Beacon Hill Revisited

A Branford developer has submitted revised plans to build 10 homes near the Beacon Hill Preserve after her previous ones were denied by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“We were able to address a lot of the concerns,” Attorney David Gibson told the commission at its meeting a week ago.  He said issues raised by the P&Z and environmental groups have been remedied. Specifically, the new plans call for more open space adjacent to the Beacon Hill Preserve and would also eliminate a proposed retaining wall.

“It really is an improvement,” Gibson said in regard to the project. “Hopefully, it’s something that will work.”

Ellsworth McGuigan, who chairs the P&Z, said the original plans had some points of merit.  The commission will hold a public hearing on the revised plans Oct. 7.

Following the meeting, Gibson told the Eagle there would still be 10 homes, but the lots have been reconfigured to provide more open space on the southern side of site, which is contiguous to the Beacon Hill Preserve. He said the proposed retaining wall, which was suggested by the Inland Wetland Commission last fall, was eliminated after the P&Z raised objections.

The project, known as Beacon Hill Estates, is the brainchild of Susan Doing, a Branford real estate agent who owns the Shearwater Properties Inc. development company. The single-family homes would be located on 10 acres of land at 83 Rose Hill Road, in the Branford Hills section of town. Her original open space residential subdivision plans called for restoring two areas of wetlands and designating them as open space.

Several environmental groups, including the Conservation and Environmental Commission, the Select Committee on Open Space Acquisition, and the Parks and Open Space Authority, raised objections to the project during a 2 ½ hour hearing in March.  The environmentalists claimed the homes were being built too close to the ridge top and that the open space being offered was of little value.

Although the project was denied in May, the developer was encouraged to keep trying. Town Planner Shirley Rasmussen said there were other options for developing the area that would provide more useful open space near the Beacon Hill Preserve. “There are a lot of possibilities that would make it a much better subdivision,” Rasmussen said at the time.

P&Z commissioner David Perkins then suggested the developer “come back with a new project that takes into account some of the things we talked about.”

Whether the revisions meet P&Z approval remains to be seen. The modified plans were unanimously approved by the Inland Wetland Commission on July 22.

The site in question is zoned residential and is adjacent to the 70-acre Beacon Hill Preserve,  which is owned jointly by the town and the state. Beacon Hill is part of the Metacomet Ridge, a traprock area that stretches from Connecticut through Massachusetts. 

The preserve was created after years of contention in the 1980’s when three separate development proposals were defeated through the efforts of a grass-roots organization known as the Beacon Hill Preservation Society.  The Branford Land Trust spearheaded a fund-raising campaign that enabled the town and state to preserve the property.

The 10-acre residential site, which was not part of the disputed area, was once used as a chicken farm and a chicken processing facility. The wetland areas on the property have since been overgrown by invasive plants and used for illegal dumping. Environmental specialists for the developer have maintained that the proposed housing project would enhance the area and restore the wetlands.

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