MARION — The future of a 48-unit housing development is now in the hands of the homebuilding company Toll Brothers, and at a public hearing on Monday, July 21 representatives from the company shared their plans for the 30-acre property.

The Toll Brothers acquired the project from developer Matthew Zuker after spending a few months evaluating the property, which is located at 78 Wareham Road (Route 6), to determine if taking on the project was an opportunity they wished to pursue.

While the company plans to keep the project at 48-units rather than featuring a mix of detached houses, attached townhouses and duplexes, all 48 structures would be single-family homes.

According to Jeff Heidelberg, who presented the new design plan to the Planning Board, Toll Brothers is looking to make a “more efficient play out” than Zuker’s design.

“It would reduce the amount of impervious areas, adhere to some of the comments that we heard from the fire chief and change the arrangement of the housing units to fit better for the homeowner’s association,” Heidelberg said.

Included in Heidelberg’s plan is leaving a 20-foot gap between each house, which takes some of Fire Chief Brian Jackvony’s safety concerns into consideration.

“He wanted additional space because it’s, in his opinion, a cluster development,” Heidelberg explained. “There’s a lot of homes, and he’s nervous that if one goes up … there’s a high chance another one could go up.”

During the public hearing, Rich Gilbert, who lives across the street from the development site, questioned how the developers would address traffic flow, noting that the traffic is “pretty bad” near the site’s entrance.

“I see kids doing wheelies on motorcycles, and … they’re not doing 50, they’re not doing 60, doing almost 90, and I see too many things happen,” he said.

Planning Board member Tucker Burr noted that the property lies along “a very dangerous section” of Route 6, with its main entrance located near a hill.

“About the first two weeks of December, the sun is directly on the road as it crests and comes over and [you] can’t see anything,” he said.

Developers and the town of Marion can’t put signs or adjust traffic patterns, such as installing traffic lights, without appealing to the state, but to make the development more visible to drivers, Heidelberg proposed “a boulevard looking entry along the front.”

“There was concern about sight lines as you’re coming up over the rise of the hill,” he said. “We need an indicator that vehicles should be slowing down.”

The entrance would feature a center island with 20-foot wide roadways on either side to give the development a “grand approach” and a sign identifying the property, which Heidelberg said would give drivers the “visual cues that traffic’s going to be entering.”

Planning Board Chair Andrew Daniel noted that it’s still unknown when ground will break for the project, noting that since Toll Brothers has taken over developing the site, the permitting process must now start from the beginning.

“This project’s been going, going and going, this piece of land discussion, for a long time,” he said. “I’m hoping to see a shovel in the ground.”