Date: Fri 31-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Homesteads-hearing-advance

Full Text:

Hearing Set For Aug. 6 On 298-Unit Homesteads Plan

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Residents will have an opportunity to comment on plans to build the largest

single private housing complex ever proposed for Newtown when the Planning and

Zoning Commission (P&Z) conducts a public hearing on the 298-unit The

Homesteads at Newtown August 6.

The hearing is scheduled for 8 pm at Newtown Middle School auditorium, 11

Queen Street. A P&Z business meeting is slated for 7:30 pm.

At the hearing, The Homesteads at Newtown, LLC, will present its request for a

special exception to the zoning regulations to build the envisioned

age-restricted housing complex at the site with frontages at 166 Mt Pleasant

Road and 12-16 Pocono Road in Hawleyville.

In May, the developers received a wetlands construction permit for the project

from the Conservation Commission. In March, the P&Z granted the developers a

zone change for the project, converting the 61-acre parcel from

residentially-zoned land to land designated for elderly housing complexes. The

site lies generally to the north, northwest and northeast of Newtown

Professional Building and Grace Christian Fellowship, both of which are on Mt

Pleasant Road.

The Homesteads' principals are husband and wife Dr Morton H. Silberstein and

Linda K. Silberstein of Guilford.

The applicants have an option to buy the site from owners John Sedor, Jr;

Lillian S. Emmons; and The Estate of Lillian Hazel Sedor, Lillian S. Emmons,

executrix.

Milone and MacBroom, a Cheshire firm specializing in engineering, landscape

architecture and environmental science, is representing The Homesteads and

Newtown, LLC.

Thirty-nine people are listed as owning property within 500 feet of the

boundary of the development site. Those people will receive mailed notices of

the P&Z's public hearing on the development project.

The Particulars

Since its initial presentation to town land use officials, The Homesteads at

Newtown, LLC, has shaved the total number of housing units that it's proposing

from 300 to 298.

Of the 298 units, 160 units would be designated for congregate housing in a

76,000-square-foot building; 100 units for assisted living, and 38 units for

independent living. Of the 160 congregate housing units, 94 would have one

bedroom, 58 would have two bedrooms, and 8 would be studio apartments. Besides

the 298 housing units, the complex would contain a community center including

a clubhouse/pool terrace, two tennis courts, and one community art barn. Some

314 parking spaces would be provided. The housing units would be arrayed

around two interior ring roads, as well as along a spur road.

One aspect of the development proposal which in some ways simplifies the

public utility aspects of the project is the developers' plan to extend United

Water's public water supply from Newtown Center over Mt Pleasant to the site.

Also simplifying the project is the developers' plan to discharge wastewater

from the complex into a sewer main connected to the Danbury municipal sewage

treatment plant.

Although extending public water supplies and sanitary sewers to the site is

relatively expensive, such work is a "permanent solution" for the project's

water supply and sewage disposal requirements.

Access to the site would be provided via a paved two-lane asphalt road

extending from Mt Pleasant Road, just west of Violette Road. A narrower

concrete gridwork driveway would extend out to Pocono Road. That road would be

used only for access by emergency vehicles, according the developers' zoning

application.

The paving material on the emergency driveway would consist of a concrete grid

which is strong enough to allow fire trucks to travel on it, but is punctuated

with openings to allow turf to grow up through the openings, obscuring the

presence of the concrete grid.

Objections

Hawleyville residents say they believe such a development is a generally

positive one for their lightly developed section of town, but they question

the developer's proposal to extend an emergency driveway to Pocono Road, a

narrow, deteriorated road that links Mt Pleasant Road to Old Hawleyville Road.

Resident Charlie Merrifield of 26 Pocono Road has told the developers they are

going to hear from concerned residents when the construction proposal surfaces

at the P&Z public hearing August 6.

At a May Conservation Commission public hearing, the residents stressed that

such a driveway would eventually disrupt their lives due to increased traffic

on the rundown Pocono Road and also would decrease their property values.

Pocono Road area residents want assurances that an emergency driveway wouldn't

be commonly used by people entering and leaving the complex.

The residents have urged that the developers provide an emergency driveway to

the complex from Mt Pleasant Road instead.

In May, the developers' agents told nearby residents that their various

concerns about the development project will be addressed in the planning

process.

Through the wetlands construction permit issued in May by the Conservation

Commission, the developer has gained permission to place clean earthen fill

along the edge of some wetlands, install two stormwater culverts, build a

stormwater retention basin, and stabilize four areas along a streambank to

accommodate the grading associated with the construction of roadways on the

site. That commission is requiring that the developer present construction

planning maps for the conservation official's review before any construction

takes place.

Most of the site is a vacant former gravel mine. The property is north of Mt

Pleasant Road, south of Old Hawleyville Road and Interstate 84, east of the

Bethel town line, and west of Pocono Road.

In March, the P&Z members swiftly approved a zone change requested by The

Homesteads at Newtown, LLC, thus letting the applicants proceed with detailed

development planning for the proposed 298-unit complex. The Silbersteins

received a change of zone for about 60 acres off Mt Pleasant Road from the

P&Z, altering that land's development designation from (R-1) and (R-2)

Residential to (EH-10) Elderly Housing.