A Recent Real Estate Rarity—

Developer Proposes Major Residential Subdivision

By Andrew Gorosko

The town has received for review plans to create the largest residential subdivision proposed for construction in almost a decade.

Developer William H. Joyce of Shepard Hill Road proposes the construction of Sherman Woods, a 38-lot subdivision on 158 acres in Sandy Hook. Single-family houses would be built.

The scenic site, which now contains wooded areas and open meadows, is in the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD) above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The aquifer is the source of two public water supplies.

The developer, represented by engineer Larry Edwards, submitted wetlands protection plans for the project to the town on April 30. The Inlands Wetlands Commission (IWC) is expected to formally receive the plans at its May 13 session, after which it would set a date for a public hearing on the project.

If the project gains wetlands protection approval, it also would need subdivision approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z).

Sherman Woods is the largest subdivision proposed for town since Cider Mill Farm, which is near Lower Paugussett State Forest and north of the Bennetts Farm residential subdivision in Sandy Hook. M&E Land Group applied to the P&Z for the 52-lot Cider Mill Farm on 137 acres in June 2000. That project gained P&Z approvals for three development phases, with the final phase endorsed by the P&Z in November 2002.

The Sherman Woods site lies in the area bounded by Berkshire Road, Sugarloaf Road, Sherman Street, Still Hill Road, and Toddy Hill Road. Basic plans for the project indicate that new streets serving the project would intersect with Toddy Hill Road and Still Hill Road. 

Two houses already exist on the development site. The addresses of the parcels that comprise the development site are 88 Berkshire Road (Route 34), and 6, 11, 14, and 24 Sherman Street.

The site has R-2 zoning, which requires building lots of at least two acres.

Basic plans for the project indicate that about 45.2 acres on the site would be reserved as undeveloped open space land. Two parcels would comprise that open space.

A stream, known as Keating Pond Brook, drains south-to-north through the site. That stream courses through an extensive wetlands corridor. The property holds a five-acre created pond. The watercourses on the site eventually drain to Curtis Pond.

The IWC will review how the developer plans to protect the wetlands, the watercourses, and also the upland areas on the site that drain toward those wetlands and watercourses.

The development site contains three small watersheds. Eleven water-quality basins would be constructed on the property to regulate stormwater flow.

Review Process

Land Use Agency Director George Benson said of Sherman Woods, “It’s very huge. We’re going to look at it closely…We have to review everything…It has to go through the wetlands [review] process. We’ll see what comes out of the wetlands process.”

Mr Benson noted that the town’s land use review of the project is in its early stages.

He said that developers typically seek to create as many building lots as possible on a given piece of land. The wetlands review process has the potential to reduce the number of lots on the site, he said.

Town staff will review aspects of the proposal including engineering calculations, open space areas, and the presence of steep slopes, he said.

“It’s got a long way to go. It’s a long process,” he said, noting that development applications are reviewed for their conformity with the town’s many land use regulations.

The largest issue facing the application may be the preservation of the stream and pond on the site, he said.    

“It’s a beautiful piece of land,” Mr Benson said, noting that town officials in the past had conducted talks with the property’s former owner about the town possibly acquiring the site.

The Conservation Commission had rated the site as a high quality area for public land conservation, he said. Such a site would have been expensive for the town to acquire, he noted.

According to town assessment records, Mr Joyce purchased more than 159 acres in that area for $13.1 million from its former owners in March 2008.