Date: Fri 15-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Conservation-sentinel-ridge

Full Text:

Wetlands Panel Rejects Sentinel Ridge Plan

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Conservation Commission, acting as the town's wetlands agency, has turned

down M&E Land Group's request for a wetlands construction permit for Sentinel

Ridge, the firm's proposed 31-lot residential subdivision for 95 acres off

Pine Tree Hill Road, just north of the Monroe town line.

Commission members denied the request at a May 13 meeting, creating a detailed

list of technical reasons for their rejection.

Besides a Conservation Commission approval, such development projects require

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approval.

M&E Land Group, headed by developer Thomas Maguire and engineer Larry Edwards,

has been planning Sentinel Ridge for a roughly triangular piece of land

situated along the western edge of Pine Tree Hill Road. The applicants propose

construction of a 2,000-foot-long dead end road called Sentinel Ridge Road.

That road would extend into the subdivision from Pine Tree Hill Road, near the

Monroe town line.

The property is basically wooded land that contains a wetland corridor running

in a north-south direction. The land contains hardwoods such as oak, beech,

and hickory. Stone walls run alongside Pine Tree Hill Road. The site is near

the headwaters of the Pootatuck River, the stream that feeds the Pootatuck

aquifer, the town's sole source aquifer.

In the wetlands permit application, M&E asked for permission to alter 0.14

acres of wetlands, change the face of 70 linear feet of a stream channel, and

move 800 cubic yards of earth materials. A stormwater retention basin would be

built on the site to prevent sedimentation problems off the site.