A proposed townhouse development in Milford remains in limbo after City Council postpones a vote for a second time.
The proposed Carlisle Lane subdivision would put 39 townhouses and one single-family house on a 4.5 acre site on Truitt Avenue. But, along with the new homes comes a list of requested waivers - narrower streets, smaller setbacks, and a need for some lots to encroach onto a nearby floodplain. In August, members of the city’s Planning Commission voted against the project.
That set the stage for a City Council meeting later that month, where Ed Ide, an engineer attached to the project tried to assure council members that the waivers needed were of little consequence.
“If you evaluate each of the variances and waivers on their own merit, they're minor.," he said. "We're not asking for height adjustments or parking adjustments or rezoning classifications or density questions.”
But council members raised a number of questions, especially about that narrower street and its effects on traffic and parking, leading to a move to table the vote.
“I travel that street just about every day," said Councilwoman Katrina Wilson. "And right now as it is, as I come down the street, if another car is coming, I have to pull over as if I'm parking to allow that car to go down.”
To approve the project would require a three-fourths vote of the council, in order to override the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
Revisiting the project on Monday, the process grew more complicated. If council members want to ask more questions of the developer, they would have to hold another public hearing. With a 7-0 vote on Monday to table the measure, that could be the direction in which the Council is leaning.
