Millbrook sets hearing Sept. 8 for Bennett Park walking trail work

MILLBROOK — Extension of a walking trail as part of the planning for Bennett Park was discussed at the regular meeting of the Planning Board on Monday, Aug. 11.

Following discussion, a public hearing on the woodland trail extension was scheduled for the next regular Planning Board meeting on Monday, Sept. 8, to begin at 6 p.m. at Village Hall.

Reviewing the plans were Engineer Richard Rennia of Rennia Engineering and landscape architect Ryan Manning of R Design Landscape Architecture of Millbrook. The trail will enhance public use of the 35-acre property, once the campus of Bennett College.

A woodland trail as part of the site plan was previously approved as part of Phase One, but an amendment to extend the trail to an entrance off of Franklin Avenue brought the project back to the Planning Board for approval.

“The only modification is in how to make the walkway better,” Rennia said. Wood chips would be laid to define the 5-foot-wide trail, but the length of the connector to Franklin Avenue would be a harder compacted gravel.

Plans avoid tree removal, Rennia said. Manning added that the plans are using wood chips to have less impact on the existing healthy trees.

No lighting is proposed for the interior trail. Existing lighting at the entrance would be retained.

“The plan was to protect trees and carve as little as possible out of the land,” Rennia said, describing minimal grading that would be needed at the site.

Planning Board chairman Frank Redl asked about what would be done with the few trees that will be removed. Manning replied that the trees would be chipped and used to line the path.

Looking to the future, Manning felt that as occasional storms fell trees, five or six benches could be planned to be fashioned from the trees and placed along the path.