Following public hearings on proposed municipal sanitary sewer assessments for several local commercial properties, the Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) has set the assessments on four such properties.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said March 22 that WSA members set the assessments for two planned major rental housing complexes, each of which will contain some "affordable housing" units - a 180-unit complex planned for Covered Bridge Road in Hawleyville, and a 65-unit complex, known as The River Walk at Sandy Hook Village, at 10-22 Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook Center.

The sewer assessments reflect the WSA's professional estimate of the dollar value that will be added to the properties by the presence of sewer service. The assessments represent the capital costs of sewer installation. Sewer users also pay sewer usage fees, which are based on the volume of wastewater discharged into sewers.

Based on a per-unit assessment of $5,400, the planned 180-unit Hawleyville complex's overall sewer assessment was set at $972,000. Thirty-six of the rental apartments would be offered to low- and moderate-income tenants as affordable housing, and thus be rented out at significantly lower rates than the 144 market-rate apartments in the complex.

The planned 65-unit River Walk complex also has a per-unit sewer assessment of $5,400, reflecting an overall sewer assessment of $351,000. Thirteen apartments there would be designated as affordable housing, with the 52 other apartments serving as market-rate units.

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approved both housing complexes under the terms of the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations, a set of land use rules covering the provision of affordable housing in high-density, multifamily complexes.

The owners of the Covered Bridge Road project and the River Walk project both requested that the sewer assessments levied against those properties be paid off on a long-term schedule.

WSA members thus approved a 20-year payment schedule. Half of the sewer assessment must be paid off during the first five years in five annual equal payments. The other half of the assessment must be paid off during the next 15 years in 15 annual equal payments, Mr Hurley said. That 20-year schedule applies only to the commercial properties covered by IH-10 zoning, he said.

WSA members also set the sewer assessment for the The Village at Lexington Gardens, a new retail complex at 30-32 Church Hill Road. They set that assessment at $243,000. That assessment applies to the four new two-story commercial buildings at the site, not the Morganti building there, which was built decades ago.

The commercial complex will include stores, restaurants, and a bank at ground level, and have professional offices on the upper levels.

Additionally, WSA members set the sewer assessment for a commercially zoned property at 2 Saw Mill Road at $14,000.