FALMOUTH — A six-lot subdivision off Woodville Road is expected to get final approval when the Planning Board meets again.
The board was scheduled to meet June 4, but the meeting was postponed due to the lack of a quorum. The Planning Board’s next scheduled meeting is 6:30 p.m. June 11.
The project, which will consist of single-family homes, includes a large amount of conserved land, along with open space that will include some publicly accessible walking trails.
Some land, now owned by the David G. Merrill Revocable Trust, will also be sold to the town, which will get about 40 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the school campus.
The Town Council approved the purchase, for an estimated $895,000, in late January.
At the time Town Manager Nathan Poore told councilors that the land acquisition would be key to accommodating any future space needs of the School Department as the property represented the last undeveloped parcel of property in that area of town.
In a memo provided to councilors this past winter, Poore said “while there are no current identified needs for this property … there is very little available undeveloped land that abuts the Falmouth school campus.”
He also told councilors that buying the property represented a long-term, strategic decision, adding the parcel has more value than just as a possible future expansion site for the schools, especially since it abuts open space owned by the Falmouth Land Trust.
The Planning Board held a preliminary sketch plan review of the project at its March 5 meeting, then tabled it from the May 7 meeting. While there was an opportunity for public comment at the March meeting, no one spoke either for or against the proposed subdivision.
The project, called Merrill Woods, will include several shared driveways. Some of the homes will have access off Woodville Road, while others will have access off Field Road.
Tom Farmer, a landscape architect from Yarmouth who is representing Catherine Liberty, trustee of the Merrill Trust, and said during the March 5 Planning Board meeting that only about 14 acres of the remaining 55 would be developed.
He said the property abuts the East Branch of the Piscataqua River and there are various wetlands and steep slopes throughout the property that limit how much it can be developed. He said each lot would be about 30,000 square feet in size.
Farmer said a homeowners association would be created to own the open space and to be responsible for maintaining the proposed trail network.
At their March meeting, members of the Planning Board seemed generally in favor of the project, but did have some questions about maintaining an appropriate vegetative buffer between the developed areas and those set aside for conservation.
This article was updated to correct the date for the next Planning Board meeting.
Kate Irish Collins can be reached at 780-9097 or kcollins@theforecaster.net. Follow Kate on Twitter: @KIrishCollins.
A new subdivision off Woodville and Field roads in Falmouth will include conserved land and publicly accessible open space with a trail network.
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