By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
An early morning site walk on Sept. 29 at 68 Eastman Road in Cape Elizabeth, the proposed site for developer Joel Fitzpatrick’s Eastman Meadows 40-acre condominium subdivision, provided an opportunity for area residents to ask questions about the project, but did not alleviate their concerns about how a high-density development may change their neighborhood.
Fitzpatrick is proposing a 46-unit development for the 55 and older population.
A meeting for abutters, required by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), was scheduled for yesterday, after the Sentry’s deadline. A planning board public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16.
Potential abutters to the project have so far raised concerns about the impact on traffic, wetlands and in some cases, their homes.
“It’s to be expected,” Fitzpatrick said of the opposition to his proposal. “We try to listen and address their concerns and soften the blow.”
The main access road will loop out around an existing farmhouse, which will be sold as a single-family home. The proposed units will be primarily duplexes with two quadraplexes. Underground electric, telephone, cable, public water and public sewer will serve the lots. When extending sewer on Eastman Road, the town has asked Fitzpatrick to “stub out” service to abutting homes along the new line to provide opportunities for residents to connect to the public service.
Fitzpatrick said the units will be pre-sold and built in phases. He said he hopes he will be able to sell the units in the “mid $300,000 to low $400,000 range.”
Sixty percent of the property will be preserved as open space and new trails will be constructed to connect with conservation committee trails, according to the proposal.
Addressing a stand of large oak trees on the property, Fitzpatrick said, “We’re going to try and save a few,” but said it will need to be looked at in a “case by case” basis, as blasting may disturb the tree roots.
A stand of trees currently forms a buffer between Mary Brock’s property line and the proposed site for the main road in the development.
Owens McCullough of Sebago Technics said in addition to saving some trees, the plans call for significant plantings to restore some of the buffer that will be lost, particularly on Brock’s property.
Town Planner Maureen O’Meara urged Brock, who attended the site walk, to work with Fitzpatrick.
“If you’re a huge lilac fan or you like oak trees – it’s an opportunity to really have input in what gets planted,” O’Meara said.
Residents also questioned how existing wetlands on and near the site could be affected by the development. The plans call for boardwalks to be constructed to provide a means of crossing a wetland toward the rear of the property, but a few residents said they believed excavators on site had already affected the wetlands earlier in the year.
Fitzpatrick and Owens said the site required intensive soil surveys and excavators were brought in at least three times to dig test pits, but no work had been done to alter the wetland.
“I have major concerns about the wetland mapping and site lines,” Eastman resident Richard Carlson said at the conclusion of the site walk.
Carlson, who owns a farm across the road, made an offer on the property with a plan to build two houses and preserve the remaining land for farming and public use, he said.
Another of Carlson’s concerns is the development will increase traffic on a road that is frequently used to travel between Spurwink Avenue and Sawyer Road.
“What are we doing to protect the pedestrian traffic of Sawyer and Spurwink?” he said.
The town will conduct its own traffic study as part of the review process. Fitzpatrick’s traffic study estimated the development would generate nine trips per hour during the weekday peak hours from 7 to 9 a.m.
“We’ve already been concerned about the traffic on this road,” said Keith Tanabe, another Eastman resident.
Fitzpatrick and McCullough say the development will generate different traffic patterns than a development of single-family homes because most of the population will be retired and not commuting.
Some residents have expressed concern that while Fitzpatrick plans to market the units to the 55 and older population, the town is not restricting the property to that use. Fitzpatrick said he currently has a list of 20 people, all within that age group, who are considering a move to the subdivision, if it is approved.
“There is a need,” Fitzpatrick said. “I get calls regularly for single family homes and I tell them what’s coming up and they want nothing to do with it.”
Fitzpatrick said he could build 46 single-family homes on the property, but he doesn’t want to take that route. If the higher density development is not approved, Fitzpatrick said could build 20 houses on septic systems on a dead end road.
“I’ve chosen this because I think there’s a need and I want to do something different,” he said.
O’Meara said Cape Elizabeth’s aging population is selling their three or four bedroom homes and moving to Scarborough.
“It’s not being driven by finances,” O’Meara said of Fitzpatrick’s development. “We’ve got a big group of people that are turning into empty-nesters.”