Developer of Proposed Brooks Street Subdivision Receives Optimistic Feedback

The developer of a proposed 35-lot subdivision along Brooks Street must left a recent planning commission meeting with a bit more spring in his step after members appeared to be in support of the plan.

Planning and Zoning Commission members’ comments during a recent hearing on the proposal seemed optimistic despite the group postponing its decision on the application to build. Before members can vote on the application submitted by Hallissey, Pearson, and Cassidy, the developers must submit the results of an independent traffic study and have a hearing before the Open Space Conservation Commission.

In addition to overall approval of the plan, Jim Cassidy and his partners are seeking two regulation waivers, one of which involves a reduction in the maximum centerline grade of new roads to be built as part of the development. A town ordinance requires a grade of 8 percent and the developers have asked that restriction be eased to 10 percent over a portion of one of the roads, due to natural topography. The net effect of such a change would be to shrink the section’s centerline radius from 200 feet to 180 feet.

The group also asked for an exemption from the requirement to build sidewalks on both sides of the development’s new roads. The plan calls for paved walkways where the lots are located.

Commission members seemed to support the proposal, including the sought waivers. Commissioner Ronald Angelo said it was “doable,” and Commissioner Henry Vasel liked the firm’s decision to designate 20 percent of the property as open space and preserve the existing tree line, which contains many older trees.

Two residents of Farms Village, a community that is an offshoot of Brooks Street, spoke in favor of the proposal. The mother and daughter, Sophie and Kris Mariner, asserted that the planned development would fit seamlessly with Farms Village and raise collective property values. Kris Mariner even went so far as to welcome Cassidy to Brooks Street and inquire, “Can I put a deposit on Lot 15?”

Alena Smith, a Brooks Street resident, opposed the plan. Smith objects to the potential for an increase in traffic on the street and cited an unfulfilled promise that town officials made to prevent trucks from using Brooks to cut across from Silas Deane Highway to Cromwell Avenue.

Commission Chairman Alan Mordhorst suggested that Smith call the police about the trucks on Brooks Street

A decision on Hallissey, Pearson, and Cassidy’s application for a special permit was tabled, pending the outcome of its appearance before the Open Space Commission and a firm-sponsored traffic study.