Derby resident Arnold Holmes to the planning and zoning commission: "Don't do this."
DERBY – A dozen residents urged the city’s planning and zoning commission to reject a zone-text change that could allow a developer to submit an application for about 100 housing units on “Telescope Mountain.”
Residents said Derby is already one of the most densely populated communities in Connecticut and that tearing down the only woods left in the city for another townhouse development doesn’t make sense.
“We’re talking about density: How dense can we get? How far can we go?” asked resident Arnold Holmes.
Residents also worried about the use of dynamite to blast away heavy rock formations on the land. Blasting was on the table about a decade ago, when the land was in consideration for a water tower.
Summit Hill LLC – a company connected to John J. Brennan Construction of Shelton – owns 18 acres between Coon Hollow Road and Summit Street.
The company, through its attorney, Dominick Thomas, is asking the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission to rewrite the land’s zoning to create a “planned residential district.”
Thomas wrote the zoning amendment the commissioners are considering adopting as their own.
A public hearing on that request was held in front of the planning and zoning commission on Nov. 19. About 30 people attended, plus another 20 or so on Zoom.
The requested rule change would give the commission “flexibility to provide cluster and middle housing development that will increase the tax base, increase housing availability and develop in a manner that can protect natural resources,” according to the document Thomas filed in Derby City Hall.
Right now the land is zoned “R‑5,” which allows single-and-two-family houses on lots measuring 7,500 square feet. The land surrounding it is zoned R‑5 on the eastern border and P (for parks) on the western and northern sides, where there is a cemetery.
In 2020, during an “informal” talk with the commission, Thomas said the current zoning could allow more than 80 three bedroom units and would require substantial alterations to the hilly land, known locally as “Telescope Mountain.”
However, a “planned residential district” would better group the units and arrange them in a way to preserve some open space, Thomas said.
Thomas pointed to similar “planned development districts” he’s worked on in other Connecticut cities in the last 40 years. He said they’re to thank for much of Shelton’s economic boom in recent decades.
Residents at the public hearing disagreed with Thomas.
Seventeen people either raised questions about the proposal or flat-out said it shouldn’t proceed. Thomas was the only speaker in support of it.
Summit Commons resident Mary Motasky presented the commission with a petition she said had 187 signatures opposing the zone-text change. Summit Commons is a condominium development next to the land in question.
Motasky said the city should consider buying the land in order to protect it from development. There are state grants available for distressed, urban communities such as Derby trying to protect or enhance open space.
“I’m wondering if consideration has ever been given for a third option?” Motasky said. “Purchasing the property at fair market value using state funds for green space in order to end this fight once and for all and to preserve Telescope Mountain forever?”
Rick Dunne – speaking in his private capacity as a Derby resident, and not in his other role with the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments – said planned development districts don’t make sense in a fully developed city.
“What’s being proposed here, essentially, is spot zoning in Derby,” Dunne said. “There’s not a lot of land to deal with. PRDs, PDDs, and other units are in large communities that have large tracts of undeveloped land, where they have to think carefully about how they’re going to do it.”
Sharlene McEvoy, a retired Fairfield University law professor who ran for mayor last year, said it’s too much housing. She said if development has to happen, it should be for stores and businesses instead.
“Focusing on commercial development is the way to increase the tax base,” she said.
Derby planning and zoning commissioner David Kopjanski told Thomas that the proposal directly goes against the city’s comprehensive plan because it doesn’t preserve natural land.
Thomas disagreed, saying that it gives the city more ability to force the developer to preserve it.
Thomas said that if development wasn’t supposed to happen on Telescope Mountain, then the land shouldn’t have been zoned residentially in the first place.
“Someone saw fit in 2000, when they were here, to zone it R‑5. And R‑5 is ‘kiss Telescope Mountain goodbye,’” Thomas said.
Past proposals to develop the property were met with strong opposition from people living in the densely populated neighborhoods around the property. Similar concerns have been raised in the past regarding natural space and blasting hazards.
Thomas, speaking at the end of the public hearing, said Motasky’s suggestion to buy the land made sense.
“The only comment that made any sense with respect to what can be done to the property, was the young woman who said ‘Why doesn’t the city buy it,’” Thomas said. “Because the only way it’s going to stay undeveloped is for it to become open space, and for the city to buy it.”
