Local Developer Proposes 10-Lot Subdivision On 3.72 Acres In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — A local developer is proposing to pay the town more than $92,000 in lieu Fairfield's open space requirements for a 10-lot subdivision on the corner of Mill Plain and Stillson roads.

Luxury home builder SandDollar Development LLC is proposing the subdivision on 3.72 acres, on what is referred to as the Ross property at 2318 Mill Plain Road.

The old farmhouse on the property would remain, with two lots on the right on Mill Plain Road, and then seven lots that would be accessed from either frontage or via a new cul-de-sac on Stillson Road, according to paperwork filed with the Plan and Zoning Department.

At issue during a meeting of the Plan and Zoning Commission Tuesday was whether the town should accept SandDollar's proposed fee-in-lieu payment of 10 percent of the value of the property, which the town assessed at $925,900. The 10 percent payment would be $92,590.

The town requires subdivisions to either set aside 10 percent of the property for open space, donate open space to the town, or make the fee-in-lieu payment.

Money from such fee-in-lieu payments goes toward the town's Land Acquisition fund, and both the Conservation Commission, which oversees open space in Fairfield, and the acquisition commission both gave tacit approval for the fee-in-lieu payment, according to Fairfield Planning Director Jim Wendt.

SandDollar would prefer to pay the fee, Wendt said, because the area it would set aside for open space would not hold much value to the town.

"The land in question is relatively steep and does not provide a connection to any existing open space," Wendt wrote to the commission in a synopsis of the project. "In addition, the land contains no wetlands or areas of particular natural beauty or historical interest."

Commissioners largely agreed that the proposed open space on the property would not fit in with the town's other open space.

By a 5-2 vote, the commission moved a non-binding motion to accept the fee-in-lieu payment, though the commission also voted to hold a public hearing on the subdivision proposal in the future. Commissioners Lenny Braman, Tom Noonan (Chair), Meg Francis, Steven Levy and Dan Ford approved the measure, while commissioners Kathryn Braun and Alexis Harrison voted against it.

The non-binding fee-in-lieu payment could be scrapped, depending on how the public hearing goes, and how the commission eventually votes on the subdivision proposal. A date for the public hearing has not been set.

"I don't see much benefit of dedicating the area within the development as open space," Levy said Tuesday.

Braman agreed, stressing that the set-aside area in the proposed development is "not conducive" with the efforts the town has made in collecting open space.

Braun and Harrison both said they would prefer for the subdivision to retain some open space, in part because there are old trees on the property that would be cut down to make room for the development.

"Would be a shame to lose those trees," Braun said.