Proposed Milltown Road Subdivision Moves Forward in Southeast

By Rob Sample

A proposal for a major subdivision on a parcel at 301 Milltown Road was the subject of a public hearing March 23 by the Southeast Planning Board, and drew comments/concerns from owners of neighboring properties prior to the matter moving on to the town board.

The project was first proposed by businessman Tom Nejame of Danbury, under the auspices of his firm Nejame New York Land, LLC. He seeks to divide an almost 48-acre parcel into four building lots. Each would contain a single-family home on a large, heavily wooded parcel, and the homes would be primarily hidden from view.

The hearing marks a landmark in a long process for Nejame, who submitted the application in January 2025. The engineering and architectural firm handling the project is P.W. Scott Engineering & Architecture of Brewster – whose principal, Peder Scott, outlined a variety of studies and mitigation measures the owner has taken since filing the application.

He pointed out that his firm has made significant modifications to the proposal since it was first introduced, including reorienting one house and changing the location of its septic field. “We’ve worked on lot number one to reduce the impact,” he said.

Scott said his firm conducted a survey and counted 2,025 trees (more than 18 inches in diameter) in the construction zone. Smaller sizes were not surveyed. He also said roughly 6½ acres would be altered of the total parcel.

“This is something called a red maple forest, which are known for the high densities of their trees,” he said.

Milltown Road resident Michelle Burns was especially interested in lot one because of its proximity to her house, which Scott said that seven trees of significant size would be removed; counting smaller trees, the total would be 175.

“Is the chipping going to be done off-site? I literally work right here, and (on-site wood chipping) would make my life miserable,” said Burns.

According to Scott, the plan calls for the logs to be transported to outside facilities, which would keep the larger logs while mulching smaller ones. Thus, no grinding operations would take place at the site.

Burns’s next question concerned the permit for the driveway, which would provide shared access to three of the four lots. That element of the project is still pending its State Environmental Quality Review Act requirement.

Burns noted that the area of discussion along Milltown Road has been the location of several serious accidents recently, among residents who have needed to exit their driveways onto a busy, relatively fast roadway. However, planning board member Lynne Eckhardt pointed out that the shared driveway avoids the scenario of having three driveways exit onto Milltown Road instead of just one, and such driveways are enabled by a provision in the town code.

“They (the developers) have enough road frontage to create those lots, and each could have an individual driveway onto that roadway,” she said. “But rather than do that, combining them reduces disturbance and improves safety.”

John Burns also brought up the shared-driveway, asking if it would be maintained, to which Planning Board Chairman Thomas LaPerch said that because it would be a private road, an agreement would be crafted among the property owners. That agreement would be reviewed as part of the final approval of the project, and the town would have the authority to intervene if concerns arise about the driveway’s maintenance state.

The public hearing process began in October and was closed after the March 23 meeting. The matter was scheduled to go before the Southeast Town Board on April 2.

“He (Scott) has still got some work to do here, but he’s checked a lot of the boxes,” said LaPerch. “It’s a very difficult site and I think he’s worked with us nicely here on trying to figure things out.”