To the Editor:

As many people are aware, there is a project in the works to build an affordable housing complex of up to 350 units in three story buildings on Walnut Tree Hill Road near its intersection with Church Hill Road. Planning and Zoning has already changed this property, along with the potential to do the same with others in Hawleyville, to a mixed use overlay zone. Regardless of the fact that this area is already over-densified with the 220 condos at Walnut Tree Village on the opposite side of the street, the developer is now asking the Water and Sewer Authority to allow them to hook up with the sewer system to provide them with the estimated 43,750 gallons per day that they would need for a development of this size.

According to the 2004 Newtown Plan of Development, the municipal sewer system was designed to address sewage disposal problems and develop a sewer avoidance plan to eliminate the need to serve additional residential areas, let alone a development of this size, and to protect the public health and safety of the citizens of Newtown. To this end, the WSA needs to hold to its original purpose in an area that was already determined to have a significant risk for sewer abatement and groundwater pollution issues long before Walnut Tree Village and Edona Commons were a gleam in those developer’s eyes.

There is a public hearing about this proposal on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 pm at Town Hall South at 3 Main Street, Newtown to consider this application. If you truly love this town and want to preserve the character that made you want to live here, it is of upmost importance that anyone in opposition to this proposal attend and make their voices heard. All anyone needs to do to see what we are in store for if this and other projects go through is to take a drive by the Maplewood complex being built on Route 6  in Bethel where the Stony Hill Inn used to be, and picture a development like this in a residential neighborhood.

This developer and their attorneys are chipping away at the various departments in order to try to get the approvals they need. This is not the only area in town where developers are going to try and force this issue. Once this gets approved in one area, the next will not be far behind, because as we all know, it runs downhill.

Ken Chimileski

22 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook      March 4, 2015