DERBY – A property owner has submitted plans for a 45-lot subdivision atop “Telescope Mountain,” 17 acres of woods off Summit Street in west Derby.
Members of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission accepted the plans at a meeting Feb. 18.
A public hearing will be scheduled on the plans, though a public hearing is not required by local regulations. The date of the public hearing has not been set.
The property owner is Summit Hill LLC. State business records list the principal of the company as Eric Brennan of the John J. Brennan Construction Co. in Shelton.
Dominick Thomas is the attorney representing Summit Hill LLC in front of the planning and zoning commission.
Thomas said the plans call for 8 single-family houses to be built on the northern portion of the property next to a cemetery. The plans call for the rest of the property to be developed into 37 duplexes. That brings the total number of units to 82. The houses will likely be around 2,000 square feet.
However, Thomas said the number of units and other details could change during the planning and zoning commission’s review.
The development will require “substantial” blasting and soil removal in order to put in a road that complies with Derby regulations, Thomas said.
The site will have two access points: Coon Hollow Road, near the current entrance to Summit Condominiums, and from Summit Street.
The new housing development is to be called “The Views at Summit Hill,” according to the plans submitted.
The area around Telescope Mountain is hilly and heavily-populated. Neighbors have come out in force twice since 2009 to oppose developing the land.
First, neighbors and former Mayor Anthony Staffieri opposed the construction of a water tower on the property. The chief complaint was the amount of dynamite blasting and rock removal that would have taken place. The water storage tank was eventually built at the entrance to the Derby High School/Middle School campus on Chatfield Street.
More recently, neighbors — and Mayor Joseph DiMartino — opposed a zone-text change that would have allowed a town-house style development on the property. Those structures would have contained four to 10 living units. The planning and zoning commission rejected the developer’s zone change request by a 4-2 vote.