A final public hearing for the project known as Longview Farm, a 27 lot subdivision, was closed on Thursday, June 15 followed by final conditional approval by the Town of Newburgh Planning Board. The subdivision was represented by the firm T.M. DePuy Engineering & Land Surveying, PC.

Patrick Hines of MHE Engineering provided an overview of the project to the public on Thursday night. “This project has been before the planning board since 2006. It got preliminary approval in 2008. It received a conditional final approval in substantially the same form as it is today in 2009. The [planning] board thought it was appropriate to hold a new public hearing in order to allow any new neighbors or any people that weren’t aware that this project was still ongoing to have a chance to review and comment on the project,” said Hines.

Proposed access to the project would be off Holmes Road, Barbara Drive and Dara Drive. Individual wells and subsurface sanitary sewer disposal systems will service the lots as previously presented. A storm water management plan has been developed and a town drainage district will be established for the site.

The drainage district does not include the current homeowners in the area which engineer Thomas DePuy stated, and this would be the 12th drainage district in the town with project approval. DePuy provided several updates from the previous public hearing to address concerns from residents about changes in addresses. “Barbara Drive will be extended all the way through into Merritt Lane. Summer Drive will be extended through and meet up with Dara Drive,” said DePuy. Other details about the project list that it be developed in phases and would involve the disturbance of 87.8 plus-or-minus acres with each lot proposed from one or more acres in size. Each of the units proposed would feature three to four bedrooms, with the wells constricted to accommodate that number of individuals living there.

“I was curious if we can implement any more safety regulations in the neighborhood like lowering the speed limit on Holmes Road, because Frozen Ridge and Carter [Ave] both have lower speed limits,” said Heather Todisco. “Also, the intersection of Holmes and Lattintown currently has one stop sign. I was wondering if we could make that like a three-way stop sign. We’ve had several drunk driving accidents on our front yard.”

The Todiscos’ concerns about traffic also raised more questions about the issue of traffic in the area as there has been an increase in residents thus an increase in vehicles and again the speed limit was requested to be lowered. Another resident also asked if the roads would be paved which would need to be addressed by the town highway superintendent, according to Hines.

“I’m wondering what the time frame is for this project to commence and where it says it’s going to be done in phases where it’s going to start,” said resident Alyssa Derosa. According to DePuy, the phases would begin on the eastern side of the property in section one of the plans, where Derosa’s property was located, and would continue until the completion of section four. The project would commence three to four months after approval. According to the town code, the project is subject to the architectural review by the town due to having more than 10 lots and with this review, the town would look to not have each house built look exactly like each other. “It [the building style of these homes] directly reflects on our homes, our neighborhood, our house values, the Town of Newburgh’s image, reputation, everything, it’s all rolled in,” said resident Kevin Bento.