Traffic among neighbors' concerns for Bellvale development

WARWICK—Like many quiet streets in the town, Upper Wisner Road and Pumpkin Hill Road will be affected by development. Residents of that area of Bellvale are facing that concern now as the Peter Oprandy Trust is applying to the town to build a 14-lot subdivision called Foxwood Estates. Much of the nearly 50-acre property is wetlands, said some neighbors. More than half of the it will be left undeveloped as open space. It will be deeded that way. An old graveyard is part of the property and the traffic will certainly have an impact on this hamlet, they say. "Traffic is a concern," said Jayne Matheson, who lives on Pumpkin Hill and whose family dates back to 1732 here in Warwick. "This road is used as a bypass road. It should be 30 miles-per-hour. It's bad now. So many kids live on Pumpkin Hill "With this new development," she added, "if you say two cars per house plus visitors, that's a lot more cars on the road." Town Planner Ted Fink said a traffic study has been done in the area by private traffic consultants. Robert Held, who lives on Wisner Road, agreed with Matheson that the traffic will increase dramatically. "All this building is going to send an awful lot of traffic up Wisner Road," he stated. Matheson's property borders the field where the homes will be built. Her parents built their house in the 1950s. She questioned building on such wet land, noting there are ponds on the property, and the fact that there are graveyards on the property. The engineer for the project said the nearest house is 300 feet from any grave. Residents of the Bellvale area have been watching closely as their tiny hamlet is growing. In addition to this application, two other applications - BCM, which is also part of the Oprandy Trust, and the Gables - are before the Planning Board to build a total of 60 homes on Route 17A near Bellvale Boulevard. Some residents of the hamlet, which has about 100 homes in total, have said this little farming hamlet is just not capable of handling this many more homes. Nearby resident Phyllis Briller has been keeping her eye on the development going on throughout the town, not just in her Bellvale neighborhood. She wants a cumulative traffic study to include BCM, The Gables and this development. The homes proposed are all four-and five-bedroom homes. The public hearing for this application was adjourned to the April 20 meeting. Planning Board Chairman Ben Astorino said more information is needed before making a positive or negative declaration for the State Environmental Quality Review Act.