Developer Ross Smith advances Brown Bear Meadow subdivision after public hearing

Ross Smith, the developer of the Brown Bear Meadow subdivision, received unanimous approval from the Town of Greene planning board on April 21 to move his application (11 lots, including one existing house, with 10 new house lots on roughly 25 acres) forward for findings of fact.

At a packed public hearing, residents raised questions about road surfacing, dust on Coburn Road and whether the development would create more driveways onto North Hatch Hill and Coburn roads. Smith said the interior route is proposed as a private shared driveway — built to 20 feet of travelway within a 60-foot right-of-way — and that maintenance agreements and deed-recorded covenants will assign upkeep responsibilities. "I'm going to take that responsibility as the developer to build that driveway," Smith told the board.

Neighbors pressed how covenants would be enforced without a homeowners association. Planning staff and the developer said covenants will be recorded and that private enforcement is available: "Private covenants will be enforced through the court if needed," a town representative said. Several residents said that, in practice, court enforcement is costly for individual lot owners and urged the board to prefer an internal road to reduce the number of new public driveways.

Safety and sight-distance also featured in the hearing. One resident reported measured sight distances of 750 feet in one direction and 505 feet in the other from the proposed entrance, noting the town requirement is 305 feet; staff confirmed sight-distance measurements were recorded on the plan and verified in the field.

On stormwater, the developer and consulting staff said an engineered drainage plan is included with the submission and that most runoff will be routed to a level spreader and culverts that drain toward a northern wetland area. Residents asked whether increased runoff could worsen local culvert conditions; staff said the stormwater plan addresses that concern and that routine town-maintained ditches and culverts will receive the outflow.

The plan presented minimum lot and house-size standards: lots are shown at roughly 80,000 square feet minimums and covenants require minimum finished floor areas (1,200 sq ft single-floor, 1,500 sq ft two-story). Smith also estimated the subdivision would generate roughly $47,000 to $50,000 in tax revenue per year based on typical homes under current town tax rates.

After staff reviewed a checklist of performance standards and confirmed that sight distances, traffic-generation review and fire-department consultation had been addressed in earlier submissions, a board member moved to approve the application to proceed to findings of fact, including the covenants as presented. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

The planning board closed the public hearing and then continued with other agenda items, including a separate subdivision amendment later in the meeting. The board did not vote to require conversion of the shared driveway to a town road at this meeting; staff said deed language or permit-level requirements could be used later, and the building inspector has final authority over entrance permits.