Madison Planners Extend Hearing on 18-Unit River Road Cluster Plan
Planning and Zoning · Meeting of September 17, 2026
Madison Planning and Zoning extends hearing on contested 18-unit River Road cluster plan to October 15. Developer Bob Paolucci, founder of Principal Wealth Partners, and partner Paul Cody of Cody Construction presented engineering, traffic and architectural details for the small cluster development on 5.5 acres at Mill Road and River Road, drawing dueling legal arguments over whether the site qualifies under the town's "500 feet" eligibility rule. More than 20 residents spoke, roughly split, with supporters citing housing diversity and tax revenue and opponents citing density, septic and drainage concerns; one neighbor said the plan means "18 houses, two-plus stories, 18 subterranean foundations, 18 two-car attached garages." The commission agreed to give the neighbors' hired engineer, Steve Trinkus, 10 minutes to present a rebuttal report at the next session, versus the standard two minutes for public comment.
Traffic engineers projected only 18 morning and 20 evening peak-hour trips, with a Level of Service A rating at all nearby intersections.
In the full story:
- Who Was There
- Organizations And Documents Referenced
- The complete report — 3,394 words
Source: the Planning and Zoning meeting of September 17, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
The Full Article
Opening and Procedural Setup
Chair Carol Snow opened the September 17 meeting by explaining that the commission had chosen, at its September 2 session, to keep hybrid Zoom-and-in-person meetings rather than move fully online, by a 2-to-1 vote, despite a shortage of large venues. Minutes read later in the meeting showed the choice followed a debate in which Town Planner Erin Mannix, who is visually impaired, had asked for a Zoom-only format to ensure clear audio for potential appeal records and to accommodate room-capacity limits, and Town Counsel Carrie Olsen had recommended the same; the commission opted instead for hybrid with ADA accommodations in the meeting room. Snow reviewed hearing procedure for the packed room: two minutes per speaker for clarifying questions and comment, enforced by Secretary John Morgan as timekeeper, rows called from front to back, then Zoom hands. Seated commissioners were Snow, Vice Chair John Duzza, Morgan, Jeff Downs, Bob O'Connor and Janet Peckinpah, with Michelle Clark seated as an alternate for absent member Mike Bugda.
Background and Stakes
The application before the commission, filed by SWPG River Road LLC and pending since spring 2026, seeks a special exception permit and municipal coastal site plan review to build an 18-unit small cluster residential development on a roughly 5.5-acre parcel at the intersection of Mill Road and River Road, zoned R1. The owner, Bob Paolucci, is a Madison resident and founder of Principal Wealth Partners; he is developing the project with Paul Cody of Cody Construction, who recently completed a Wall Street office building that went through the same commission's site-plan approval process. The team has worked on the application for five months and previously presented to the commission on August 20.
The Question Before the Commission
Thursday's session was a continuation, not a decision meeting: commissioners were asked to hear the balance of the applicant's technical presentation, take remaining public comment, and decide whether to extend the hearing to a future date. No vote on the permit itself was scheduled or taken.
The Engineering and Environmental Case
Site engineer Mike Ott, a licensed professional engineer with Summer Hill Civil Engineers, presented the civil design. He said more than 50 test pits confirmed the site is entirely sand-and-gravel soil, that no wetlands exist on the parcel, and that it lies outside the special flood hazard zone, though tidal wetlands associated with the Hammonasset River sit roughly 150 feet north at their closest point and the site falls within the state's coastal boundary. The development would be served by a private 20-foot-wide loop road with two new driveway entrances roughly 590 feet apart, requiring removal of four trees along the road frontage and further tree clearing in a wooded western portion for "Unit 1." Most of the perimeter stone walls along River Road and Mill Road would be preserved and repaired; a roughly 150-foot interior stone wall, currently obscured by brush, would be removed.
