Woods at Newtown—

Developer Submits Plans for Proposed 178-Unit Condo Complex

By Andrew Gorosko

A residential development firm has submitted applications to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) and to the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) for regulatory review of its proposal to construct a 178-unit age-restricted condominium complex at the 50-acre site of a depleted gravel mine in Hawleyville.

Toll CT III Limited Partnership, a unit of Toll Brothers, Inc, is proposing the project with the working name Woods at Newtown for the property with a street address of 12-16 Pocono Road.

Access to the Woods at Newtown site would be provided from the north side of Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6) via an existing private street that now serves Maplewood at Newtown. Maplewood is an assisted living apartment building at 166 Mt Pleasant Road.

The Toll project would contain 67 dwellings within 19 multiple-unit townhouse-style buildings, 111 condo units within six large buildings, and a community clubhouse, with a swimming pool and bocce courts. All residential units would be offered for sale.

The 19 townhouse buildings would include two-, three-, and four-unit structures. Three of the large buildings would have 17 units each, with the other three large structures containing 20 units each. Including the clubhouse, the site would hold 26 buildings that would enclose 202,800 square feet of floor space overall.

Last December, P&Z members unanimously modified the zoning regulations on high-density elderly housing complexes, setting the stage for Toll’s anticipated application to construct what was then proposed as a 171-unit complex.

The various rule changes on high-density, age-restricted, multifamily housing complexes which Toll sought and received from the P&Z last December generally allow taller buildings than previously permitted, allow the placement of a bedroom on the upper level of two-story townhouse-style condo units, and add a new category of age-restricted multifamily housing termed “apartments.”

Three such multifamily housing complexes for people over age 55 have been planned for the Hawleyville site in the past, none of which ever materialized for various reasons.

Toll is seeking a special permit and a site development plan approval from the P&Z. The project would be served by a public water supply and public sanitary sewers.

Sewers

The current owner of the site, The Woods at Newtown, LLC, of Montebello, N.Y., has a lawsuit pending against the Newtown Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) in Danbury Superior Court. The lawsuit, which was filed last June, concerns the amount of money that would need to be paid to the town to allow the proposed condo complex to use the Hawleyville sewer system.

Toll CT III, LP, of 53 Church Hill Road has an option to buy the site from The Woods at Newtown, LLC, of Montebello. 

Another sewage issue affecting the development proposal concerns the past malfunctioning of a private sewage pumping station that has been in use by Maplewood.

In a September 16 letter to P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean, Assistant Sanitarian Edward Knapik writes that in the recent past, the pump station has overflowed.

“Assurances are required that the issues that have caused the overflows have been addressed and corrected, and that the pump station will function properly with the additional [Woods at Newtown] sewage flows. The Newtown Health District will only recommend approval for this project if the town engineer and public works director are satisfied that the pump station will function properly,” Mr Knapik wrote.

Mr Knapik adds that a community swimming pool proposed for the project is subject to design review by the state health department.

Traffic Report

A traffic report prepared for Toll by Milone & MacBroom, Inc, of Cheshire, found that the presence of a 178-unit condo complex would generate approximately 75 additional vehicle trips in the area on weekdays during both the morning peak traffic hour and during the evening peak traffic hour.

“Analysis of the addition of traffic generated from the proposed development to nearby intersections shows that acceptable future levels of [traffic] service are expected,” according to the engineering consultant.

The traffic aspects of the project also will be subject to review by the State Traffic Commission because Mt Pleasant Road is a state road.

The town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB) is expected to review the architectural and landscaping aspects of the condo complex proposal when it meets on September 27.

The P&Z is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the development proposal on October 6.

The IWC is scheduled to meet on September 28, when it is expected to schedule a public hearing on the project for October 12.

According to documents submitted to the IWC by Toll, the construction project would physically alter about one-sixth of an acre of wetlands, requiring an IWC review of that proposed work.

Also, the IWC would review the proposed physical alteration of seven acres that lie in an “upland review area,” which is situated within 100 feet of wetlands/watercourses at the site.

In a wetlands impact assessment prepared for Toll by Milone & MacBroom, the consultants state that the wetlands protection plans for the site proposed by Toll “will not impact wetland resources on-site or off-site in a manner that is significantly different than what was previously approved” by the town for previous development proposals for the site.

 

History

Toll’s proposal for a 178-unit condo complex is the fourth proposal for such an age-restricted facility at the depleted gravel mine to be made by developers since the late 1990s.

Two of those proposals for elderly housing complexes for the site gained P&Z approvals, but never materialized. A third proposal for such a facility never reached the P&Z approval stage.

In June 2006, the P&Z approved construction of a 178-unit condo complex known as The Woods at Newtown, as had been proposed by Bashert Developers, LLC, of New City, in Rockland County, N.Y. But that project never materialized.

In 2004, Paragon Residential Properties, LLC, of Southport had sought town approvals to build a 147-unit age-restricted condo complex there, but that firm later dropped its plans for the project before gaining approval.

In September 1998, the P&Z approved 198 units of age-restricted housing for the site as proposed by a development group known as The Homesteads at Newtown. Although that firm built 12 condos on the site, those units were never occupied and were later demolished.

Also, The Homesteads at Newtown built an adjacent 100-unit apartment building for the elderly, which opened in March 2001 and is now known as Maplewood at Newtown. That complex provides assisted living facilities and care for people with Alzheimer’s disease.