End of the road

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Prospect resident Mark Hudson complained to the Planning and Zoning Commission that this piece of Rosemary Road has not been paved yet. LARAINE WESCHLER
PROSPECT — For five years, Mark Hudson of 105 Rosemary Road has driven the last 100 feet to his house through an unfinished gravel road without complaint. But now, he told the Planning and Zoning Commission recently, he wants the town-owned road finished.

The last 100 feet of Rosemary Road were never paved when developers, Robert Capanna and Mark Capanna, signed off on the Summit Heights subdivision five years ago. The town released the bond for the project before the road was finished.

“Mr. Hudson, literally, is caught between a rock and a hard place,” Prospect Land Use Inspector Bill Donovan said.

Hudson said the dirt road is dangerous because it makes it harder for emergency vehicles to get to his home, as happened last year when a fire started after lightening hit a propane tank on his property.

Since the planned cul-de-sac was never complete, there is insufficient turnaround at the end of the road and school busses refuse to pick up Hudson’s three children on the road, he said.

Hudson added he would like to pave his driveway, but can’t because the road it connects to is not paved.

After Rosemary Road was built in 2006, another developer, LTF Construction, applied in March 2007 for a permit to build a new subdivision nearby. The commission required the new Woodmont Estates subdivision to connect into Hudson’s Summit Heights neighborhood.

Having approved the plans for Woodmont Estates to connect into the neighborhood, the town released the bond for Rosemary Road believing it unnecessary to pave the cul-de-sac just to have it torn up and repaved a few months later.

That was before the recession hit.

As it turned out, the pace of development has gone a lot slower than expected.

“It’s definitely taking a toll, but we are still producing three to five units a year,” Larry Farrell, president of LTF Construction said.

LTF Construction is paving bits of road as lots are sold, working from the other side of the development off of Mikayla Lane, with the connection to Rosemary Road likely to be paved last.

Farrell said he expected to finish paving the road on his property next year. Of the 25 lots in Woodmont Estates, five are currently under construction and another six have yet to start construction. Farrell said homes are selling six to eight months after completion.

The building permit for Woodmont Estates is set to expire in March of 2012, and Hudson asked the Planning and Zoning Commission not to extend it until the developer paves the end of Rosemary Road. The permit can be renewed for up to 14 years.

Farrell doesn’t believe he’s responsible for paving the road. He said he agreed to pave to the end of the cul-de-sac, not through the cul-de-sac and part of the way up Rosemary Road past Hudson’s driveway, an extra few hundred feet.

Farrell’s property ends about 230 feet before the end of the cul-de-sac. At this point, he said, he doesn’t even have permission to pave across someone else’s property.

“It’s not my land,” he said.

Farrell said it is Robert and Mark Capanna’s responsibility to finish the last part of Rosemary Road.

Land use officials have asked Farrell to discuss the matter at a future meeting.

“These are all good people. It’s just a matter of trying to work it out with everybody,” Donovan said.