Tilson Woods Subdivision Hits A Snag

By Andrew Gorosko

The developers of Tilson Woods, a proposed 41-lot residential subdivision in Sandy Hook, are seeking to resolve a variety of technical objections to plans for the project that have been raised by town officials.

Tilson Financial, LLC, has proposed the home construction project for a long, narrow 61-acre strip of land along the north side of Interstate-84, extending eastward from Washington Avenue to Philo Curtis Road.

Although almost all of the 61-acre site lies within the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), the development project is not subject to the revised, tougher aquifer protection regulations approved by the P&Z last June.

The developers submitted simultaneous applications to the P&Z and Conservation Commission just before the revised aquifer regulations took effect. Because the developers beat that deadline, the pending application is subject to the previous, less restrictive aquifer regulations. If the application were being considered under the revised aquifer regulations, the number of building lots allowed in the proposed development would be cut in half, as an aquifer protection measure.

P&Z Chairman Daniel Fogliano, at a public hearing on Tilson Woods, read several letters from town staff members that raised dozens of technical objections to the development proposal. The reports focused on the application’s compliance with engineering, subdivision and public health requirements.

Mr Fogliano said the applicants have made so many revisions to the development proposal that it is difficult to know the status of the application, adding that it is unclear if all the proposed 41 lots would be buildable lots.

Acknowledging that the applicant has much at stake in terms of getting the proposal approved under the terms of the previous aquifer regulations, attorney William Hennessey, representing Tilson Financial, asked that the developers be allowed to confer with town staff members about how the plan can be revised to resolve their concerns.

 “Right now, there’s so much wrong here, it needs to be clarified,” Mr Fogliano said.

 The subdivision proposal contains technical flaws, which may not be easily resolved, said P&Z member Heidi Winslow.

At the applicant’s request, Mr Fogliano agreed to continue the P&Z’s public hearing on the application to December 2, after the deadline for this edition of The Bee.

When a development application requires substantial changes, the P&Z often asks the developer to withdraw an application and submit a revised application. In the case of Tilson Woods, however, withdrawing the plans and submitting a new application would mean that the new application would be subject to the revised tougher aquifer protection regulations. The new regulations’ effect on the Tilson Woods plan would cut the allowable number of lots on the site in half.

The application has gained Conservation Commission approval.

The proposed subdivision would contain more than 5,000 feet of new streets in the form of three roads. The proposed development would also provide a direct link between 29 Washington Avenue and Philo Curtis Road, creating a shortcut between those streets on a new road running generally parallel to I-84.

A five-acre portion of the open space in the proposed subdivision would abut Treadwell Park.