TOPSHAM

After hearing an hour of comments Tuesday from neighbors of a new proposed 13-lot subdivision at 19 Homeplace, the Topsham Planning Board deliberated and granted final approval to the project.

Glades Above Homeplace would be located on 36 wooded acres at the end of Homeplace owned by Tom Bethea, who developed the Homeplace subdivision several years ago and always planned to finish developing the property. He would retain about 14 acres.

Curt Neufeld of Sitelines represented Bethea on Tuesday, and said his client intends to use Unity Homes for the lots and sell them as packages.

“This is really part of Tom Bethea’s vision for finishing out these subdivisions that he began many years ago and he’s looking to make high energy, high quality, small footprint houses in this last phase,” Neufeld said.

Abutters are unhappy over a requirement in the town’s ordinance that dictates: “All proposed roads shall be designed as through roads, and shall connect at both ends to different public roads.”

Dead-end roads like Homeplace are now prohibited except in cases where a connection opportunity doesn’t exist. To comply with town code, Bethea proposed connecting Homeplace, which becomes Brookside Drive, to Somerset Place in the Arbor Avenue subdivision off Middlesex Road.

Chairing the meeting, planning board member Bruce Van Note reminded residents that the board only has the authority to determine if the application meets town codes, not to set policy.

Several abutters again argued that the subdivision will create more traffic than is estimated by the applicant’s traffic engineer — especially cut-through traffic between Middlesex and Foreside roads on Saturday dump runs.

Mike Whitney of 9 Homeplace noted the traffic engineer said she didn’t do as many runs on Homeplace as on Middlesex and Foreside roads to time the routes, because there was no traffic on Homeplace.

“That’s why many of us bought our homes and raised our families here, because there was no traffic,” he said. “That will change.”

Cut-through traffic isn’t something prohibited by the ordinance, however. Van Note said the purpose of the connectivity requirement in the town’s ordinance is to create roads in the community the public can use, and to connect neighborhoods.

Residents also were critical of the groundwater report that concluded the subdivison wouldn’t change groundwater tables.

Matt Reynolds of Drumlin Environmental said the stream that runs through the property of the proposed development is the low point in the area water table system. It wouldn’t influence the water table at Bay Park or Homeplace, which are at higher water elevations, he said.

Not everyone agreed with that assessment. Roland Tufts lives at 10 Homeplace and said he and his neighbor are at “ground zero” of the water table problem. The analysis residents heard Tuesday was great, he said, but it didn’t address what happens in extreme weather conditions.

Town Planner Rod Melanson noted the project isn’t required to fix existing ground water issues at Homeplace but show it won’t make the issues worse.

Three board members were absent. After spending two and a half hours on the Glades Above Homeplace review, the planning board voted 4-0 in favor of the subdivision.

The planning board on Tuesday also unanimously approved a 90-foot-by-97-foot boat building proposed by Rick Pontes of Pontes Marine Service at 227 Lewiston Road; and a shoreland permit for the town’s proposed 16-foot stream crossing bridge on the Town Landing Trail of Town Landing Road.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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