Each home would have an individual 1,000-gallon septic system with single-row leaching fields 38 to 50 feet long, and individual buried propane tanks rather than a gas-main connection, since the gas utility declined to commit ahead of local approvals. Connecticut Water has issued a "will-serve" letter for a new water main; Eversource power, cable and telephone lines would run underground from a pole opposite the easterly driveway. Ott told the commission the septic plans were submitted to the town health department June 30, approved July 15, and therefore reviewed under state public health code technical standards in effect before the state issued amended septic regulations September 1 — a timing point he flagged as relevant to compliance.
On stormwater, Ott said each unit would have its own subsurface roof-water infiltration system sized for a 1.3-inch runoff depth, preceded by hydrodynamic separator pretreatment structures drawn from a Connecticut DOT pre-qualified products list. He said the site today has no significant off-site stormwater discharge except at the western end near Unit 1, where it already drains to River Road, and that the design preserves that same pattern. Roughly 1.7 acres of the 5.5-acre site, about 30 to 31 percent, would become impervious surface; Ott noted Madison, unlike some towns, has no townwide maximum impervious-coverage regulation, and said the figure must be read against soil type, slope and drainage connectivity rather than in isolation.
Traffic engineer Dave Sullivan, who manages SLR International Corporation's Community and Mobility Planning Group, reported no crashes in the study area over the most recent three years of state crash data. Automatic traffic recorder counts over three weekdays found average daily volumes of roughly 300 to 350 vehicles on River Road. Using Institute of Transportation Engineers trip-generation data for single-family homes, Sullivan projected 18 total trips in the morning peak hour and 20 in the evening peak hour from the development, which combined with background growth of a half percent (per guidance from the town's planning office) and traffic from other approved-but-unbuilt projects nearby, still produced a Level of Service A, the highest rating, at both new driveways and the Mill Road/River Road intersection. He recommended maintaining a consistent 18-foot road width along the site's River Road frontage, which requires several "sliver" widenings of up to four feet, and preserving sightlines of 385 feet to the left and 370 feet to the right at each driveway, both of which he said are currently met.
Environmental consultant Matt Davison of Davison Environmental LLC, appearing by Zoom, said he found no wetlands on site during an initial inspection this spring and confirmed the soils are excessively well-drained outwash sands and gravels with deep groundwater. A state Natural Diversity Database review, centered on the tidal marsh and Hammonasset River to the north, indicated the project would not adversely affect any state-listed species. Because the site lies within the coastal boundary, Davison also prepared a coastal resources impact assessment concluding the project is consistent with Connecticut's Coastal Management Act, given its distance from the nearest tidal wetlands and the grade difference separating the two.
Architecture and Landscape
Architect Greg Nucci of Point One Architects, which has offices in Old Lyme and on Wall Street in Madison, said the homes are designed in New England shingle style with rooflines kept to a single story to create what he called "a human scale" and "pedestrian feel." All units are capped at 2,250 square feet of gross floor area under the regulation, with footprints ranging from 1,810 to 2,005 square feet and total building heights of about 28 to 29 feet, below the 30-foot average and 37-foot maximum standards. Three unit types are proposed, two with first-floor primary suites and one with two upstairs bedrooms and a provision for a future elevator; all include attached two-car garages, though Nucci said the team tried to avoid "snout house" designs where garages dominate the street-facing elevation, with most units instead using side parking courts.
Landscape designer John Cunningham of TEC Landscape Design, a 35-year member of a Madison town board, said a substantial planted buffer behind the existing stone walls would screen the development from River Road, and that after meeting with neighbors at the library last week the team agreed to substitute green giant arborvitae for a previously proposed white spruce screening variety. He described four dark-sky-compliant, 12-foot pedestrian-scale light fixtures at a 2,500 Kelvin color temperature, spaced to avoid continuous illumination, along with a small woodland walking path and rear patios of 275 to 400 square feet of bluestone per unit, softened by planting beds.
