178-Unit Condo Complex

Gains Preliminary Sewer Approval

By Andrew Gorosko

The Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) has granted preliminary approval for municipal sewer service to a developer proposing the construction of a 178-unit age-restricted condominium complex in Hawleyville.

At an April 27 session, WSA members granted a preliminary sewer-connection approval to Bashert Developers, LLC, of New City in Rockland County, N.Y. The Woods at Newtown, a proposed high-density, multifamily complex would contain 132 units of “congregate housing” and 46 “independent living” units. The project is intended for people over age 55.

The 50-acre site at 12-16 Pocono Road, which is a depleted sand-and-gravel mine, would have driveway access extending from 166 Mt Pleasant Rd (Rt 6).

In reviewing Bashert’s sewer-connection request, WSA members made three approvals. They authorized WSA Chairman Richard Zang to sign a letter of preliminary approval; they authorized a draft sewer connection agreement to be formulated; and they authorized having a real estate appraisal performed to help set the sewer connection fees that the town would charge Bashert.

Under a preliminary sewer approval, the WSA agrees that if a developer gains all other necessary municipal approvals for its project, the WSA would then negotiate with the developer for sewer connections.

The Woods at Newtown proposal is pending before the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). The P&Z was scheduled to conduct a fourth public hearing on the project on the night of May 4, after the deadline for this edition of The Bee.

The Woods at Newtown’s wastewater would be discharged into a sewer line that leads to the regional sewage treatment plant on Plumtrees Road in Danbury. The adjacent 100-unit Homesteads at Newtown assisted living complex and the nearby 96-unit Liberty at Newtown age-restricted condo complex also use that sewer line.

Engineer Ted Hart of Milone & MacBroom, Inc, representing Bashert, told WSA members that the 178 units proposed by Bashert is the same number of condos for which The Homesteads at Newtown had received P&Z approvals in the past.

Although The Homesteads built a 100-unit assisted living complex, it encountered financial problems and was never able to construct the additional 178 dwellings that it had planned for the 50-acre site.

After entering bankruptcy, The Homesteads lost its assets. Bashert acquired the largely undeveloped 50-acre site in 2005 for $8.9 million. A separate firm, Newtown Senior Living, LLC, acquired the existing 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.

Mr Hart told WSA members that gravity-powered sewers on the site would channel The Woods at Newtown’s wastewater to existing sewage pumping stations that would then convey the sewage to the sewer line leading to the Danbury treatment plant.

Burton Dorfman of Bashert told WSA members that recent operational problems at a sewage pumping station on The Homesteads’ property have been rectified. The pumping station will be maintained under an agreement between the owners of two private properties, he said.

Bashert proposes that the 132 congregate-housing condominiums be located in ten large apartment buildings surrounding a massive courtyard, beneath which there would be covered parking for 272 vehicles. The parking would be located at ground level with a roof atop that parking garage functioning as the “courtyard” amid the ten buildings.

The 46 independent-living condos would be housed in eight separate buildings, with conventional attached garages. A clubhouse also would be constructed.