After a long period of inactivity, a lawsuit, which was filed against the Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) in August 2018, is now being handled by a new law firm for the plaintiff, with the defendant WSA members discussing the status of the case at their December meeting.

A 12-minute executive session, which was held on the topic on December 12 by the WSA, followed the town’s December 10 transmission of 409 pages of documents to the new law firm representing developer 79 Church Hill Road LLC. The Trumbull development firm is suing the WSA in seeking approval for municipal sanitary sewer service for a controversial multifamily housing complex that it proposes for a lot at 79 Church Hill Road, near Exit 10 of Interstate 84, and abutting Walnut Tree Hill Road.

The lawsuit followed the last of several versions of a rental apartment complex proposed for the site by the developer. The firm is seeking court approval to either substantially or greatly expand the area at the site at which it could construct a housing complex with municipal sewer service.

Through the legal action, the developer is seeking to have the court nullify certain conditions that the WSA placed on the firm obtaining municipal sewage treatment capacity. The developer is seeking to nullify the WSA’s requirement that the developer gain approvals for the project from the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) and the from Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) before the WSA would consider providing municipal sanitary sewer service for the project.

The project, known as Hunters Ridge, would include an affordable housing component, in which income-eligible tenants would be charged significantly lower rents than other tenants occupying market-rate units.

A 141-unit version of Hunters Ridge was the last of several versions of the project proposed by the developer. The initial version of the project, which was proposed to P&Z in December 2017, specified 224 rental apartments in six buildings, more than 55,000 square feet of commercial space in two other buildings, and a clubhouse on the 35-acre site. That proposed construction drew strong opposition from people living in the area. They charged that such growth would amount to “overdevelopment.”

The lawsuit encountered a delay after First Selectman Dan Rosenthal in early 2019 objected to Shipman & Goodwin, a large Hartford law firm that represents the Newtown Board of Education on certain matters, also serving as 79 Church Hill Road LLC’s law firm in the lawsuit against the WSA.

Shipman & Goodwin later withdrew as the developer’s law firm.

The Derby law firm known as Cohen & Thomas now represents 79 Church Hill Road LLC and was the recipient of the 409 pages of documents transmitted by the town on December 10. Shipman & Goodwin still represents the Newtown school board.

Attorney Dominick J. Thomas, Jr, of Cohen & Thomas on December 30 said, “I will go over the record with my client,” referring to the voluminous documents on the sewering application. “I am just in the process of reviewing it,” Mr Thomas said.

Mr Thomas declined to be specific about issues raised in the pending lawsuit. He added, however, that he always seeks to resolve such legal conflicts through negotiations, with the goal of a legal settlement between the plaintiff and defendant.

Asked to comment on the status of the pending lawsuit, Mr Rosenthal said, in part, on December 30, “Given the matter is still pending, it would be inappropriate for me to comment.”

The lawsuit is pending in Connecticut Superior Court in Hartford.