The 500-Foot Eligibility Dispute
The most substantive disagreement of the night concerned whether the property is even eligible to be considered under Section 4.12, which permits small cluster developments "within 500 feet" of the town's downtown, commercial and transition zoning districts. The applicant's attorney, identified in the meeting only as Chris, argued the 500-foot language sets a location criterion for which sites may apply — comparable to abutter-notification radii — not a requirement that every building on an eligible site fall within that distance. He cited direct involvement in the regulation's 2018 drafting alongside then-Director of Planning and Economic Development Dave Anderson, saying Anderson had specifically identified River Road, Madison Center and Long Hill Road as contemplated sites in minutes from a July 2018 meeting, a month before the regulation's adoption. He also cited a prior commission decision on a project known as the Ledges, where he said the commission had granted an application understanding the full site was not within 500 feet.
"You can't cherry-pick a portion of a regulation and then try to decide what it says," he told the commission. "That's not how regulations are interpreted or statutes are interpreted."
A commissioner pushed back directly, citing minutes from a 2021 discussion of the Ledges application in which Anderson reportedly wrote that the 500-foot line fell at the midpoint between the north end of Boston Post Road and the south end of Old Bourbon Lane — meaning, in this commissioner's reading of the current site's survey and zoning map, that only a roughly 27-foot-deep triangular corner of the parcel, about 0.2 percent of its area, actually sits within 500 feet of the transition district. "I just wanted to write to read what I found and get that into the record," the commissioner said, adding the commission had not yet had a chance to review a competing legal memo submitted that evening.
An attorney representing opposing neighbors, referred to by Chair Snow as Attorney McKeon, argued in written and verbal testimony that zero percent of the proposed homes sit within 500 feet of the transition district, and that reading the regulation any other way produces what the applicant itself would call an unreasonable result if applied narrowly to a single corner of a five-acre lot. The attorney also warned that accepting the applicant's interpretation would make "hundreds of properties" townwide newly eligible for small cluster development, and requested the commission independently review the Ledges record before ruling. The applicant's attorney separately noted that a required disclosure under Section 8-1e, naming the professionals a resident hires to prepare a report and what they were paid, had not been filed for the neighbors' hired engineer, Steve Trinkus, and said the commission was entitled to weigh that when assessing his report's reliability.
Density, Parking and Open Space
Commissioners questioned whether the layout meets the small cluster regulation's intent for a shared sense of community. One commissioner said the development reads as "a road with houses lined on both sides" rather than a cluster with common open space, noting the only shared amenity is a walking trail at the site's far west end; the applicant's attorney and design team maintained the private road itself functions as the pedestrian connection. Jeff Downs asked how the 15 percent maximum lot coverage standard applies given the number of garages, driveways and paved area, and whether reducing coverage could shape unit count or green space; Ott responded that garages count toward building coverage and that the design remains under the 15 percent limit, while driveways do not count toward coverage at all. Another commissioner questioned why every unit needs a two-car garage rather than reduced parking to preserve more green space, prompting Ott to note the two-space-per-unit standard comes from the town's general parking regulation, not the small cluster section itself, since the small cluster rules do not set their own parking standard.
The applicant's attorney said the General's Residence, the only built precedent, achieved a density of nearly four units per acre on 2.28 acres; applying that ratio to this 5.5-acre site could yield roughly 22 units, and the property's total square footage would in theory allow up to 24 units under the one-unit-per-10,000-square-foot standard, making the proposed 18 units, in his telling, a restrained figure rather than a maximized one.
Affordability and the Plan of Conservation and Development
A commissioner asked directly whether any of the 18 units would be designated affordable; the applicant's attorney said no. He and a commissioner then debated whether the town's Plan of Conservation and Development, which calls for diversifying Madison's housing supply to meet the needs of households across a range of incomes, sizes and ages, was intended primarily to promote affordability or simply housing-type diversity, noting the small cluster regulation's title once referenced affordability explicitly before a 2019 amendment removed that language alongside a density increase. Attorney Marjorie Shansky, identifying herself as part of the applicant's team, argued the POCD's diversity goal extends beyond racial or economic diversity to include "maintenance diversity" and downsizing options for older residents with few alternatives to a four-acre property.
