I am writing to correct a misleading statement on the part of Matt Bonner, who, with Churchill Franklin, is proposing the 14-lot subdivision on the beautiful old Bingham property on North Bingham Street in West Cornwall.
Their application is the subject of a public hearing in Cornwall on Thursday, Jan. 10. Bonner comments in a story in the Addison Independent that the developers intended to create a pattern of houses that “look as though they belonged and had always been there … for the space among and between (houses) to match the existing settlement pattern on North and South Bingham (Streets).”
The existing settlement pattern on North and South Bingham Streets is of single-family houses facing the main roads, with some homes set far back from these roads on sizable lots. On North Bingham Street, many of these houses are separated by more than an acre. The plan of the proposed subdivision is identifiably suburban in appearance, with 7 of the 9 house sites arranged below the old church in 1- to 2-acre lots around a loop in the subdivision’s center. There is no settlement pattern on North or South Bingham Streets that resembles this configuration.
Cornwall subdivision and zoning regulations make clear that any new development must extend existing settlement patterns of the district in which it is proposed. Many neighbors on South and North Bingham Streets are concerned about the impact a development of this magnitude and density — and of this suburban style — will have on the aesthetics of this lovely and historic part of Cornwall. In weighing the compatibility and accountability factors that are important in a subdivision proposal of this scale, it is helpful to be accurate about the facts.
Elizabeth Napier
Cornwall