Main Street Multifamily Proposal Remains Controversial
About 45 residents gathered at the Newtown Community Center on Saturday, October 12, to discuss a controversial topic — a developer’s proposal to raze the former Inn at Newtown at 19 Main Street and replace it with 40 market-rate rental apartments within three buildings at the 3.002-acre site.
Most meetings at which such a subject would be discussed are sponsored by the local government. But the weekend informational session was sponsored by development firm 19 Main Street LLC, which calls its project 19 On Main Street Apartments. The now-vacant inn closed for business in January 2016.
The 19 Main Street property is currently owned by DWR Company III LLC. The property owner did not attend the session but was represented by attorney Peter Olson of Bethel and by project developers Frank Caico of Newtown and Mark Forlenza of Brookfield.
Applicant 19 Main Street LLC is seeking Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) approval to create an overlay zone where such apartment construction would be allowed, known as the Borough Residential Overlay District (BROD) zone, and also a change of zone for 19 Main Street from its current Residential-1 (R-1) designation to a BROD designation. The BZC has scheduled a November 13 public hearing on those two matters. If those two requests receive BZC approval, yet another BZC public hearing would be held on a proposed site development plan.
Mr Olson said that the developer so far has formulated a conceptual plan for the project, but not an “engineered plan,” which would include the technical details required by land use regulators.
Mr Caico, who has lived in Newtown since 2014, said, “We love Newtown. It’s such a great family town.” Mr Caico said he is a member of the town’s Design Advisory Board and also is a board member for the EverWonder Children’s Museum.
The developers want public comment on how they “could do something positive” in the context of constructing an apartment complex, he said.
Noting that the building that held the inn continues to deteriorate, Mr Caico said the redevelopment proposal seeks to create an economically viable project that fits into its neighborhood in terms of design and scale. Many months of work have gone into formulating the conceptual project, he said.
To make such a project economically viable, there needs to be a certain density of development, he said. The developers would seek to design a project that appears less dense than it actually is, he added. In that regard, he described the relative positioning of the three buildings and how parking would be situated on the property.
“We’ll take cues from nearby architecture,” in seeking to make the project visually fit the area,” he said. The conceptual plans, Mr Caico said, include high quality apartments which have two bedrooms and two and one-half baths each.
The project would be a good location for Newtown residents who sell their single-family homes but want to continue living here, he said. Monthly rents would range from about $2,500 to $3,000. “There’s not a real diversity of housing stock in the borough,” he noted.
Mr Forlenza said that each apartment in such a complex would have a private entryway. Landscaping would be located between the buildings and the street, he added. Mr Forlenza said the proposal amounts to creating something that looks better than the site’s current appearance.
“We really want to make Main Street better than it is... We’re not here to fight you guys... We want to use our experience and expertise to do something positive for the community,” he said.
One resident, pointing out that traffic conditions in the area can be difficult and asked about the traffic impact of such redevelopment.
Mr Caico responded that planning work has not yet reached the traffic planning stage. If 19 Main Street LLC receives BZC approvals on its initial application, a formal traffic study would be performed, he said.
One woman pointed out that the project would greatly alter Main Street’s appearance for the worse and also eliminate local benefactress Mary Hawley’s homestead.
“Those are rental units, not homes,” she said.
Another woman suggested that the developers build single-family houses, not apartment buildings.
Mr Forlenza responded that the property’s owner wants to get a certain amount of value back from its investment in the property through redeveloping the site with an apartment complex.
Other Options, ‘Sacred Ground’
“If not this (project), then the owner has other options,” Mr Caico said.
“It would be very difficult to recreate what was there in the past,” Mr Forlenza said of the inn.
After the inn closed, the property was for sale for the same use, but no one bought the property, Mr Caico said.
Mr Forlenza added, “We’re trying to come up with something that would be good for everybody.”
According to Mr Caico, the property owner has considered as a possible alternative to market-rate rental apartments creating a complex with some “affordable housing” units.
Mr Olson said that when an application for “affordable housing” is pending before a zoning commission, that commission does not have the discretion in decisionmaking that it would normally have.
Complexes with an affordable housing component likely would have a higher construction density than a market-rate project.
Attorney James Gaston of 18 Main Street said that the state provisions controlling affordable housing complexes do not trump the controls of a historic district. The 19 Main Street property is the Borough of Newtown Historic District.
Real estate agent Paul Fadus said that he receives requests from people for rental apartments in the borough.
Patricia Eder of 58 Mt Pleasant Road said that allowing such development along Main Street could result in other similar projects occurring in that area, thus adversely changing the town.
Mr Caico said the BROD zoning regulations proposed by 19 Main Street LLC would not apply to the police station at 3 Main Street or The Pleasance at 1 Main Street due to those properties’ zoning designations.
Mr Olson observed that there are one or two properties within the borough other than 19 Main Street to which the proposed BROD regulations could apply.
Joan Salbu, a real estate agent, said, “Everyone in Newtown is very sensitive about our Main Street... This is almost like sacred ground.”
Mr Caico responded, “We get it... We’re just trying to come up with a real solid plan that can work, that we all can be proud of.”
“We’re trying to find something that works for everybody,” Mr Olson added.
Dr Steven Landin of 26 Main Street commented that he has problem with the high-density of the proposed project. “I’m not sure that this fits the area... We don’t want a colossus here.” Also, residents would have to live with the “traffic consequences” resulting from such development, he said.
Mr Olson commented said that the project “doesn’t work financially” if the number of dwellings drops below 40.
Attorney Eric DaSilva of 17 Main Street, which abuts the site, raised concerns about whether there would be sufficient parking at such an apartment complex, adding that overflow parking might occur at the abutting Booth Library parking lot.
One man who complimented the developers on the aesthetics of their conceptual plan, said that such a project should be constructed at Fairfield Hills, but not on Main Street.
According to the conceptual site plan submitted to the BZC, the 40 apartments would each be approximately 1,200 square feet in floor area. Thus, the complex would contain about 48,000 square feet of living space. Also, there would be a total of 72 parking spaces, of which 22 spaces would be in the form of garage space on the bottom level of a larger apartment building located at the rear of the site. The other 50 spaces would be located outdoors behind the two smaller apartment buildings positioned at the front of the site.