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10/25/2024 05:48 PMWaterford ― Neighbors of an approved affordable housing development that calls for 47 modular homes at 111 Clark Lane now say some of the land belongs to them.
“We’ve been taking care of the (111 Clark Lane) property for a long time,” said neighbor Robert Roselund last week. “And I’m talking 50, 60, 70 feet into the property.”
Roselund lives at 121 Clark Lane, a property he said he bought in the 1990s. Now, part of what he’s long-considered to be his backyard is going to have modular homes put on it, because of an affordable housing project approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2023.
The project by developer Scott Gladstone would be deed-restricted, meaning 30% of the 47 homes would be rented or sold as affordable for a period of 40 years.
Three Clark Lane neighbors say they are concerned the project would decrease their property values, increase traffic and affect wildlife while cutting trees would make the area more wet.
They said there would no longer be trees to block noise from the Bates Woods animal control facility to the north. They also say a retaining pond that would be installed between the property and the adjacent Clark Lane Middle School would breed mosquitoes.
Planning Director Jonathan Mullen pointed out that under the state’s affordable housing law the town could not reject the project unless it could prove it would jeopardize the health and safety of residents. Under the law, those reasons have to outweigh the needs for affordable housing in town.
Mullen said Gladstone received all the required town approvals for the project.
In January, Gladstone purchased the property from the trust of Mary and Leo Archambault for $690,000. Two months later, he sold it to a new developer, James Wray, for $1.39 million.
Mullen said Wray is going to “build the property in conformance with the plan that was approved.”
Asked why he sold, Gladstone said he had never anticipated the process of approvals would take as long as it did.
“We just figured from a timing perspective, it just made the most sense to let the project continue, and by a local business owner that has a great reputation and is going to do all the site work themselves,” he added.
Wray has already started work, clearing trees on a small strip of land that’s sandwiched between 109 and 107 Clark Lane. That’s the location of one of the entrances to the development.
The problem according to several adjacent homeowners is that the 16.1-acre development would encroach on what they have considered their backyards for many years.
“Everyone started using that land back in the 1990s,” said Christine Haase, of 119 Clark Lane, adding that since then, “There’s been confusion over the boundaries of the land.”
Haase, who bought her home in 2016, said at least 20 feet of land that extends back into the 111 Clark Lane property was already being used by the adjacent homeowners.
The neighbors have now hired an engineer to conduct a survey of the boundaries. They said the results are expected next week.
Neighbor Arlene Sherman, of 119 Clark Lane, said that Wray has “already sent over his bulldozer, and they’re tearing the woods apart. But we’re still having this boundary dispute.”
Neighbors say once they receive the survey, they may have a case, under state prescriptive easement laws, which allow residents to acquire land if they have used it uninterrupted over a period of time.
“We had to come up with thousands of dollars to try and fight this,” Roselund said. “We’ve been taking care of this property for 30 years.”
Wray could not be reached to comment.
d.drainville@theday.com