Date: Fri 22-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

conservation-sentinel-ridge

Full Text:

Conservation Panel Outlines Its Problems With Sentinel Ridge

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Conservation Commission members have explained their reasons for turning down

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

Ridge, a proposed 31-lot residential subdivision on 95 acres off Pine Tree

Hill Road, just north of the Monroe town line.

At a May 13 Conservation Commission meeting, commission members voted 6-to-0

to deny, without prejudice, M&E Land Group's application to perform regulated

construction work and take steps to mitigate the disruption to wetlands on the

sloping site. The Conservation Commission acts as the town's wetlands agency

in ruling on such applications.

In issuing its official reason for denying the application, Conservation

Commission members stated:

The application is incomplete, wetlands and watercourses on it haven't been

located and flagged, and the "minimum square" is not shown on the plans. (The

minimum square is a planning device used in determining the possible location

of home sites on building lots.)

A fire suppression system has not been included in the plans.

Details of the erosion and sedimentation control plans are incomplete in some

areas.

The Newtown trail system, which passes through the site, is not fully

described or addressed by the plans.

No alternatives to the proposed construction activities have been provided to

the commission.

There appear to be reasonable alternatives to building the subdivision with

less effect on the environment.

C. Stephen Driver, the town's conservation official, explained May 18 that

while all the various technical information required for obtaining a wetlands

permit may, in fact, have been submitted to the town by the developers, the

information reviewed at the Conservation Commission at its May 13 session

appeared incomplete, and, thus, the denial was issued.

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.