The Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) has scheduled a public hearing for 7 pm on Wednesday, November 16, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, on a developer's application to construct a 29-unit condominium complex at a Mt Pleasant Road site, near Taunton Lake.

Applicant Hunter Ridge LLC, is seeking a special zoning permit and a site plan approval for the controversial project, known as Rochambeau Woods, on a 29-acre site at 41, 43, 45, and 47 Mt Pleasant Road.

Rochambeau Woods is the largest residential project proposed for the borough in many years.

In October, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members endorsed Rochambeau Woods in their role as the borough's planning agency. The project gained a wetlands/watercourses protection permit from the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) in May. If Rochambeau Woods receives borough zoning approval, it would still need an approval from the Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) for municipal sanitary sewer service.

In the past, the property had been proposed for Hunter Ridge, a subdivision of 14 single-family houses. That subdivision proposal gained a wetlands/watercourses protection permit in 2002. The P&Z began its review of the Hunter Ridge subdivision proposal in 2005. However, lengthy litigation involving an intervenor followed. That decade-long legal conflict finally was resolved in court early this year, with the developer winning the litigation, thus clearing the way for the latest development proposal.

The proposed Rochambeau Woods condo complex would cluster 29 individual buildings near Mt Pleasant Road, and leave undeveloped a slope at the site which extends downward to Taunton Lake, where the parcel has about 450 feet of lake frontage. About two-thirds of the site would be protected as open space land through conservation easements.

By contrast, the earlier Hunter Ridge subdivision proposal would have had single-family houses built upon that slope extending down to the lake.

Rochambeau Woods would be served by a public water supply and by the central municipal sanitary sewer system. The earlier proposed Hunter Ridge subdivision would have had individual domestic water wells and individual septic systems.

Local land use officials have found that the current 29-unit development proposed for the site would likely have less environmental impact on the environmentally sensitive Taunton Lake than the previously proposed 14-house subdivision, due to a condo complex having public water and public sewer service.

During several IWC hearings that were held last spring, many residents living near Taunton Lake raised concerns about the Rochambeau Woods project. The residents said the presence of such a condo complex could have negative effects on the 125-acre spring-fed lake. Concerns have included the prospect of littering and noisy gatherings occurring near the lake.

Taunton Lake is ringed by privately-owned properties, with public access provided only at a small area on its northwest shore.

Under the terms of the BZC's regulations on cluster housing pertaining to projects such as Rochambeau Woods, at least 50 percent of the site must remain as undeveloped open space. Access to that open space would be provided for condo complex residents and their guests, but not for the general public. The project would be subject to approval by the BZC under the terms of the "residential open space development" (ROSD) zoning regulations.

If the development firm gains all necessary approvals for the project, it may sell the land and the right to develop it to Toll Brothers, Inc, or to some other residential development firm, according to the applicant.