DERBY – A public hearing scheduled for Wednesday (Oct. 8) has been canceled after a developer withdrew plans submitted to the city’s inland wetlands agency.
The developer, Summit Hill LLC, owns about 18 acres of undeveloped land off Summit and Mountain streets.
The company wants to build 25 duplexes and eight single-family houses on the land.
Previous development proposals have been met with opposition from neighbors. There are densely populated, hilly neighborhoods around the location, and neighbors worry about the impact potential dynamite blasting will have on their houses. They’ve suggested the City of Derby find grant money from the state to buy the land and preserve it as open space.
The developer was in front of the Derby Inland Wetlands Agency. The agency’s members had scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 8. The meeting’s purpose was to discuss the impact the project could have on wetlands and watercourses in the area.
Ryan McEvoy, the city’s consulting engineer, wrote a seven-page letter raising questions about the applicant’s stormwater management plan. The letter also questioned whether the applicant had the legal right to build an access road into the proposed subdivision from Coon Hollow Road.
“Based on the foregoing comments, it is our opinion that this application is deficient and not in a position for approval by the Commission,” the letter to the Derby Inland Wetlands Agency concluded.
Dominick Thomas, the lawyer for the applicant, submitted a letter received by the city Oct. 7 saying the application to the inland wetlands agency was withdrawn.
“My client has been informed that the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen will not grant permission for the proposed residential project to connect over City of Derby property to Coon Hollow Road,” Thomas wrote.
However, Thomas said the application will be tweaked and resubmitted using Mountain and Summit streets as access. Those are the heavily residential roads where neighbors do not want to see major development.
“Again, while it has been my client’s intent to avoid construction traffic traveling through existing residential neighborhoods, the alternate plan is more than likely,” Thomas wrote.
The development application had previously been withdrawn from the city’s planning and zoning commission in order to go to inland wetlands. The revised plan will likely be resubmitted to planning and zoning.
Most of the land in question is zoned “R-5,” which allows for single-family and two-family dwellings. About 2.8 acres is zoned “P,” which allows public and semi-public uses ranging from nursing homes to public parks.
The area where the developer wants to build was nicknamed ‘Telescope Mountain’ by previous Derby generations, who named it so because of the land’s high vantage point allowing views of the nearby Housatonic River. It was once a popular informal hangout spot for kids and teens.