Hillside Treecutting and Visual Impacts

The home in the photo above is probably one of the best examples of how not to develop a hillside site within that Gateway Conservation Zone. In this case, the hillside was steep enough that the developer felt that a "switchback" driveway had to be constructed (below) in order to get to the platformed site where the home was to be built. In addition to clearing the entire site of tree and scrub vegetation cover, a tremendous quantity of highly visible white granite boulders was used to build the roadbed upon which the driveway would sit. As such, this site is one of the most visible within the Conservation Zone, contrary to the mission of preserving the "natural and traditional riverway scene". Although the Town was able to require a landscape plan for buffer the view of the development after the fact, little could be done to mitigate the visual impact of the highly visible rock, the driveway and the home.

Ironically, the smaller home with the pinkish roof to the above left of the developed site (photo above) was able to construct an addition and have a tremendous view upriver looking through the clearing that had taken place below them. They didn't have to remove a single tree. The home at left is likely beautiful, but this is a case where a better job might have been done balancing the needs and desires of the property owner in obtaining what is one of the most incredible views of the lower Connecticut River valley, in accessing the site and, most important to the Gateway Commission, maintaining the look of the hillside for all those that see it from below and for miles upriver.