WILTON – More than a dozen people who wanted to speak about the Village View Street subdivision Thursday night were told by the Planning Board they must wait for a public hearing.
“I don’t know if we’re opening a can of worms,” said Chairman Keith Swett in reference to allowing the public to speak Thursday. About 15 people, many of whom had expressed an interest in speaking, were in attendance.
“I’m as confused watching you people work this out as you are doing it,” said Jeanne Lambert after the board spent several minutes flipping through zoning ordinance pages trying to decipher the process. Lambert lives across the street from the proposed five-lot development.
The board had voted unanimously to accept the developer’s pre-application as complete, having to, moments later, take another vote after they realized Irv Faunce, an alternate, had made the original motion. The full seven-member board was present so alternates were not voting members at Thursday’s meeting and, therefore, could not legally make motions.
Though the project is small in scale, it covers a slice of several acres along Wilson Stream next to the abandoned Forster mill, and neighbors feel the sloping property is not suitable for homes.
Much of the land is in resource protection zone and therefore not legal for building, according to town ordinance.
Representing landowner Adam Mack of American Homes, project engineer Robert Berry III from Main-Land Development of Livermore Falls gave the board a new map indicating slightly increased lot sizes to accommodate zoning requirements. The map, given to members after the pre-application approval vote, elicited yet more confusion. It was rapidly resolved when Sheryl Mosher assured members that the new map had no bearing on that decision.
Neighbors did not know before the meeting that Mack has no intention of building homes on the land but rather wants to get the plan approved for “single-family residential homes” so he can sell the lots individually. Buyers will build to their own specifications within the realm of the town’s ordinances.
According Swett, a landowner would be allowed to put any type of housing unit on the lot as long as it conformed to town ordinance.
The board voted unanimously to conduct a site inspection at 6 p.m. on May 19. The public is permitted to speak at the inspection.
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