The Planning Board is not inclined to approve a waiver needed for a proposed subdivision on 62 acres off Belle Marsh Road in the town’s most rural zoning district. As a result, a representative for the developer said he would return with a proposal that does not require a waiver.
The developer had requested waiving a town ordinance limiting dead-end roads and cul-de-sacs to 600 feet to put 11 new lots in a cluster development off Timber Mill Drive, a private road off Belle Marsh Road.
Michael Sudak of Altus Engineering, who represented the owners of the property, explained the proposed development during a sketch plan discussion at the Aug. 19 board meeting.
It would involve two cul-de-sac roads, one of them 1,092 feet long, and would result in 80% of the property being set aside in a not yet determined conservation status.
“The biggest problem is, do you feel that the cul-de-sac is allowable or not?” Town Planner Jeff Brubaker asked the board. “That’s the key question.”
By the end of the sketch review, Sudak saw the writing on the wall.
“I think the sentiment that I’ve heard across the board is that these two plans can stay in the record and there will be two more plans for conventional and cluster that show no cul-de-sac waiver,” Sudak said.
The property, on the east side of Belle Marsh Road, abuts Hooper’s Swamp, which is in the resource protection zone, and a large area of conserved properties held by Great Works Regional Land Trust and the State of Maine, including extensive wetlands and three significant vernal pools, Sudak said.
Cluster plans allow for smaller house lots with a specific percentage of buildable land set aside as permanently undeveloped.
As required by ordinance, Sudak presented a conventional plan with 2.75-acre lot sizes along with his preferred cluster plan, neither of which could be approved without a waiver, according to Brubaker.
The ordinance limits road length to allow for better fire and police access; to discourage development that goes deep into the woods; and to encourage residential growth closer to downtown, according to board Chair Hershey Hirschkop.
In the past year the board has discussed changing ordinances so waivers are not allowed for dead end roads longer than 600 feet and increasing the minimum lot size to 10 acres in the rural district. These would better align with land use goals set out in the Comprehensive Plan, Hirschkop said.
Sudak suggested the 600-foot measurement could be looked at differently if the measuring started at the end of Timber Mill Drive, but Brubaker said the language of the ordinance clearly intends the “connecting road” to be the town-owned and maintained Belle Marsh Road.
Two of the proposed plots would overlap with the 250-foot radius of restricted habitat zones for significant vernal pools and would require future property owners to understand and abide by the restrictions placed on the land on that part of their property, Brubaker said.
“It becomes a code enforcement issue because the landowners may not know about those constraints,” said Brubaker, noting the Town’s single code enforcement officer would unlikely be able to track such restrictions.
Sudak countered that future buyers would be made aware of deed restrictions as part of any transaction.
The property is owned by Belle Marsh LLC and Brown Coastal Development, with Cindy Brown of Kittery Point listed as the representative, according to the application.
The Planning Board has scheduled a site walk for 11 a.m. Sept. 10.
The R5 zone includes six square miles of land east of Emery’s Bridge and Belle Marsh roads to the town lines of York and Wells, with more than a third of properties under conservation protection.
