Neighbors urge caution as planning board reviews six‑lot Eastman subdivision sketch

Derby Stallion LLC presented a sketch plan for a six‑lot subdivision on a 13‑acre parcel near Eastman and Grand avenues, and the Planning Board and neighbors pressed the applicant for further information about access, buffering and environmental constraints.

Joe Danival of Environmental Design Partnership explained the team’s two alternatives: a conventional subdivision with minimum two‑acre lots or a conservation/cluster design that narrows individual lots (roughly three‑quarter‑acre lots in the proposal) while preserving a central wetland area. Danival said recent DEC rule changes have reclassified a low area in the middle of the site as a jurisdictional wetland, preventing the cul‑de‑sac the team would otherwise have preferred.

Neighbors at the meeting asked the board to conduct a site visit and raised a cluster of concerns: direct or permissive access to the railroad right‑of‑way, noise and vibration from frequent rail traffic, the potential for bikes or dirt‑bike traffic to intrude where vegetation was recently removed, and the legal status of Makasha (Macasha) Square, which the speaker said is maintained by the city but not formally dedicated.

“Those three houses would face basically an embankment off Grand Avenue. Lot 6 is cartoonishly close to the railroad tracks,” resident Joseph Ogden told the board, citing safety and quality‑of‑life worries for young children who play near the path to the tracks. Ogden and other neighbors asked the applicant to explore moving house sites toward Eastman to increase the buffer from the rails.

Board guidance and follow up: commissioners asked the applicant to resolve legal access (title/easement or formal dedication) for Makasha Square before the board can act; to consult the fire department about turnaround/hydrant/access widths for the southern shared driveway; and to provide traffic counts or a limited traffic assessment for Makasha Square so the board can evaluate pedestrian and vehicle impacts. Staff noted conservation subdivision rules apply in the rural residential district, and the board encouraged designs that preserve a natural buffer to the rails.

Next steps: applicant to work with staff to confirm legal access, coordinate with city engineering on possible road dedication or easement clarification, adjust layouts to increase buffering from the railroad, and return with revised sketches and the requested technical memos. The board and residents agreed to continue discussion at a subsequent meeting.