The Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) has scheduled a public hearing for next week on a development firm’s controversial request that the sewer district be expanded in Sandy Hook to provide sewer service for a proposed large multifamily housing complex.

The WSA public hearing is slated for 7 pm on Thursday, March 12, at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street.

Local officials realize that the Trumbull developer is proposing a big housing complex for a 35-acre site in Sandy Hook, near the Exit 10 interchange of westbound Interstate 84. However, the size of such a project proposed by 79 Church Hill Road, LLC, remains unclear. Although the site has a 79 Church Hill Road street address, vehicle access to the property would be provided on the adjacent Walnut Tree Hill Road.

Only three acres of the site lie within the sewer district. The developer wants the WSA to redraw the sewer district boundary lines to include all 35 acres in the sewer district.

Timothy Hollister, an attorney for Shipman & Goodwin, LLP, of Hartford, represents Sirjohn Papageorge, doing business as 79 Church Hill Road, LLC. Mr Hollister has not disclosed the number of dwellings proposed for the site.  

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) recently approved a new set of zoning regulations which would apply to such large, high-density housing complexes which include an affordable housing component. Those rules comprise the Incentive Housing-10 Overlay Zone (IH-10).

The number of dwellings that the developer wants to build has been unclear to the WSA, which had rejected “without prejudice” the firm’s initial request to expand the sewer district to serve the multifamily project because the application did not contain certain basic information, such as the number of units sought and the wastewater treatment capacity sought.

Following that rejection, the developer sued the WSA in seeking to have a judge order the WSA to expand the sewer district to serve the proposed multifamily project.

The developer then submitted the second application, which is known as “application for preliminary review.”  

In the past, when developers sought sewer service approval for large housing complexes, they would initially seek “preliminary approval” from the WSA. If they received that, they would then seek approvals from other land use agencies such as the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and the P&Z. If the developers gained IWC and P&Z endorsements, they would then return to the WSA for “final approval” for a sewer connection.

In practical terms, a project as large as the one proposed by Church Hill Road, LLC, would need to have sanitary sewer service in order to be built.

The IH-10 zoning regulations provide for a maximum construction density of 12 dwellings in the form of townhouses and/or garden apartments per “usable” acre of a site. The usable acreage of a site is determined after “limiting factors,” such as wetlands and steep slopes, are excluded. Also, a certain amount of acreage is required for driveways and parking lots, among other features.

Some Walnut Tree Hill Road and Evergreen Road area residents have objected to the proposed multifamily complex being built in their neighborhood.

They point to the construction density issues already posed by the presence of the 212-unit Walnut Tree Village age-restricted condominium complex on Walnut Tree Hill Road, which lies directly across that street from the 79 Church Hill Road site.

The 79 Church Hill Road site is bounded on the south by Church Hill Road, on the east by Walnut Tree Hill Road, on the north by Evergreen Road, and on the west by westbound Interstate 84 and its Exit 10 interchange.

The town’s consulting engineering firm, Fuss & O'Neill, Inc, is reviewing the technical data included in the sewering application from 79 Church Hill Road, LLC. The town health department also is reviewing the application.