News

Condo site's beauty could be building bane

By Mike Stucka
Staff Writer
Published: August 29, 2008

TOPSFIELD — The 52 condominums of English Commons at Topsfield would boast views of pastures, trees, a pond and small streams, most of which would be preserved.

But those idyllic features could also be obstacles as developer C.P. Berry of Topsfield tries to usher the project through the town's regulatory boards. In plans revealed Wednesday night, English Commons would be built into the northeastern part of the site, leaving most of the land under conservation restrictions, consultant Larry Beals told the Conservation Commission.

The project would have an entrance on Route 1 near the Danvers line. Beals said developer Alan Berry will seek permission to build the entrance road close to a pond and has to deal with wetlands and streams elsewhere on the site. Yet even some of those challenges could turn into bonuses. Today's shallow, artificial 8,000-square-foot pond could become a deep 15,000-square-foot pond that would be more beautiful and help reduce rainfall runoff, Beals said.

Alan Berry said people who have been interested in English Commons are being invited in mid-September to Newbury's Caldwell Farm, a similarly styled condominium development in a natural setting.

"They end up being our best sales people, the residents who are living up there," he said.

The development would be restricted to ages 55 and up. Beals said they also began negotiations Wednesday with the Topsfield Board of Health, seeking "common-sense" sizing on the development's septic system. With few children or other residents under 55 in the condominiums, Beals said real-world experience suggests the development would need about 4,000 gallons of capacity a day, half of what the state requires and one-fifth of what the town requires, he said.

Beals also said developers will need permission to build the road near the pond and also acceleration-deceleration lanes onto Route 1, near other protected wetland areas, for the project to succeed. They had earlier gotten permission for a water line to be brought underneath wetlands from Rowley Bridge Road.

Berry said if things move smoothly, the first units could open in June.

"What we're hoping is to get the permitting done and get started this fall, but it all depends on the permitting time line," he said.

C.P. Berry is putting more information about the development online at www.english commons.info.