pass on to Newtown," he said. NFA will formulate a management plan for the nearly 30 acres of open space, he said.  NFA owns roughly 1,300 acres of open space throughout town.