Roughly a year after a highly criticized clearcutting operation on 24 acres off Woodside Road in Brunswick, the property’s owner has submitted plans to build a housing development. Neighbors are pushing back, saying the housing project would encroach on their natural resources, safety and privacy.

The proposed development features 122 three-story townhome units accessed via Woodside Road and connecting to Arrowhead Drive to the north. Each townhome would have its own driveway and garage. An additional 80 parking spaces are included in the site design for guest and overflow parking. The property is adjacent to Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust’s Crystal Springs Farm trails.

The Brunswick Planning Board held a workshop Tuesday evening to discuss a sketch plan application submitted by Sebago Technics on behalf of the development’s owner, Wyley Enterprises. The meeting was the first step in what will likely be a lengthy review process before the Planning Board, members said. Residents with abutting homes within 300 feet of the property were informed about the development review process last week, according to the town.

After feedback from residents and Planning Board members at Tuesday’s meeting, property owner Joel Fitzpatrick said he is considering changing the plan to a single-family home development with 80 units, which was one of his original concepts for the property.

“The goal was to try to provide some ownership options that might be a little less expensive than a traditional single-family house but achieve the density that would support the cost of the infrastructure and the development,” Owens McCullough, Sebago Technics senior vice president, said during Tuesday’s presentation.

The board received roughly 20 letters from residents ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. Many neighbors shared their concerns during the public comment section of the meeting. Commenters said development could increase traffic, contribute to flooding, cut off access to hiking trails and negatively impact the aesthetic of the community.

“I have animals, I worry for my animals. I see elderly couples walking down the road, my neighbor rides his bike with his son — it’s dangerous. There’s enough traffic now; we don’t need a development of 122 units coming in,” Brett Joslin, who lives across the street from the planned development, said at the meeting.

McCullough said developers plan to conduct a traffic study, adding that townhouses and condos typically generate less peak-hour traffic than single-family homes. He also said the applicant is considering reducing the driveways by half by building one driveway per two homes.

Resident Meghan Roberts said logging has already cut off access to BTLT trails by destroying informal trails that connect to the Arrowhead neighborhood.

“In their logging, [developers have] already destroyed some trail access that the neighborhood had … our access to the trails has already been compromised, so I’m concerned that this is not actually a real priority of the developers,” Roberts told the Planning Board.

McCullough said developers are exploring adding connections to the adjacent conservation land. BTLT Executive Director Steve Walker said at Tuesday’s meeting that he hopes to work with developers on trail connections and deciding how those trails will be maintained.

Planning Board members shared residents’ concerns and asked to visit the site to further investigate.

“The stormwater issues, erosion issues, blasting — the density is overwhelming with respect to the neighborhood,” Chairperson Bill Dana said. “It’s a nice-looking set of buildings, it just doesn’t look nice in that neighborhood.”

Fitzpatrick of Wyley Enterprises, LLC purchased the land in early 2024 with plans to develop it into housing.

But last summer, residents said they were caught by surprise when contractors started deforesting the tract of land.

While town officials said the logging was done legally and up to code, it raised concerns among neighbors about habitat fragmentation and increased potential for flooding, prompting a special town meeting.

The Maine Forest Service requires a Forest Operations Notification before cutting trees for products going to a mill but does not regulate development, which falls under the Maine Department of Environmental Protection jurisdiction and municipal rules. Since the DEP won’t get involved until a proposal is submitted, residents claimed a loophole allowed Fitzpatrick to raze the forest with little oversight.

“If [Fitzpatrick] had gone to the town first, they could have limited the logging more,” nearby resident Nicolette Williams told The Times Record. “We have a voice through the Planning Board that he bypassed.”

Williams said she has already noticed animals moving out of the woods and into neighborhoods. She also worries for the fate of wetlands and vernal pools — natural bodies of water that form in dips in the land and serve as breeding habitats for amphibians — on the property.

McCullough said wetland and vernal pool mapping has been completed on the site.

“They identified some non-jurisdictional vernal pools; in other words, it didn’t meet the prerequisite number of egg masses to rise to the level of being jurisdictional through the Maine DEP. … Right now, we’re working on the configuration of the road and development is working hard to avoid those wetland areas and preserve some open space on each side,” McCullough said Tuesday.

Fitzpatrick told The Times Record Wednesday that residents’ concerns will be taken into account in the planning process and he sees the development as a way to bring more housing and business to Brunswick.

The project still has to go through several reviews before it is approved by the Planning Board and more public hearings will follow, board members said.