The Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) has rejected, without prejudice, a developer’s application for preliminary approval to extend municipal sanitary sewer lines to serve a currently undeveloped 35-acre property near Exit 10 of Interstate 84, where the developer wants to construct a high-density, multifamily housing complex which has an “affordable housing” component.

Following discussion at a December 11 meeting, WSA members unanimously voted to deny, without prejudice, an application from 79 Church Hill Road, LLC, for preliminary sewering approval for the site. Although the site has some road frontage at 79 Church Hill Road, vehicle access to the property would be provided at Walnut Tree Hill Road.

WSA members decided that the applicant had not provided sufficient technical information on which the they could base a preliminary decision on the sewering request.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said December 18 that the applicant did not provide the sewage treatment capacity, and in effect, the number of housing units, it wants to build on the site. Such information is essential for the WSA to decide on the sewering request, he said.

Developer Serge Papageorge, doing business as 79 Church Hill Road, LLC, is seeking to develop a multifamily project. The site is now owned by Carmine Renzulli.

The irregularly-shaped parcel near Exit 10 lies generally north of Church Hill Road, west of Walnut Tree Hill Road, south of Evergreen Road, and east of I-84.

For the past several weeks, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has been considering creating new zoning regulations that would pertain to affordable housing, such as the housing complex being proposed by Mr Papageorge.

The P&Z was scheduled to discuss those proposed regulations, known as Mixed Use, Mixed-Income-10 Overlay Zone (MUMI-10), when it resumed a public hearing on the night of December 18, after the deadline for this edition of The Newtown Bee.

The MUMI-10 zoning designation would serve as a replacement zone for the town’s existing Affordable Housing Development Overlay Zone (AHD) regulations.

According to the general text of the proposed MUMI-10 rules, the intent of the zone is to allow affordable housing in mixed-use developments at locations with adequate transportation and utility services, in order to provide housing choice and variety for those working in Newtown, single-parent households, and aging households, among others.

The rules promote the inclusion of affordable housing units in mixed-use, mixed-income developments consistent with topography, soil types, and infrastructure capacity.

Because the WSA denied the sewering application without prejudice, the developer could return to the WSA soon with the required additional information and have the WSA consider the proposal, Mr Hurley said.

The developer must provide certain information concerning the repositioning of the town’s sewer district boundary line in that area, Mr Hurley said.

The WSA needs to determine whether the municipal sewer system has sufficient wastewater treatment capacity remaining to allow the 79 Church Hill Road project to connect to the sewer system, he said.

The WSA is willing to cooperate with the developer, provided that the developer produces all the information required for the application, Mr Hurley said.