The Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) has given preliminary approval for municipal sanitary sewer service to The River Walk at Sandy Hook Village, a 74-unit condominium complex proposed for Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook Center.

WSA members granted the preliminary sewer approval to local builder/developer Michael Burton at a June 11 meeting, following their review of technical information on the project at several WSA sessions.

On May 27, the project gained a wetlands/watercourses protection permit from the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC).

The project still requires a special permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z).

The site is in the Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone where environmental safeguards are in place to protect the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer.

The River Walk project is proposed for the west side of Washington Avenue on seven lots totaling 11.8 acres. The parcels are #10 through #22 Washington Avenue. The site lies generally east of the meandering Pootatuck River.

Mr Burton wants to use 9,250 gallons of daily sewage treatment capacity at the municipal sewage treatment plant off Commerce Road for wastewater disposal at the River Walk complex.

In 2008 and 2009, Mr Burton received town approvals to construct The River Walk, a 24-unit multifamily complex on five lots comprising 10.2 acres at #12 through #20-A Washington Avenue. That project, however, was never built due to the economic downturn.

WSA Session

At the beginning of the June 11 WSA session, WSA member Alan Shepard recused himself from the River Walk application.

Mr Shepard, a civil engineer, is a partner in the Shelton firm Nowakowski, O’Bymachow, Kane & Associates, an engineering/surveying company, which did the land engineering work on the WSA application for Mr Burton. During the hearing, Mr Shepard remained in the meeting room at the sewage treatment plant office building.

Kurt Mailman, an engineer with Fuss & O’Neill, Inc, which is the WSA’s consulting engineering firm, said that following a review of the applicant’s initial submission, the engineers formulated six general technical comments on the application.

The applicant later responded to those comments, suitably answering the questions raised, Mr Mailman said.

Fred Hurley, town director of public works, said that when considering that the site lies in the environmentally sensitive APD, the town Health Department has stated it prefers that the proposed complex discharge its wastewater into the municipal sewer system, rather than into a large-scale septic waste disposal system.

Through an initial motion, the WSA approved adding two land parcels to the town’s sewer service district. Those two parcels are the two lots which Mr Burton has added to the site, increasing it from 10.2 acres to 11.8 acres.

Through a second motion, the WSA approved granting the project “preliminary approval” for sewer service.

Mr Burton has proposed the River Walk project under the terms of the P&Z’s Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations, a set of land use rules that the P&Z created earlier this year.

The previous 24-unit River Walk condo complex, which was approved by the town but never built, was proposed under the terms of the P&Z’s Affordable Housing Development (AHD) zoning regulations, which do not allow the high construction density permitted by the IH-10 rules.

The IH-10 rules require that at least 20 percent of the dwellings in a multifamily complex be designated as affordable housing. In the case of River Walk, that would translate into 15 affordable units and 59 market-rate units.

Affordable housing units are offered for sale to eligible moderate-income and low-income buyers who meet certain income criteria. The price of affordable housing is significantly lower than the price of market-rate housing in a multifamily complex.

An application for the River Walk proposal has been submitted to the P&Z and is on file for public review at the Land Use Agency office at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

The P&Z is expected to hold a public hearing sometime in July on the applicant’s request for a special permit.

If Mr Burton gains P&Z approval, he would return to the WSA to seek final approval for sewer service.