Condo Developer Seeks Rule Changes To Allow Loft Space

By Andrew Gorosko

The developer of a 54-unit age-restricted condominium complex now under construction on Oakview Road is seeking modifications to the zoning regulations allow it to construct loft space in the units to make them more attractive to potential buyers.

Toll Brothers, a Pennsylvania-based developer, is now constructing Regency at Newtown for people over age 55 at a 51-acre site at 21 Oakview Road, near Newtown High School. The complex will be visible from the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 and from Fairfield Hills.

Last February, in a 3-to-2 vote, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members approved the project for an environmentally sensitive area near the Pootatuck River. The site is located in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone within which there are many environmental protection regulations due to its position above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The aquifer is the source of two local public water supplies.

Toll Brothers had been seeking various approvals for the condo complex from town agencies since February 2004.

In a December 21 letter to the P&Z, attorney Robert Hall, representing the developer, requests that the P&Z modify its zoning regulations to allow Toll Brothers to make certain changes to the plans for the condos.

The P&Z has not yet scheduled a public hearing on the requested zoning rule change.

“One of the features which potential buyers have requested be included in the unit is some space on the second floor for an occupant to ‘get out of the way’ of the activities on the main floor. A loft would meet this need,” Mr Hall wrote.

In the zoning regulation modifications submitted by Mr Hall, the proposed loft space would be left open to the floor below so that the loft space does not become an additional bedroom.

“We should have made this request sooner because the truss framing for the building is ordered long in advance of construction, and it is too late to affect the construction of the first two buildings being built,” Mr Hall wrote.

If the P&Z approves the requested zoning rule changes, the developer would order trusses designed to allow loft space in the remaining nine condo buildings planned for the site, he added.

Toll Brothers plans to construct 11 residential buildings at the site, ten of which would contain five dwellings each, and one of which would hold four dwellings. The firm will offer three different condominium models at three price levels.

 Toll Brothers is marketing the units at the complex at prices of approximately $399,000; $487,000, and $497,000. Each unit will have a two-car garage.

Current zoning regulations affecting age-restricted condo complexes require that each dwelling provide all primary living areas on the same level as the main entrance to the dwelling, except for storage areas.

In its proposal for modified zoning regulations, the developer suggests that the following wording to be added to the rules: “Where the dwelling unit is designed with a second floor, the only living area permitted on the second floor shall be a loft open to the floor below.”

An architectural rendering of the condo complex posted on Toll Brothers’ website depicts large dormers extending outward from pitched roofs located above attached double-bay garages.

One of the sticking points in Toll Brothers’ proposal for Regency at Newtown was the condo complex’s location on Oakview Road.

Oakview Road is a narrow, hilly, winding road about 3,500 feet long, which was unpaved until several years ago. It was paved after the town installed sewers beneath the road to provide sewer service to the nearby Newtown High School. The presence of sewers beneath Oakview Road makes possible a high-density development such as Regency at Newtown.

Oakview Road contains about a dozen houses. The road extends from Wasserman Way on the south to Berkshire Road on the north. Oakview Road is used by some motorists as a bypass to avoid the traffic-congested areas near Exit 11 of Interstate 84 and near Newtown High School.

As part of its approval of the condo complex, the P&Z required that the developer create a driveway entrance to the condo complex designed to shunt traffic to the northern end of Oakview Road.