Townhouse plans create concerns

STONINGTON, Conn. (WTNH) - Residents in one Stonington neighborhood are blasting a plan to bring townhouses to town.

The homes would be built near Greenhaven and Mary Hall Roads, and some say it will disrupt their way of life.

The wooded area is slated to be the entrance to a 68 unit townhouse complex which will be way back in the woods, but the folks who live along the street say they'll still be affected.

"Higher traffic and increased safety problems," says Peg Moran of Stonington.

Folks also say blasting could affect well water.

"It is entirely possible that when you're cutting into ledge at such an extreme activity level that they're going to disrupt both the quantity and quality of our water," says Moran.

More than six hundred people signed a petition opposing Cherenza Companies plan to build the townhouse development.

"Everybody is against it," says Rich McKrell of Stonington.

"We will lose four trees, our fence, our mailbox, part of our driveway that we just put in," says Edith Rose.

The plan may not have the approval of many folks in the area, but it did get the okay from the wetlands and conservation commissions as well as other boards in town. Tom Liguori from Cherenza tells News 8 that traffic for the 68 units would have the same impact as if 34 single family homes were built there, and pre-blast testing will be done to determine any impact. Both sides will meet again at a public hearing Sept. 6.

Rose says people don't like the townhouses because they would make the area become urban.

Tom Liguori says Cherenza built a similar complex over the border in Westerly Rhode Island where people there had the same concerns about traffic and property values, but he says that it is built and their concerns are gone.