60 Age-Restricted Units—

WSA Extends Period For Condo Complex Sewer Talks

By Andrew Gorosko

The Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) has extended by six months the period during which it would negotiate a municipal sewer connection agreement with a development firm that proposes the construction of a 60-unit age-restricted condominium complex on a 52-acre site off Oakview Road, near Newtown High School.

At a March 10 session, WSA members unanimously approved the extension for Toll Brothers, Inc.

In March 2004, the WSA had granted Toll Brothers preliminary approval for a municipal sewer connection, which was to have been negotiated by last September.

But because the firm’s initial proposal for a change of zone for an envisioned 80-unit condo complex was turned down by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) in April 2004, the firm reformulated its plans, later proposing a 60-unit complex for the site.

In view of those revised plans, Toll Brothers last September received a six-month extension from the WSA to negotiate a sewer connection agreement with it. The March 10 agreement marks the third such extension for negotiations granted by the WSA.

WSA members also endorsed having an appraisal performed on the Toll Brothers project to help the WSA set the sewer connection fee for the proposed complex.

Sewer connection fees vary, based on the specifics of a situation. When the sewer system began operation in 1997, connection fees for individual residences were set at just under $10,000. As time has passed, those connection fees have increased.

In January, the WSA set the sewer connection fee for a residence on Blakeslee Drive at just under $12,000.

If the owners of each of Toll Brothers’ 60 proposed condo units were levied a $12,000 sewer connection fee, the WSA would eventually receive $720,000 in connection fees for the complex. Such fees cover sewer construction costs. Sewer-user fees are a separate charge.

When extending municipal sewers to a condo complex was initially proposed by Toll Brothers in early 2004, the firm told WSA members that the condo complex’s sewer connection fees would cover costs associated with the town’s past extension of sanitary sewers to Newtown High School.

The sewer line that the town extended to the high school is buried beneath Oakview Road, a factor that increased the market value of Toll Brothers’ 52-acre development site. Watkins Brothers Development Corporation and others now own that site.

Zone Change Approved

In a 4-to-1 vote on January 20, P&Z members approved a change of zone for the 52-acre property, thus allowing site planning to proceed for the condo project.

The change of zone converted the property’s zoning designation from R-2 (Residential) to EH-10 (Elderly Housing). R-2 zoning is designated for single-family houses on lots of at least two acres. EH-10 zoning is intended for high-density, multifamily housing for people over age 55.

P&Z members approved the change of zone with the condition that no more than 60 dwellings be constructed at the 21 Oakview Road property. The environmentally sensitive site is located in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), and near one of the few streams in the state where trout reproduce naturally.

The narrow, hilly, winding Oakview Road links Berkshire Road to Wasserman Way. There are about 12 houses on Oakview Road. In April 2004, it was the high traffic volume that a then-proposed 80-unit condo complex would generate on Oakview Road that resulted in the P&Z rejecting Toll Brothers’ requested zone change.

The current development proposal involves one-third fewer units than were initially proposed. The current proposal also includes provisions to shunt traffic traveling to and from the condo complex onto the northern end of Oakview Road, thus discouraging use of the southern end of Oakview Road, which connects to the congested Wasserman Way.

At the public hearings that preceded both the P&Z’s April 2004 rejection of a zone change and its January 20 approval of such a zone change, Oakview Road residents had objected that a condo complex would generate too much traffic on the narrow street. The proposed 60-unit complex would hold about 120 residents, a majority of whom would own automobiles.

In order to build a 60-unit age-restricted condo complex, Toll Brothers requires: a municipal sewer connection; zoning rule amendments to allow its architectural design to be built; a special exception to the zoning regulations from the P&Z; a site development plan approval from the P&Z; a wetlands construction permit from the Conservation Commission, serving as the town’s inland wetlands agency; and an aquifer protection approval from the P&Z, based on an aquifer protection review conducted by the Conservation Commission.

Toll Brothers wants to construct a housing complex that is architecturally similar to a project that the firm is now building on Route 25 in Trumbull, known as Regency Meadows at Trumbull. In order for Toll Brothers to build such a design, the P&Z would need to modify some of its EH-10 housing regulations. Oakview Road condos would have starting prices at approximately $425,000.