Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are considering a reconfigured version of a residential subdivision proposed for acreage at 57 Castle Meadow Road in Hattertown, known as Sunset Ridge.

P&Z members conducted a second public hearing on the development application from applicant MD57 Castle Meadow LLC on October 18.

At an initial October 4 public hearing, P&Z members asked that the developer reconfigure the design so that it would include at least 15 percent of its area as public open space land for passive forms of recreation. Initially, developer Michael D’Amato of Oak Ridge Drive had requested that instead of providing open space, the town accept a “fee in lieu of open space,” as is permitted by the subdivision regulations.

But when considering that designated open space on the site could be used to interconnect two other open space parcels in that area, P&Z members opted for a subdivision design that includes open space.

The Newtown Forest Association’s 120-acre Hattertown Pond Preserve lies directly across Castle Meadow Road from the development site. A 7.5-acre town-owned open space parcel is located at the abutting 13 Jet Brook Road.

The initial development proposal called for a nine-lot subdivision on 29.2 acres, in which the existing house on the site would have been counted as one of the nine single-family dwellings.

Following the October 4 hearing, the developer employed the P&Z’s “first cut” mechanism, through which that existing house was segregated on 2.2 acres and then excised from the 29.2-acre parcel, leaving a 27-acre site that would be cut into eight building lots, plus 4.6 acres of open space.

The land is in a R-2 (Residential) zone, where the minimum lot size is two acres.

At their October 23 meeting, Conservation Commission members endorsed the P&Z accepting the proposed 4.6-acre open space area at the eastern corner of the Sunset Ridge site. That open space area would have two open space corridors extending from it to connect it to Hattertown Pond Preserve and also to the town open space land at 13 Jet Brook Road.

The developer is expected to mark the proposed open space area to allow P&Z members to inspect the land.

As proposed by the developer, a new dead-end roadway, which would be called Maranello Drive, would extend into the site to provide access for the proposed homes.

The property holds two wetlands. One is near Castle Meadow Road, and the other is at the southern end of the site. The applicant received a wetlands/watercourses protection permit from the town land use agency in August. The proposed houses would be served by individual domestic water wells and individual septic systems.

A 30,000-gallon underground water storage tank would be installed at the site to provide a water source for firefighting.

The P&Z public hearing on the Sunset Ridge subdivision proposal is scheduled to resume at 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 1, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.