Board leaves Evergreen Hills Estates hearing open after technical questions on wells, sprinklers and sewer

Dan Griffiths, the project engineer for Evergreen Hills Estates, presented the applicant’s April 14, 2026 site plan and said the team is coordinating with the Department of Health and finishing the stormwater protection plan.

Board members raised a series of technical concerns: whether the project will connect to municipal sewer (Griffiths said it will be municipal sewer and the team is working with Glen Illing from the DOH); the proximity of a proposed trash compactor to sports courts (planner Kevin Schwenzfeier noted required separation distances); whether units must be sprinklered (property owner Avi Pomerantz said sprinklers are not required and “adding them would be a financial burden,” while Building Department official Jim Carnell said the buildings are required to be sprinklered because only a single access road is proposed); bedroom accounting for future additional bedrooms (consulting engineer Matthew Sickler said he had raised that concern and believed it remained unaddressed; Avi Pomerantz said the design accounts for five bedrooms per unit for sewer-flow calculations); and tree removal counts, playground details and adjoining parcel depiction on plans.

Neighbor Chris Bini of 436 Harris Road asked about the effect of drilling test wells on neighboring private wells. Matt Sickler said wells within a specified monitoring distance from test wells would be automatically monitored and results submitted for the hydrogeologist’s review; others could request monitoring.

Christina Cellini moved and Kristin Boyd seconded a motion to keep the public hearing open until May 13, 2026; the motion passed unanimously.