By David Tyler
Before moving forward with a new subdivision off Henneberry Road, the Manlius Planning Board is asking the developer for confirmation that there will be an ample supply of water to serve 34 single-family homes.
Harrington Homes is proposing the subdivision on a horseshoe road just south of Brandywine Drive off Henneberry Road. Stalled proposals for a development on the site date back to 2002, but plans were revived earlier this year by Harrington. The average lot size in the development is about an acre and a half. The homes will have either three or four bedrooms.
The site lies outside of municipal water district and because of the grade leading up to the development, there is no available municipal water source. Plans call for each of the homes to be serviced by a well.
The planning board is asking for a series of test wells to be drilled with the results certified by a hydrogeologist before allowing the site plan review to move forward.
Mark Shute of Shute Water Systems, representing the developer, told the board he had successfully drilled many wells in the area and didn’t anticipate there would be a problem with the water supply.
Planning board member Rich Rossetti said he would like some sort of guarantee that people moving into these homes won’t be left high and dry.
“If we have some difficulty down the road – five years, 10 years, whatever – I don’t want to be on the hook for this,” he said. “As long as whoever is making the determination [on the viability of the wells] is going to back it up, I’m ok moving forward.”
“Mark Harrington is a premier homebuilding, and he doesn’t want any problems either,” said Matt Napierala of Matt Napierala Consulting, representing Harrington Homes.
When the development was originally proposed earlier this year, the board advised the developer that a significant stormwater plan would be required to protect the existing homes on Brandywine, which sits at the bottom of a steep slope from the development.
Napierala showed the board a new site plan that would divert runoff to retention basins at the west end of the parcel, protecting the homes on Brandywine.
“Right now these homes got a massive watershed coming down the hill,” Napierala said, adding that the amount of runoff would actually be reduced with this plan.
“It looks like the stormwater can be taken care of,” said town engineer Doug Miller.
The developer will provide the water analysis before returning to the board for continued site plan review.
