The Economy May Decide

The Pace Of Development In 2000

By Andrew Gorosko

While the demand for new homes in Newtown remains strong, how rapidly residences will be built and occupied in 2000 hinges largely on the health of the economy, in general, and new home loan interest rates, in particular, according to the town’s community development director.

“When the economy is good, you get lots of development. When it isn’t [good], you don’t get any,” said Elizabeth Stocker, the development director.

Newtown has been the focal point of a residential building boom for the past five years, with well over 1,000 new homes built during that period.

Several factors combine to make the town an attractive place to relocate – an abundance of undeveloped land, relatively low new home costs compared to southern Fairfield County, a well regarded public school system, and ample recreational opportunities, town officials say.

During the past several years, residential development has focused on Sandy Hook. And an increasing amount of growth has been proposed for the largely undeveloped Hawleyville section.

“A lot of it [development] is going to have to do with the interest rates… They are not as low as they were in the winter of 1999,” said Ms Stocker.

The financial arithmetic in terms of residential growth is fairly simple, she said, noting that higher new home loan interest rates tend to slow down the pace of development.

Ms Stocker expects that the planned extension of a public sanitary sewer line into Hawleyville will prove a stimulus to growth there. The town plans to extend sewers from Bethel into Hawleyville to spur economic development. The first complex to take advantage of sewer access will be The Homesteads at Newtown, a planned 298-unit housing complex for the elderly now under construction on a 60-acre site on Mt Pleasant Road, near the Bethel town line.

Avalon Bay Communities, Inc, the developer of Avalon at Newtown, a 304-unit apartment complex proposed for a 40-acre site on Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville, withdrew two development applications for its proposal last fall after encountering stumbling blocks in obtaining access to sanitary sewer service. The firm plans to return to the town with a new proposal for the site after sewer-related issues have been resolved.

One factor that will color the local growth picture in 2000 is the future of the 185-acre core campus at Fairfield Hills, the former state psychiatric hospital that closed in December 1995, Ms Stocker said.

Three firms have proposed various redevelopment scenarios for the sprawling property, including new construction, demolition, and the renovation of existing buildings. Residential uses of Fairfield Hills figure prominently in each of the three redevelopment proposals.

The wild card in the Fairfield Hills issue is whether the town buys the property from the state, as has been recommended by the advocates of a municipal purchase, so that the town can control the redevelopment of the property at the geographic center of town. By state statute, the state is obliged to make the first sale offer of the property to the town.

Alternatives

Besides the development of large residential subdivisions, in which numerous home building lots are created through the Planning and Zoning Commission’s [P&Z] development review process, Ms Stocker expects a fair measure of local residential growth in the coming year will come in the form of home builders constructing small numbers of houses in scattered locations across town, known as “fill in” construction. “I think we’re going to see a lot of fill-in,” she said.

“There’s demand still, and until that demand falls off, it’s [development] not going to slack off,” she said.

Other towns have experienced such growth in the past, Ms Stocker said.

 “The thing is, everyone wants to live in the country,” she said. “People want the American dream. People want two or three acres of land. And that’s what’s here. We have good schools… excellent recreational facilities.”

“We just need them to bring in their companies with them,” she said, noting that having businesses relocate here would strengthen the town’s tax base.

Industrially zoned land in Newtown is scarce, she noted, pointing out that industrially zoned land which has access to public water and sewer lines is even scarcer.

Future Development

Ms Stocker said much residentially developable land remains in Sandy Hook in the general vicinity of Route 34. Some of that land is in agricultural use, she said, adding, though, the agriculture is more often equestrian-based than crop-based.

Town Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver, who monitors local development as an adviser to the Conservation Commission, sees potential residential growth in several areas.

In Sandy Hook, that growth could come in the form of 40 to 50 new house lots in the vicinity of Orange Pippin Road and Chambers Road, he said.

Future growth in Sandy Hook also is expected in the vicinity of Marlin Road, East Marlin Road, Hoseye Coach Road and New Lebbon Road where another 40 to 50 houses may be built, he said.

Also, developers are considering a residential project that could bring another 40 to 50 houses in the vicinity of Hattertown Road and Eden Hill Road, he said.

Mr Driver said he expects future development to concentrate in three watersheds, which have remained relatively undeveloped as Sandy Hook has grown steadily in recent years. These watersheds form a crescent curving along the northwestern, western, and southwestern edges of town. These areas include the Pond Brook Watershed, Lime Kiln Brook Watershed, and Aspetuck River Watershed.

The Pond Brook Watershed is in northwestern Newtown in the vicinity of Taunton Pond, Mt Pleasant, Hawleyville and Hanover Road. In the past three years, the town received 12 development applications for the Pond Brook watershed, Mr Driver said.

 The Lime Kiln Brook Watershed is in western Newtown, near the Bethel town line. It lies generally between Mt Pleasant Road and Route 302.

The Aspetuck River Watershed is in southwestern Newtown in the area of Hattertown Road and Poverty Hollow Road.

“Most of the ‘easy’ parcels are gone,” Mr Driver said, noting that not much easily developable land remains. “We do not have a big inventory of unbuilt lots in Newtown,” he said.

Some house lots which have been on the market for the past six years are finally selling, he noted. Such lots are “tough” lots, which sell for a relatively low price, he said.

The town has seen the development of house lots which would not have been created in the past due to high site development costs, he said. Some such properties lie in the Poverty Hollow section, an area where expensive houses have been constructed on physically challenging land during the past several years.

In Poverty Hollow, the willingness to spend money on site development work for poor land has resulted in well-developed lots containing nicely positioned houses, according to Mr Driver.

The high cost of developing physically difficult land drives up the cost of the houses which are built on that land, he said, noting it is unlikely that an owner would build an inexpensive house on an expensive lot.

New houses being built in Newtown fall into three general categories – the basic 2,800-square-foot Colonial style house; the middle-range house anywhere between 2,800 to 4,000 square feet; and custom houses larger than 4,000 square feet in area, according to Mr Driver.

In today’s local real estate market, few new houses cost less than $300,000, he said. New houses costing between $400,000 and $500,000 have become common, he added. About 25 to 30 percent of the purchase price of a new house is tied up in the land that it is on, he noted. In the past, when building lots cost $50,000, $60,000, and $70,000, the sale price of houses was about $200,000, $240,000 and $280,000, respectively, he said. Today, with the price of some lots ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, house prices range from $400,000 to $600,000, he said.

With the extension of a sanitary sewer line into Hawleyville, it is expected the town will receive more development applications similar to the Avalon proposal, Mr Driver said.

And after a sewer line is installed, development pressures increase not only in areas directly served by that sewer line, but also in adjacent areas, he said.

The actions of the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) likely will have a major effect on development in Hawleyville, Mr Driver said.

“The development [rate] I don’t think, is going to change,” he said.

The town reviews development applications very closely, Mr Driver noted.

 “The Conservation Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission [P&Z] are reviewing these things in excruciating detail,” he said, noting the extensive reviews which both agencies made of expansion plans for Walnut Tree Village, a condominium complex on Walnut Tree Hill Road in Sandy Hook.

After lengthy multiple reviews, the Conservation Commission eventually approved expansion plans for the complex.

 But, last fall, the P&Z rejected a proposal, which would have expanded the complex from 80 to 213 units. The developers are expected to return to the town with a modified proposal. 

Applicants must meet the local criteria established for development projects, Mr Driver said, adding that not getting the application right means a rejection and a reapplication.