Rule Change For Housing Complex Gets Cool Reception At P&Z

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members appear poised to reject a developer’s proposal to revise the zoning regulations to sharply increase the number of condominiums that would be allowed in certain new age-restricted housing complexes.

Based on P&Z members’ comments made at a January 8 session, it appears that they are inclined to turn down developer KASL, LLC’s, rule change proposal to increase the number of dwellings allowed in such complexes from 150 units to 250 units, provided that development site is at least 100 acres.

KASL’s rule change proposal drew stiff opposition from Route 302 area residents for a variety of reasons when it was aired at a P&Z public hearing last November 20.

KASL, LLC, and IBF, LLC, want the P&Z to increase the maximum number of dwellings allowed in age-restricted housing complexes in connection with their proposal to residentially develop an approximately 180-acre site that they own in the vicinity of Route 302 and Scudder Road. The property proposed for condominium development has the addresses 16 and 17 Robin Hill Road. The wet, rugged site is bounded on the north by Scudder Road, and on the south by Route 302.

At the January 8 P&Z session, P&Z Chairman William O’Neil said the P&Z has three choices in handling KASL’s application to increase the limit from 150 units to 250 units in age-restricted complexes for people over age 55. The agency could reject the application, approve it, or could modify it in some fashion, he said.

The town wants such development “in smaller clusters…not in huge developments,” Mr O’Neil said. “I’m inclined to turn it down and stay with our existing regulations,” Mr O’Neil said.

P&Z member Sten Wilson said he does not believe there would be any benefit to the town-at-large in allowing as many 250 dwellings in an age-restricted housing complex. The applicant did not substantiate the merits of its requested zoning rule change, Mr Wilson said.

P&Z member Robert Poulin said the P&Z does not want housing complexes developed on that large a scale.

P&Z member Edward Kelleher said that allowing such larges complexes would not fit the tenets of the Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

P&Z member Jane Brymer said that allowing up to 250 units on a site would overburden the land.

Although KASL and IBF specifically want the zoning rule change to allow them to increase the potential development density of the Route 302/Scudder Road site, such a zoning rule change would apply to the whole town.

Mr O’Neil said the P&Z would act on the requested zoning rule change at its January 15 session, after The Bee went to press this week.

Mr O’Neil said he had reviewed some past design planning for residential development on the site that is now being eyed for construction by KASL and IBF. Those past plans proposed approximately 36 single-family houses for the rugged property, he said.

However, considering the stricter development regulations concerning building lot size calculations that the P&Z approved in 2002, that property probably would now yield somewhat fewer than 36 houses, Mr O’Neil said. The stricter development rules eliminate steep slopes and wetlands from lot-size calculations. The KASL/IBF development site is considered a difficult piece of land to develop due to the presence of steep slopes and wetlands.

The site eyed for development currently has R-2 (Residential) zoning, which is designated for single-family housing on lots of at least two acres. In order to develop the site for age-restricted housing, KASL also would need P&Z approval to change the property’s zoning designation from R-2 to EH-10 (Elderly Housing), plus “special exception” and “site development plan” approvals from the P&Z. The project also would need wetlands approval from the Conservation Commission.

 

Developer

Stephen Wippermann, who is the vice president of KASL and its spokesman, said January 13 that he expects the P&Z to turn down KASL’s rule change request, which would increase the EH-10 dwelling unit limit from 150 to 250 units.

Mr Wippermann declined to disclose the identity of other principals in the KASL and IBF organizations.

“We feel some sort of cluster housing is best for the property because of the terrain,” he said. Such “cluster housing” would entail either EH-10 age-restricted units, or would involve “affordable housing,” he said.

The two firms are interested in building approximately 200 dwellings on the site, he said. Such a project would be the largest local residential development in years.

Such a development would incorporate design aspects of Walnut Tree Village on Walnut Tree Hill Road in Sandy Hook and also contain design aspects of Liberty at Newtown on Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville, Mr Wippermann said. Both complexes are age-restricted. When completed, Walnut Tree Village will have 189 units on 53 acres. When finished, Liberty at Newtown will have 96 units on 40 acres.

A KASL/IBF project would be served by large-scale community septic systems. Walnut Tree Village and Liberty at Newtown both have municipal sanitary sewer service.

Mr Wippermann, who attended the January 8 P&Z session, but did not speak at it, said he disagrees with the P&Z’s members’ point of view concerning housing density in EH-10 complexes.

Having a 150-unit limit on such complexes amounts to an “arbitrary number,” he said. Mr Wippermann maintains that multifamily EH-10 housing provides property tax advantages to the town, compared to conventional single-family housing.

Mr Wippermann said he will have surveyors again look at the KASL/IBF site in gauging its cluster development potential.

Mr Wippermann said he does not favor the P&Z’s evolving new regulations for cluster housing, which are known as the “open space conservation subdivision” rules.

Those regulations would result in clustered single-family houses on a site to maximize the amount of undeveloped open space land that is preserved on a parcel. Those rules would not allow any greater number of dwellings to be built on a cluster site than would be allowed there if single-family homes were built under the conventional residential subdivision regulations.

Saying that he expects that the P&Z will reject KASL’s requested zoning rule change to increase the EH-10 limit on dwellings on a site from 150 units to 250 units, Mr Wippermann said he would return soon to the P&Z with another application toward developing the KASL/IBF site.