Hollow Ridge applicant lowers house 5 feet, reduces earthwork and asks planning board to schedule July public hearing

Counsel for the Hollow Ridge applicant, Jared Tortoella, told the New Castle Planning Board that the project team lowered the proposed house five feet and made several site revisions intended to reduce visual and environmental impacts. Tortoella said the change required adding a yard drain and, because of basement plumbing, a sewer ejector pump; it also allowed the removal of one retaining wall and a net reduction of nearly 2,900 cubic yards of earthwork, amounting to net fill of about 226 cubic yards and a total disturbance reduction of roughly 1,700 square feet.

The project team—represented at the meeting by civil/engineering and landscape professionals—said the septic expansion area had reapproval from the health department and that they would not prepare the expansion area as part of current work, though they asked the board to consider extending the clearing/grading limit in select locations to cover contingency work in the future. Staff advised the applicant to show both the original and proposed clearing/grading limit lines on the landscape sheets and to clarify which plantings are inside the preserved limit and which are intended as landscaped/maintained areas.

Board and staff also discussed truck-trip estimates for cut/import operations, suitability of excavated soils, and the need to clean up debris. The applicant said soil testing indicates sandy soils suitable for on-site reuse and that some debris from prior activity may be unsuitable. With these clarifications pending, the board agreed to schedule a public hearing for July 7 and asked for a comprehensive resubmission that includes the corrected tree and planting tables and the drainage/yard-drain details.