WPCA Awaits Waste Disposal Plan For Mt Pleasant Condo Proposal

By Andrew Gorosko

A development firm that wants to build a 110-unit townhouse condominium complex on Mt Pleasant Road is preparing a waste disposal study for Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) review, as part of the firm’s bid to obtain municipal sewer service.

Thomas Gissen, director of development for Ginsburg Development Connecticut, LLC, said this week he expects the firm to submit its waste disposal report to the WPCA for discussion at the WPCA’s July meeting. The 36-acre development site, which has frontage on Taunton Lake, lies to the west of the Taunton Lake Drive neighborhood.   

WPCA members in March asked Ginsburg to prepare a study analyzing the waste handling capacity of soils on the site if the site were to be served by large-scale septic systems. The WPCA uses such soil quality information as a gauge in its decision making on providing municipal sewer service to such properties.

Mr Gissen said he hopes the study indicates the site has sufficient soil quality to handle septic waste disposal from 110 condominium units – the number of units for which Ginsburg is seeking municipal sewer service.

As the WPCA faces proposals from three firms, including Ginsburg, to develop a total of 314 housing units within and near the municipal sewer district, the WPCA is having its consulting engineer, Fuss and O’Neill, Inc., of Manchester, conduct a study of how much municipal sewage treatment capacity remains at the joint town-state sewage treatment plant on Commerce Road. Calculating that remaining treatment capacity will determine how much additional sewage flow can be sent to the sewage plant without having the town exceed its wastewater treatment capacity there.

The town is using roughly 250,000 gallons of its allotted 332,000 gallon-per-day treatment capacity at the plant. The state owns the balance of the treatment capacity at the plant, which was designed to process almost one million gallons of wastewater daily.

Ginsburg has estimated that 110 condo units intended for people over 55 would generate about 12,250 gallons of wastewater daily.

Fred Hurley, the town director of public works, said completing the engineering study on the town’s remaining sewage treatment capacity probably will take most of the summer. “It’s a work in progress,” he said.

 Mr Hurley said it is unclear if enough town sewage treatment capacity remains for the three proposed multifamily projects. The other two projects are Benchmark Assisted Living’s proposal for a 78-unit assisted living complex for the elderly on Church Hill Road at The Boulevard, and Princewood Properties’ proposal for a 126-unit apartment complex on Edmond Road.

In March, some residents living near Taunton Lake expressed concerns about the environmental implications of having a 110-unit townhouse condominium complex adjacent to Taunton Lake.

Ginsburg is formulating plans for an “active adult community” for people over 55 on the hilly site. The firm is asking the WPCA to expand the municipal sewer district to provide sanitary sewer service for the envisioned complex. The sewer district is directly east of the site.

Although Ginsburg has said the proposed complex could be served by large septic systems, it says it would prefer having the units connected to the town sewer system.

“Significant portions of usable land would be required [for septic systems] to treat the estimated sewage flow from this site. The applicant would be able to reconfigure the site plan to provide a better overall design if sewers were made available to this site. [Septic system] treatment would cluster the units, thus creating a denser and less pleasing development,” according to Ginsburg.

Most of the Mt Pleasant Road development site lies in the Borough of Newtown. The northwest corner of the site is in the Town of Newtown. The property lies in borough and in town residential zones. The developer would require multiple borough and town approvals for a townhouse complex.

The developer proposes constructing about 40 buildings on the site. Each building would contain either two or four condo units. The two-story townhouses would have basements, some of which would be walkout basements, depending on topography. The units would range in size from 1,400 to 2,400 square feet. The developer has an option to buy the site from the Grossman family.

The complex would include walking trails and a recreation center. The property extends down a hillside to Taunton Pond where it has about 425 feet of pond frontage.