ESSEX - On Saturday, April 7 at 9 a.m., the Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission (IWWC) is scheduled to conduct a site walk of the newly proposed River Sound Development subdivision on a 36-acre parcel at Ingham Hill Road. The property sits on the Essex and Old Saybrook town line and in earlier applications was a part of the controversial Preserve proposal.

The Saturday site walk will be followed by a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 10 before the commission.

The present application proposes an open space subdivision that will divide the 36.6 acres into six individual lots that range in size from two to four acres. Each lot fronts on Ingham Hill Road. Robert Doane, the engineer representing owner River Sound Development, told the commission that construction on each lot, as presently proposed, could be accomplished outside the 100-foot review area from the wetlands. A review by the IWWC is required before the proposal can be presented to the Planning Commission.

Commissioner Nancy Arnold, according to the IWWC minutes, asked the obvious question: Is this application the beginning of an expansion that would eventually encompass the 1,000 acres of development previously proposed as the Preserve? Doane noted that the application makes no reference to the Preserve and has no connection to it.

River Sound Development proposes 20.67 acres of open space out of the 36.6 acres of property with a 75-foot buffer between the open space and the developed property. The open space will be deeded to the Essex Land Trust.

A petition for a request for a public hearing was submitted at the commission's March 13 meeting, but it carried only 25 signatures-30 are required-and the signatures had not been certified by the town clerk at that time. Nevertheless, the commission voted to set a public hearing date based in view of the fact that there was sufficient public interest in this application.

The application says that there are approximately 4.22 acres of wetlands on the site, of which 1.2 acres are vernal pools. None of the wetland areas, the application says, are to be altered under this plan.

The site is presently listed as an RU zone, which, in conservation subdivisions, requires a minimum lot size of 80,000 square feet. Water will be supplied by on-site wells. There will be underground utilities. The open space lot area will include 16.45 acres of uplands and 4.22 acres of wetlands for a total of 20.67 acres.

The developer owns 63 acres within Essex. It has been considered part of the Preserve, presently an undeveloped parcel of more than 1,000 acres that straddles three town lines-Essex, Old Saybrook, and Westbrook-but that lies mostly within the town of Old Saybrook. Although this proposed six-lot subdivision lies only in Essex, its close proximity to the town lines of Old Saybrook and Westbrook means the project has been referred for comment to land use officials in those towns. It has also been referred to the Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency.