Friends of Hoppers to hold informational meeting this Wednesday about proposed Perkins Street development

Hiking paths in Hoppers area where housing development is being planned. | R. Carter

Posted By: David Fortier July 8, 2024

A plan to develop property bordering the Hoppers and Birge Pond areas be the subject of a meeting of the Friends of the Hoppers-Birge Pond Nature Preserve to be held at the Bristol Historical Society this Wednesday, July 10, at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Participants are asked to RSVP on the group’s Facebook page. Click here.

Craig Minor, a certified city planner, will review the proposal and its effect on wetlands in the area.

The proposal for a 16-unit single family development, Bristol Village off Perkins Street, came before the city’s Inlands Wetlands and Watercourses Commission (IWWC) last Monday, July 1. The plan was prepared for site preparation contractors P & B Properties LLC, which was created in July of 2023, and presented by local attorney Timothy Furey of Furey, Donovan, Cooney and Dyer.

At its June meeting, the IWWC tabled the project until a later time when it receives more paperwork about the impact of the project on the wetlands. The petitioners have 65 days from the submission of its plans for the project to be accepted or denied by the commission.

If necessary, the commission will call a special meeting to meet the deadline.

Regarding wetlands, a brook runs through the property and a bridge will have to be completed in the first of four stages that the project proposes. The property fronts 260 Perkins St. but most of the 10-plus acres are in a rear lot running into the forested area that abuts the City of Bristol’s Dog Park and the Birge Pond and Hoppers areas. Several hiking paths cross the property.

The Hoppers area contains geologically rare kettleholes, remnants of the Ice Age, and the development would have to deal with several of these geologically significant artifacts as well as other ones called eskers. There is no mention of the kettleholes in the report, since the reports deals specifically with wetlands approvals.

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