54 Units—

Toll Bros. Seek Wetlands Approval By Proposing A Smaller Condo Complex

By Andrew Gorosko

In seeking Conservation Commission approval for its age-restricted condominium complex proposed for Oakview Road, a developer has submitted scaled-down plans, which reduce the number of condos proposed and also reposition the units away from the top edge of steep slopes on the site that lead downward to the environmentally sensitive Pootatuck River.

Toll Brothers, Inc, now proposes constructing Regency at Newtown as a 54-unit complex for people over age 55 on a 51-acre site at 21 Oakview Road, near Newtown High School. The Conservation Commission, serving as the town’s wetlands protection agency, received the revised development proposal on August 9.

On July 29, Toll Brothers had filed an appeal in Danbury Superior Court, seeking to have a judge overturn the Conservation Commission’s July 13 rejection of a wetlands permit for its then-proposed 59-unit condo complex. The court appeal lists a variety of reasons why the commission erred in rejecting the project. That appeal is pending in court.

In 2004, Toll Brothers had initially proposed that the Oakview Road site contain 80 condo units. Toll Brothers holds an option to purchase the site from Watkins Brothers Development Corporation. The property is near the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84.

Citing concerns about potential damage to the environmentally sensitive Pootatuck River, the Conservation Commission, in a 4-1 vote on July 13, rejected issuing a wetlands permit for the then 59-unit project. The river, which is part of a spawning area for brook trout, lies at the base of steep slopes that extend westward from the condo site. The Pootatuck River there is a Class 1 Wild Trout Management Area, one of only eight such fisheries in the state, where wild trout reproduce naturally due to cold, clear, clean water conditions.

Conservation Commission members are expected to review and possibly act on Toll Brothers’ revised proposal for a 54-unit condo complex at an August 24 session, said Conservation Official Rob Sibley.

“Toll Brothers has made a really good attempt to take care of the [environmental] issues” which were the basis of the commission’s rejection of the 59-unit project,” Mr Sibley said, adding that the revised proposal addresses all concerns about the project that were raised by commission members.

The revised proposal calls for 54 condo units housed in 11 closely-spaced buildings, all but one of which would contain five units. The condos would be built on a plateau overlooking the Pootatuck River.

In an August 8 letter to Mr Sibley, attorney Robert Hall, representing Toll Brothers, states, “Toll Brothers has redesigned the project as a 54-unit project, making substantial changes in the location of the buildings that are closest to the wetlands. The effect of the redesign is to remove all activity from the slope above the Pootatuck River.”

Consequently, “the wetlands aspect of the application is limited to the fact that all of the stormwater will be captured by the stormwater drainage system and discharged into a water quality basin, and further discharged onto the broad plain at the north end of the site, where under full flood conditions, it may find its way overland into the wetlands and eventually into the Pootatuck River,” Mr Hall adds.

 Thus, “permission is not sought for any of the other construction [on the site] because all of the work proposed is more than 100 feet from the wetlands and not likely to have any adverse impact on the wetlands,” he adds.

Mr Hall points out that Toll Brothers is now proposing that a 50-foot-wide strip of land along the eastern side of the Pootatuck River be designated as a “conservation easement,” which would remain protected from development.

Besides that conservation easement, Toll Brothers also has proposed donating approximately 13 acres on the site as open space land for passive recreation. Those 13 acres would include the riverbed of the Pootatuck River and adjacent land. Such an open space donation would be made to the town or to a private land trust. The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) would determine the public access points to such open space.

Environmental Issues

In rejecting the 59-unit condo proposal in July, Conservation Commission members voiced concerns about the closeness of some proposed condo units to the top edge of the steep slopes, which lead down to the Pootatuck River. Commission members’ concerns involved those slopes’ general stability in relation to the proposed condo construction atop them, as well as the prospect for stormwater draining down those slopes and carrying sediment into the Pootatuck River, thus contaminating the trout brook.

Conservation Commission members decided that the then-proposed construction posed the potential for damage to wetlands and watercourses, including the Pootatuck River. Commission members had added that the proposed condo buildings should be constructed farther away from the top edge of the steep slopes than had been proposed.

According to its pending court appeal, Toll Brothers had three licensed engineers and a soil scientist testify at the Conservation Commission’s public hearings that the proposed construction would not destabilize the steep slopes or cause them to collapse, and also would not allow excess stormwater to drain down the steep slopes and contaminate the Pootatuck River.

In the court appeal, the developer charges that “the reasons for denial are of a general and speculative nature,” and do not show that the proposed construction would significantly damage nearby wetlands, including the Pootatuck River.

Besides obtaining Conservation Commission approval for the project, the developer also needs zoning rule amendments from the P&Z to allow its architectural design to be built; a special exception to the zoning regulations from the P&Z; a site development plan approval from the P&Z; an aquifer protection approval from the P&Z, based on an aquifer protection review conducted by the Conservation Commission, and a municipal sewer connection.

Regency At Newtown would be similar to Toll Brothers’ Regency Meadows at Trumbull, an age-restricted multifamily complex on Route 25 in the Tashua section of Trumbull, just north of Route 25’s intersection with Route 111.