By Ellie Fellers,Special to the Sun Journal

NEW GLOUCESTER – The New Gloucester Planning Board on Tuesday gave preliminary review to a proposed 12-lot subdivision off Tobey Road.

Developer Robert Hale of Lake Placid, Fla., plans to develop 81 of several hundred acres into a traditional subdivision in a zone that requires five acres per lot. The development is called Tobey Pines.

Engineer Chris Branch of Technical Services Inc. of Auburn showed the board a plan using a traditional design plan for the 12 lots, which also must meet standards for the groundwater protection overlay district. At a prior meeting, a plan demonstrating the option for a cluster subdivision was discussed.

The lots range in size from 5 acres to 8.74 acres. The road is already constructed over an old woods road.

A fire pond has been constructed close to a bog with input from New Gloucester Fire Department Chief Gary Sacco. The plan will note an easement of 2.9 acres dedicated for the fire pond.

The access road to the lots is a right of way granted by two private landowners.

The land is hilly with some ledge outcroppings and nearby the Bald Hill summit.

Branch told the board the proposal is exempt from site plan review by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection because it is under 15 lots.

However, if Hale develops more land into subdivision lots, DEP review will look at the entire subdivision, Branch said.

“We have to do the first phase correctly,” he said.

The town’s zoning ordinance requires that underground utilities be installed. And all requirements under the town’s zoning ordinance will be addressed when a full application is filed with the board. For example, a road owners association is required on the private road.

The road is yet to be named.

In other business, the board approved an amendment to Steve Shran’s minor subdivision on a 6.29 acre lot on Romans Road. A revised plan must show the widening of a road to address the safety issue of firetruck access.

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