Date: Fri 26-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Maguire-Edwards-Winton-Farm

Full Text:

Subdivision On Monroe Line Takes A New Form

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

M&E Land Group, a partnership of developers Thomas Maguire and Larry Edwards,

has submitted a new version of its plan to residentially develop a parcel on

the Monroe town line, formerly known as Sentinel Ridge.

The developers have renamed the 95-acre tract Winton Farm. The property lies

west of Pine Tree Hill Road, just north of the Monroe town line.

When initially submitted for Conservation Commission review in April, the

proposed residential development consisted of 31 house lots.

The application now pending before the commission involves a reconfiguration

of the earlier subdivision design and proposes 16 lots. Acreage which wouldn't

be developed now would allow the developers to return to the commission in the

future seeking re-subdivisions of land, thus allowing the developers to

potentially get approximately 30 lots overall from the 95 acres.

In the current version of the subdivision, frontage lots would be developed.

New road construction eventually would make it possible to develop the

property's interior.

Although some of the open space land which initially was proposed for the

property would be lost under the pending subdivision configuration, a trail

network composed of easements and open space land would be provided.

Besides Conservation Commission review, such development proposals are subject

to the review, public hearings and actions of the Planning and Zoning

Commission (P&Z).

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

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

wetlands construction work and take steps to mitigate the disruption to

wetlands on the sloping site. The commission acts as the town's wetlands

agency in ruling on such applications.

Conservation Commission members then said that the plans presented to them May

13 were incomplete. In that rejection, commission members said the Newtown

trail system, which passes through the site, wasn't fully described or

addressed by the plans. They listed other concerns.

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 development site has R-2 zoning, meaning a building lot must be at least

two acres in area. The property has Ridgebury soils.

The owners of the site are Mary Roehrich and Jeanine Roehrich. They are

represented by attorney Robert Hall.

As part of the development project, Messrs Maguire and Edwards have proposed

widening Pine Tree Hill Road from the southern end of the site to Pine Tree

Hill Road's intersection with Bear Hills Road. New stormwater drainage

structures would be installed. A stormwater retention basin would be built on

the site to prevent sedimentation problems off the site.