Date: Fri 24-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-New-England-Heights

Full Text:

P&Z Approves Bradley Lane Subdivision

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members July 16 unanimously approved Pond

View LLC's application for New England Heights, Section II, a 13-lot

residential subdivision planned for 30 acres off Bradley Lane and Great Ring

Road in Sandy Hook, near the Monroe border.

The applicant's submission meets the P&Z's criteria for approval, said P&Z

member Heidi Winslow.

As a condition of the approval, the applicant will post a $250,000 performance

bond to ensure that work planned for the subdivision is completed.

P&Z Chairman Stephen Koch said he was pleased with the spirit of cooperation

shown by the developer in working with the town and with neighbors of the

project to ensure the development fits in with the neighborhood.

P&Z members then unanimously approved the project.

Applicant Jay Keillor, an engineer who has a financial interest in the

development, told P&Z members at a past public hearing that a new road would

serve 9 of the 13 lots in the proposed subdivision. Four lots would have

frontage on Bradley Lane.

As part of the development project, Bradley Lane will be widened without

altering stone walls alongside that road.

Mr Keillor has said the P&Z's revised land use regulations, which strictly

limit the removal and placement of earth materials on building lots, forced

him to design a subdivision with minimal disruption to the landscape. Those

regulations limit developers to removing or placing no more than 200 cubic

yards of earthen materials on a lot, other than the movement of materials

required for home construction.

The revised rules, which were approved by the P&Z in March 1997, are designed

to prevent gross changes to the landscape.

In July 1997, the P&Z turned down an earlier version of New England Heights in

a 4-to-0 vote. That rejection came after the developer had failed to mail

notices of a June 5, 1997, public hearing on the subdivision proposal to

nearby property owners. The P&Z had solicited public comments at the June 5,

1997, hearing, but no one spoke.

Because nearby property owners hadn't been notified, the P&Z's regulations

were violated, thus nullifying that application.

Following the July 1997 rejection of the earlier version of New England

Heights, the developers revised their plans with the aim of getting P&Z

approvals for the home building project.

As the application wound its way through the town land use application

process, the developers made changes, as needed, to gain various town

approvals for the work.