EIC Approves Cotswold on Fourth Attempt

Despite neighborhood opposition, the Environmental Impact Commission approved 42 single family homes on what is called Cotswold of Danbury, a cluster development overlooking a brook that floods in heavy rains.

The land is wooded today, but it has a lengthy history of near-development. Cotswold of Danbury, a cluster development proposed as a 60 unit application, was withdrawn on Feb. 10, 2005. It was again proposed but withdrawn as 57 units on Nov. 11, 2005, and denied on Sept. 19, 2007.

The new application called for 44 units on 78 acres near the corner of Padanaram Road and Route 37. The parcel is reached by neighborhood roads off Clapboard Ridge Road, and more than 100 people signed petitions in opposition from Padanaram Road, East Wood Road and East Gate Road.

EIC approved 42 houses, and the developers agreed to give about 53.9 acres to Danbury as open space. Downhill from this development, the Padanaram Brook flooded in 2007 and in 2009. Neighbors opposed this development both because of flooding downstream and because of traffic it will create near Danbury High School at the development's exit.

This article was edited to fix the intersection near the development, Route 37 and Padanaram Road. Thanks for the tip, Ken.