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Why a Little Road Threatens Harwinton
By Myrna E. Watanabe, Harwinton
At a sparsely attended Harwinton Planning Commission meeting on April 3, interested residents of Harwinton found the residents of Meadowview Drive once again pitted against a developer, with the town Planning Commission in the uncomfortable position of apparently having made a deal with the developer to avoid a lawsuit.
The developer, Brycorp, Inc., proposes to subdivide its property at the end of a cul-de-sac on Meadowview Drive and build twelve homes. This in itself is not unusual. But what is unusual is that this application asks for something that clearly does not follow planning rules: it incorporates a 4,600-foot cul-de-sac—a 1,400-foot extension of the already existing and already questionable 3,200-foot cul-de-sac. Based on State concerns for safety, in that dwellings on extended cul-de-sacs must be accessible in case of fire, medical or other emergencies, no cul-de-sac should exceed 1,200 feet without Planning Commission approval. Were this one entrance to a community blocked, how would emergency vehicles enter?
For this reason, the Commission rejected Brycorp’s proposal two and a half years ago, and Brycorp sued. A group of affected homeowners on Meadowview Drive, at their own expense, intervened in the case. An out-of-court settlement led to an apparent agreement between Brycorp and the Planning Commission stipulating that an emergency accessway to the subdivision be drawn into the plans when they were re-submitted; the homeowners were not a party to this apparent settlement.
Brycorp has some difficulties here. There are two possible routes for emergency access. One is to go north to Town Line Road in New Hartford, but Brycorp insists that that road has been partially abandoned by the Town of New Hartford, and access to it would impinge on wetlands. The other possibility is to obtain the property or right of way going eastward to County Line Road, which borders Burlington—and which, incidentally, is on the route of planned town water service. Brycorp proposes the latter route. Without giving the Commission any current evidence, other than their word and a not-very-recent letter from the property owner, Brycorp claims the owner of the adjacent property will graciously allow them to build a 1,600-foot-long, 50-foot-wide access road across his property to County Line Road. The accessway would give the owner or any subsequent owners of the adjacent property the opportunity to subdivide and develop that property, as well.
The road as proposed would be unpaved, surfaced only with gravel, and have a steep 10% grade. The road would be closed at both ends and locked. Once completed, Brycorp proposes giving the Town of Harwinton this gravel road as a gift for the town to maintain in perpetuity. Can such a gift be good for Harwinton?
If this road is blocked by a locked gate at both ends, who will have the key? Suppose there is a police emergency and the nearest State trooper tries to enter. It seems the only way to guarantee that road would be accessible in an emergency is for the town to assume the costs of converting it to a legal road. What will such a "gift" cost the taxpayers of Harwinton? In the summer, the road must be weeded and kept free of plant growth. In the winter, it must be plowed—with subsequent loss of gravel. The gravel must be kept up, and when it washes out in heavy rains, the town will have to repair, re-grade, and re-gravel it. If the town were to pave it, this would create the perfect opportunity for development of the adjacent properties from Meadowview Drive to County Line Road, forming a much larger development. This, indeed, is a gift to developers and not to the people of Harwinton: a developer builds a road at a discount price, leaving the paving and upkeep to the town, at taxpayer’s expense, so that he or another developer can then develop the property.
It is not the town’s obligation to bend the rules because a developer’s property doesn’t quite fit them. As primary building sites throughout Harwinton are taken, as most are now, more and more locked-in acreage without appropriate road access will become the focus of developers. Our commissions will come under increasing pressure to put aside the very codes and regulations that have been put in place by our duly elected officials and commissioners, to facilitate development interests and profits. The threat of "taking the town to court" is the developer’s first tactic in the face of resistance. To run scared, put our feet in the air, and compromise our rules are unacceptable. Our commissions are here to protect the rights of the town’s citizens first, not the rights of commercial interests above town interests. It is not for attorneys to compromise these protections away in the name of expediency. Agreeing to this cul-de-sac extension in exchange for a gift of a road is a bad deal and a bad precedent.
Wake up, Harwinton! This precedent-setting issue will affect future planning and zoning decisions throughout Harwinton. Next week we’ll look like Burlington and next year, well … you get the picture!
At the April 3 meeting, we were told that discussion of this matter would continue at the next Planning Commission meeting, to be held at Town Hall on Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. It’s possible that this may be the final time this project will be considered. If you would like to have the opportunity to be heard on this issue, you should attend this meeting! Our town’s future depends on it.
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