60 Units On Oakview Rd.—

Panel Reviews Impact

Of Condo Plan

By Andrew Gorosko

Conservation Commission members are slated to resume a public hearing June 8 on a developer’s proposal to construct a 60-unit, age-restricted condominium complex at an environmentally sensitive 51-acre site at 21 Oakview Road, near Newtown High School.

The hearing is scheduled for 7:30 pm at the town offices at 31 Peck’s Lane.

Toll Brothers, Inc, proposes the construction of Regency at Newtown, a 60-unit complex for people over age 55. Development would occur on approximately one-quarter of the 51-acre site.

At an initial May 25 public hearing, Conservation Commission members posed a variety of questions on the construction measures that Toll Brothers would use to prevent environmental damage, especially in light of the development site’s nearness to the pristine Pootatuck River.

The river in that area is listed as a Class 1 Wild Trout Management Area by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), one of eight such areas in the state where wild trout reproduce naturally.

The Conservation Commission, serving as the town’s wetlands agency, reviews the environmental aspects of construction proposals as they affect wetlands, watercourses, and forested areas.

The Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has made a series of recommendations on protecting the Pootatuck River’s water quality. The conservation organization works to protect the water quality of the Pootatuck River and its tributary Deep Brook to preserve the area as a wild trout fishery.

Milone & MacBroom, Inc, which is the developer’s consulting engineer on the Regency at Newtown project, has responded to those recommendations.

In its May 24 letter, Trout Unlimited, represented by members James Belden and Joseph Hovious, writes, “We are very concerned about the possible impact such a development may have on the Pootatuck River, a valuable resource which runs adjacent to and through this property. Fish habitat, as well as long-term efforts on overall water quality and the protection of the [Pootatuck] aquifer, are all of great concern to us.”

The conservation organization urges that a minimum 250-foot-wide buffer area be maintained between the developed area and the river during construction and after construction, considering the steep slopes that lie near the river.

Toll Brothers has proposed a 100-foot-wide buffer between the complex and the river.

Trout Unlimited additionally recommends that modern stormwater-flow control techniques be used on the site and that stormwater facilities be perpetually maintained to ensure the river’s water quality. Also, the temperature of stormwater running off of the site and into the river should be controlled to prevent thermal damage to the river’s cold-water trout habitat, according to Trout Unlimited.

Also, areas on the site that are within 250 feet of wetlands and watercourses should be designated as open space land, according to the trout group, which also recommends that public access should be maintained to the trout management area, but not via the steep slopes nearby, and that the use of pesticides and fertilizers on the site should be limited to protect water quality.

In a May 25 response letter, engineer Thomas Daly of Milone & MacBroom, writes that the developer would enlist a firm that would maintain the stormwater control facilities on the site. That stormwater control firm would later enter a maintenance contract with the condominium owners’ association.

The stormwater facilities would provide for 1,000 gallons of “spill protection,” according to Mr Daly. “We do not anticipate any oil spills due to the residential nature of this development,” he writes. Any oil or sediment that is removed from a holding tank during annual maintenance would be removed from the site, he adds.

In view of concerns about the steep slopes on the site, Mr Daly writes that construction activity would be minimized on steep slopes. “These slopes are currently stable and will continue to be so after construction,” he writes.

At a May 25 public hearing on Regency at Newtown, Conservation Commission members questioned the wisdom of construction plans that would require the top of one steep slope to be partially excavated in order to construct one five-unit condominium building there. That structure would have a very deep concrete basement wall, which also would function as a retaining wall for the top of that slope. Toll Brothers proposes constructing 12 five-unit condo buildings on a plateau that overlooks the Pootatuck River to the west.

Toll Brothers project manager Dan Walton explained to Conservation Commission members the method by which such concrete structures would be built. Mr Walton said he is a town resident and would closely monitor construction work at the site.

At the May 25 session, Mr Daly told Conservation Commission members that the project’s construction plans are focused on preserving water quality in the Pootatuck River, noting that the river is a “significant resource.”

The site also lies within the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), which sits atop the Pootatuck Aquifer.

Regency at Newtown’s construction design exceeds water quality standards promulgated by the DEP’s fisheries unit, Mr Daly said.

Stormwater accumulated on the site would be diverted into a holding basin to control its release into the river, he said. Multiple temporary sediment basins would be constructed on the site to trap the sediment that flows on construction sites when it rains, he said.

The project would have limited tree cutting in order to maintain an existing evergreen buffer on the site, he said.

Environmental scientist William Root, of Milone & MacBroom, said protecting the water quality and fishery habitat of the Pootatuck River is an important aspect of the construction plans.

“I don’t see a threat of any kind to the Pootatuck,” he said.

Attorney Robert Hall, representing Toll Brothers, asked that the Conservation Commission review the aquifer protection aspects of the construction plans before the project is submitted for additional review by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z).

Last January, P&Z members approved a change of zone for the site, thus allowing site planning to proceed for the property.

The P&Z’s change of zone converted the property’s zoning designation from R-2 (Residential) to EH-10 (Elderly Housing). R-2 zoning is designated for single-family houses on lots of at least two acres. EH-10 zoning is intended for high-density, multifamily housing for people over age 55. The change of zone specified that no more than 60 condos can be built on the site.

The project would be served by a public water supply and municipal sanitary sewers.