Opposition Emerges to Development by Tuller School

A developer's plan to build seven homes by the old Tuller School off Fairfield Woods Road is controversial after all.

More than a dozen residents who live near the former school arrived in Osborn Hill School's gymnasium Thursday night to hear a presentation on the plan, but left a few minutes later after learning the hearing was rescheduled to March 3.

William Fitzpatrick, the attorney for Christopher Cocco and Malgorzata Piekarski, who bought the 4.53-acre property at 144 Tuller Road for $990,000 in October 2009, said he was filing revised plans for the development and asked that the hearing be postponed.

"The town engineer indicated the need for more drainage storage on the property," Fitzpatrick said to members of the town's Inland Wetlands Commission. "I'm submitting revised plans."

Stanton Lesser, the commission's chairman, told residents who live near the property that the hearing would be on March 3, but not everyone left right away. Several stayed in the gym to look at plans that had been attached to a wall by the exit.

The residents' objections included Cocco's and Piekarski's plan to extend Little Brook Road to provide access to six proposed houses; the potential for more traffic, which they said would pose a hazard to neighborhood kids; the size of the proposed homes, which are about twice the size of existing homes in the neighborhood; and the potential for flooding in their basements during storms.

"The major concern seems to be the drainage because that is a wetland area and there has been problems with flooding before," said Marc Smith of Little Brook Road as he walked out of Osborn Hill School. "That's a big part of it."

Traffic and the appearance of the proposed homes don't fall under the jurisdiction of the Inland Wetlands Commission. If the commission approves the development, it also would require approval by the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, which does have jurisdiction over traffic and whether the proposed homes will be in harmony with the neighborhood.

"There are concerns about the construction process itself," Smith added, saying the neighborhood had just lived through the expansion and renovation of Stratfield School on nearby Melville Avenue. "The houses are going to be more of the McMansion thing, which does not really fit in the neighborhood."

Smith said most homes in the neighborhood are 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot, while the proposed homes would be 2,600 to 2,800 square feet.

The old Tuller School, at 144 Tuller Road, dates to 1733 and would be converted into a house under Cocco's and Piekarski's proposed development.