P&Z Slates Public Hearings On Two Separate Condo Proposals

‘The Woods At Newtown’ In Hawleyville

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has scheduled a public hearing on a developer’s application to construct 178 age-restricted condominium units on a 50-acre site in Hawleyville.

The P&Z has scheduled a public hearing for March 16 on Bashert Developers, LLC’s, proposal for The Woods at Newtown, a project including 132 units of congregate housing in ten apartment buildings, plus 46 independent-living units in eight separate buildings. The complex would include a clubhouse.

The Woods at Newtown represents the largest multifamily development in town since the construction of Walnut Tree Village, an age-restricted condominium complex on Walnut Tree Hill Road in Sandy Hook. The 189-unit Walnut Tree Village was built during a decadelong period starting in 1995.

On February 8, in a 4-to-0 vote, the Conservation Commission, serving as the town’s wetlands protection agency, approved a wetlands permit for The Woods at Newtown. The site, which is a depleted sand-and-gravel mine, contains wet areas and streams.

Bashert Developers of New City, N.Y., in Rockland County, states that construction work at the site would take three years to complete. The site has EH-10 (Elderly Housing) zoning, which is designated for high-density, multifamily development for people over age 55.

The 50-acre site, which has a street address of 12-16 Pocono Road, is adjacent to The Homesteads at Newtown. The Homesteads is a 100-unit assisted-living building, which gained town construction approvals in 1998 and opened for business in March 2001.

A driveway at 166 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6), which serves The Homesteads apartment building, also would serve the 178-unit Woods at Newtown. An accessway that links the 50-acre site to Pocono Road would be reserved for emergency use only.

In 2001, The Homesteads had received town approvals to build 178 dwellings on the 50-acre site, in the form of 132 congregate units and 46 condos. The Homesteads eventually built 12 age-restricted condos on the property, but they have never been occupied. The condos never received certificates of occupancy due to delinquent property taxes. Bashert would demolish those 12 unoccupied condos as part of its development plans for the site.

After entering bankruptcy, The Homesteads lost its assets. Bashert acquired the largely undeveloped 50-acre site last spring for $8.9 million. A separate firm, Newtown Senior Living, LLC, acquired the existing adjacent Homesteads 100-unit assisted-living building for $11.8 million.

Although Bashert wants to build the same number of dwellings as had been planned by The Homesteads, because Bashert has proposed a different site development plan, it must receive new town approvals for its project.

Bashert proposes providing underground parking for 270 vehicles on the site beneath a courtyard that would be ringed by the ten congregate-housing apartment buildings.

People living in the 132 congregate-care units would receive at least one meal per day in a nearby clubhouse. The ten apartment buildings would be interconnected by a corridor, so that residents need not go outdoors to reach the clubhouse, which would hold an indoor swimming pool.

The 46 independent-living condos situated within eight buildings would be located at another section of the site. Those units would have conventional garages and surface parking.