In preparing this morning’s story on Prospect Road trees, I asked developer Joe Feinleib of Coastal Construction for his response. He asked when I needed it by. I said Saturday night. I planned to run the story Monday morning, and wanted time to include it appropriately.
There was no response as of 9 p.m. last night. I scheduled today’s story to go live at 5 a.m., and included the line that the developer declined to comment.
This morning, as I checked email, I found his reply — sent at 11:24 p.m. Sunday night. Joe wrote:
Thank you for reaching out to me on this matter.
I always try to keep as many trees as appropriate for the homes I build and would love to be able to keep the oaks on the property. However, after reviewing the trees with several professional arborists it was determined the roots of the trees would be severely compromised and would ultimately put both homes near them at risk. I certainly will not put my neighbor or my children in danger should a large branch or one of these trees fall. I am more than willing to plant new trees somewhere appropriate in Westport with the guidance of the town.
As you know from the work I have done in other location in town over the past 18 years you can see how much I enjoy landscaping and preserving trees when safe and appropriate. Some sites I am currently working on are 2 Oak Ridge Park where I am building a home and have saved all the oak trees on the site that are of a similar size as Prospect.
I have also saved a grand sycamore tree at the mill that is one of the most beautiful trees in Westport and there is not a week that goes by where I don’t get a compliment on the landscaping that we did on the old Geiger’s site on the post road.
Below is the Sycamore at the Mill in Westport.
