Developer Sues, Seeking To Expand Sewer District
A land development firm has sued the Water & Sewer Authority (WSA), seeking to have a judge order the WSA to expand the municipal sanitary sewer service district so that all of a 35-acre parcel at 79 Church Hill Road is placed within the sewer district, not just a three-acre section of the parcel, as is now the case.
The developer, Sirjohn Papageorge of Trumbull, doing business as 79 Church Hill Road, LLC, is seeking to construct a large multifamily housing complex at that site, which would have vehicle access from the adjacent Walnut Tree Hill Road.
The developer has not disclosed how many dwellings he wants to build at the proposed complex, which as yet does not have a working name.
Such a complex would require sanitary sewer service, when considering the high construction density of such development. Also, such a complex would include an affordable housing component.
79 Church Hill Road, LLC, has a purchase option to buy the undeveloped 35 acres at that address from land owner Carmine Renzulli.
In a related matter, during its past several meetings, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has been considering creating a new set of zoning regulations which would cover multifamily housing complexes that have an affordable housing component.
Known as the Mixed-Use, Mixed-Income-10 Overlay Zone (MUMI-10), the proposed new zone and new set of zoning regulations would provide a developmental alternative to the P&Z’s Affordable Housing Development Overlay Zone (AHD) zoning regulations.
Those AHD regulations were effectively neutralized through a past victorious court appeal filed by Dauti Construction of Danbury. Dauti has been constructing a 26-unit multifamily complex known as Edona Commons in Sandy Hook Center under an alternate, customized set of zoning rules created by that developer known as Mixed Income Housing District Zone (MIHD), which was approved by the court when the AHD rules were neutralized.
The MUMI-10 rules, which would provide the P&Z with a measure of design control over multifamily complexes, would serve as an alternative to the failed AHD rules for projects such as the one proposed for 79 Church Hill Road.
The P&Z was scheduled to resume its review of the proposed MUMI-10 regulations at a meeting slated for the night of Thursday, January 15.
Lawsuit Details
The 79 Church Hill Road LLC lawsuit against the WSA states that two lateral sewer-line stubs extend to that address from Church Hill Road, but the designated sewer service district only includes about three acres of the 35-acre property. In effect, the developer wants the sewer district boundary lines redrawn so that all of the 35-acre property falls within the sewer district.
According to the lawsuit, the developer needs to have the sewer district cover the entire property before he can formulate a complete development proposal for the 35-acre site. After the sewer service district is expanded, the developer would file a WSA application for wastewater treatment for the dwellings that would be built at the site, according to the lawsuit.
In the legal papers, the developer challenges the WSA’s request that the developer now provide a specific development proposal for the 35-acre site, including the number of dwellings and the wastewater treatment capacity required for those dwellings.
On December 11, the WSA rejected “without prejudice” the developer’s request for preliminary approval for sewer service for the 35-acre site, stating that the developer’s application was incomplete, omitting details such as the number of dwellings proposed and the wastewater treatment capacity required for the complex.
In the lawsuit, the developer contends that the WSA’s regulations do not provide for a “preliminary review” of a request to expand the sewer service district.
The WSA’s stance on the developer’s request to expand the sewer service district “is improperly based upon zoning considerations,” according to the lawsuit.
The court return date on the lawsuit is February 24 in Danbury Superior Court.
WSA Response
Fred Hurley, town public works director, last week stressed that the WSA turned down “without prejudice” the developer’s application for sewer service for the 35-acre site because the application was incomplete and did not contain information such as number of dwellings and wastewater treatment capacity.
Expanding the sewer service district would require a WSA public hearing, he added.
The developer could simply submit another application with the additional information, Mr Hurley said, adding that the lawsuit was unnecessary.
The WSA needs to review general plans for a multifamily housing project before it could act on an application for preliminary approval for sewer service, he said.
The irregularly-shaped parcel at 79 Church Hill Road lies generally north of Church Hill Road, west of Walnut Tree Hill Road, south of Evergreen Road, and east of I-84.