The owner of 517 Newtown Turnpike in Weston withdrew a plan for three house lots on Monday, Nov. 2, hours before the Planning and Zoning Commission was to resume a public hearing on it. The owner says it will apply again. Under state law, the hearing could not have run past Nov. 11, nine days later.
Gloria Gouveia, the Westport land use consultant representing the owner, MRCMCN LLC, emailed the withdrawal to Land Use Director Richelle Hodza at 12:42 p.m. "We will be filing a new application as soon as possible, on a date to be determined," she wrote.
The email gave no reason. That evening, Chair Sally Korsh told the commission, "I think we all realize that part of that is because they did not have the requisite backup with respect to the Conservation Commission."
"I believe they intend to come back," she said.
What the commission asked for
The hearing opened Aug. 3. State law sets a time limit for finishing a public hearing, which an applicant can agree to extend, but only so far. "There's only 65 days of possibility to extend any portion of the application," Hodza told the commission in September. Citing the statute, the Nov. 2 agenda noted the limit: "no further extensions beyond 11/11/2026."
The plan covered both of the owner's parcels, 515 and 517 Newtown Turnpike: about 9.9 acres on Route 53 in a two-acre residential zone, according to the application. The site plan shows land of the Aquarion Water Company and the State of Connecticut on its borders.
According to the minutes of the commission's Sept. 14 meeting, Gouveia reported that all three proposed lots met the zoning and subdivision rules. She said the Health Department had given conceptual approval to the septic designs and well locations.
Commissioners wanted more. Commissioner Gus Christensen, who walked the site with Hodza, described buildable sites on a high plateau on the left side of the property and a steep drop on the right into a flagged inland wetland and pond. The minutes record that the applicant must submit engineering calculations for a stormwater plan, sized for a 50-year storm.
The commission also worried about lot size. The minutes describe "a highly restrictive 700 square foot margin on at least one lot" in the two-acre zone. The shared driveway, which must be at least 12 feet wide so fire trucks can reach the houses, has to be subtracted from a lot's acreage. How much land the driveway would take was not yet known.
The town also wanted a letter from its conservation planner saying no wetlands permit was needed. Weston had no town engineer at the time, Hodza said, and the commission directed her to arrange an outside review of the engineering. With the applicant's permission, the hearing was continued to Oct. 5. That meeting was canceled "for lack of business," and the hearing moved to Nov. 2.
Next year's calendar
With the hearing off the agenda, the commission set its 2027 calendar: the first Monday of each month, or the second Monday when the first is a holiday. Hodza had also offered an alternative, a rotating schedule worked out "with the help of AI." Korsh said she appreciated "the math initiative." "The AI did it," Hodza said. Members chose the fixed Monday.