Procedural Steps and Outcome
More than 20 members of the public spoke in person and by Zoom, roughly evenly split. Supporters, including Diana Barton, Robert Allen, Kevin Schroeder, Dylan Parker and Chip Walls, cited the need for smaller homes, new tax revenue and confidence in Cody's construction record. Opponents, including Mary O'Connell, a River Road-area resident identified as Peg, Terry Vandenholder and Steve Ernest, cited density, well-water and septic proximity, drainage and flooding history on River Road, and concern about precedent for an adjacent 15-acre parcel currently for sale. Independent engineer Steve Trinkus, hired by neighbors, asked for 10 minutes at the next meeting to present his findings rather than the standard two; after debate among commissioners and guidance from Town Counsel Carrie Olsen that equitable treatment favored granting it, the commission agreed to allow Trinkus 10 minutes on October 15, while all other public commenters remain limited to two minutes unless offering new information.
The applicant's attorney agreed on the record to extend the public hearing to the commission's October 15 meeting. A motion to continue the hearing to that date passed. The commission separately approved, unanimously, minutes of its prior meeting with two amendments: clarified wording on the room-selection discussion for this meeting, and a rewording of a note about the General's Residence homeowners association being "a broader HOA responsibility and not necessarily connected to this particular application." The meeting adjourned by unanimous voice vote near 9:45 p.m.
Implications and What Is Next
The hearing resumes October 15, when Trinkus presents his rebuttal engineering report and the applicant responds; Ott indicated he has already prepared a detailed written response to Trinkus's findings. The commission has not yet ruled on the 500-foot eligibility question, which both sides now agree is likely dispositive, nor on density, parking or open-space compliance. How it resolves the eligibility dispute could affect not only this application but, according to testimony from both attorneys, the pool of other Madison properties near commercial and transition districts that could become eligible for small cluster development under whichever interpretation prevails.
Carol Snow, Chair, presiding. John Duzza, Vice Chair. John Morgan, Secretary, served as hearing timekeeper. Jeff Downs, Commissioner. Bob O'Connor, Commissioner. Janet Peckinpah, Commissioner. Michelle Clark, seated as alternate in place of absent regular member Mike Bugda. Erin Mannix, Town Planner, operated the presentation screen and fielded venue-logistics questions. Carrie Olsen, Town Counsel, joined by Zoom and advised the commission on hearing procedure and equitable time allotment for the neighbors' hired engineer.
Applicant's team: Bob Paolucci, owner, SWPG River Road LLC, and founder of Principal Wealth Partners; Paul Cody, development partner, Cody Construction; an attorney for the applicant identified only as Chris; Marjorie Shansky, attorney, identified as part of the applicant's team; Mike Ott, professional engineer, Summer Hill Civil Engineers, site engineer; Matt Davison, professional wetland and soil scientist, Davison Environmental LLC, appearing by Zoom; Dave Sullivan, professional engineer, SLR International Corporation, traffic consultant; Greg Nucci, licensed architect, Point One Architects; John Cunningham, TEC Landscape Design; Carly Keogh and Julia Fiore, certified planners, appearing by Zoom, available for questions but not directly quoted.
Opposition team: Steve Trinkus, professional engineer, hired by neighboring residents to review the application; an attorney for opposing neighbors identified by the chair as Attorney McKeon.
Public commenters (in-person, with stated addresses where given): Diana Barton, board of trustees, Madison Historical Society, supportive; Karen (surname as transcribed uncertain), Grouse Lane, speaking on behalf of her mother, supportive; Robert Allen, Racebrook Road (as transcribed), supportive, citing tax revenue; Paula Steer, Down [Run] Drive (as transcribed), opposed, citing density; a River Road-area resident whose name was not reliably captured on the recording, opposed, citing flooding and wetlands; Judy Damon, Horsepond Road (as transcribed), realtor representing prospective buyers across the street, mixed views on pricing and affordability; Kevin Schroeder, Bishop Road (as transcribed), supportive; Mary O'Connell, Mill Road, opposed, citing density and requesting time for Trinkus; a River Road neighbor identified as Anne Francis (or Francis Fish), opposed, citing density and well/septic proximity; a resident identified as Jim McDonald, River Road, opposed, citing density and an August Architectural review board recommendation to reduce the unit count by one or two homes; an unnamed resident who asked about tree removal on the wooded portion of the site; Timothy Boston, Kingsbridge Way, opposed, citing ingress/egress safety and drainage; a longtime River Road-area resident identified as Peg (surname not reliably captured), opposed, citing cumulative density of septic, propane and stormwater infrastructure; Chip Walls, Stone Road, supportive, citing a background in economics and Cody's reputation as a builder.
Public commenters (by Zoom): Terry Vandenholder, Bartlett Drive, a member of Madison's Conservation Commission and another town land-use committee, opposed, citing the Plan of Conservation and Development and environmental concerns; Dylan Parker, Middle Beach Road, a licensed architect, supportive; an unidentified Zoom couple, opposed, citing loss of community character; Steve Ernest, Dover Lane, opposed to the density though supportive of the architectural design.
SWPG River Road, LLC — the applicant entity, owned by Bob Paolucci. Principal Wealth Partners — Paolucci's firm, cited to establish his ties to Madison. Cody Construction — Paul Cody's firm, development partner on the project. Summer Hill Civil Engineers — Mike Ott's firm, prepared the site engineering plans and stormwater management report. Davison Environmental LLC — Matt Davison's firm, conducted wetland delineation, soil testing and the coastal resources impact assessment. SLR International Corporation — Dave Sullivan's firm, prepared the traffic impact study. Point One Architects — Greg Nucci's firm, designed the residential units. TEC Landscape Design — John Cunningham's firm, prepared the landscape and lighting plan. Connecticut Water — utility that issued a "will-serve" letter for the development's new water main. Eversource — utility providing underground electric, cable and telephone service to the site. Institute of Transportation Engineers — source of the standardized trip-generation data used in the traffic study. Connecticut Department of Transportation — maintains the pre-qualified list of hydrodynamic separator stormwater treatment structures specified in the design; also a source of roadway design guidance (AASHTO standards administered through ConnDOT). Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEP) — issues the general permit for construction-activity stormwater discharge cited in the stormwater compliance discussion. Connecticut Coastal Management Act — state law establishing coastal resource protections; central to Davison's coastal site plan review consistency finding. Town of Madison Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Stormwater Management Plan, dated 2017 — cited by Ott as the town's guiding stormwater compliance document. Madison Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) — cited repeatedly by both the applicant's team and commissioners/residents regarding the town's housing-diversity and affordability goals. Section 4.4L and Section 4.12 of the Madison Zoning Regulations — the special exception and small cluster residential development provisions under which the application is filed. Minutes of the Planning and Zoning Commission, July 19, 2018, and August 16, 2018 — cited by the applicant's attorney and a commissioner as evidence of then-Director Dave Anderson's original intent for the small cluster regulation's site-eligibility language. Minutes of the Planning and Zoning Commission, June 31 [sic], 2021 — cited by a commissioner regarding the Ledges application (856 Boston Post Road) and the interpretation of the 500-foot boundary line. The Ledges (856 Boston Post Road) — a prior small cluster application cited by both the applicant's attorney and opposing counsel as precedent on the 500-foot eligibility question; ultimately denied on unrelated grounds after being granted an initial approval. General's Residence — the only development previously built under Section 4.12, cited repeatedly as a density and precedent comparison (9 units on 2.28 acres). Section 8-1e of the Madison regulations — a disclosure requirement, cited by the applicant's attorney, requiring residents' hired professionals to be identified along with their compensation.