An application by Teton Capital Company, LLC, to build 170 senior housing units on 14 acres at 6 Commerce Road will go before Inland Wetlands for a public hearing on March 22, and before P&Z for a public hearing on the site plan on April 6.

Teton Capital has an agreement to purchase the property from the town for $3.1 million, conditioned on the project gaining final approvals from IW and P&Z. The property was received from the state and approved for sale by the town in 2006, and the proposal to develop it into a senior community was announced in August 2021.

Teton Capital representatives said eight acres of the 14-acre parcel are being developed for the complex.

The entire property at the location is 41 acres, with the other 27 being preserved by the town as open space. The property is located next to the 34-acre Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary property, so having open space on the adjacent property with just eight acres being developed is “maximum value for minimum disturbance,” said First Selectman Dan Rosenthal following the sale in 2021.

The proposal incorporates two large four-story buildings with underground parking and a club house, two smaller three story apartment buildings, and a townhouse building. It would offer residents a bocce court, dog park, and a playground for children for residents when their families visit, according to minutes from a February 22 Design Advisory Board meeting.

The project would be done in three phases, but town Land Use Agency Director Rob Sibley told The Newtown Bee he doesn’t know what the proposed time line is for those phases yet. Sibley pointed out the town will now only have six buildings on a property once approved for ten, and that large areas of the property will remain open space and will abut a wildlife sanctuary.

Proposal Design Specifics

The Design Advisory Board minutes state the plan calls for a barn-like structure to evoke the agricultural history of the area, which will be two stories above grade and half a story below. All the buildings except the clubhouse will have flat roofs to accommodate solar panels.

The back portion of the clubhouse will have a roof deck that is accessible from the second floor of the clubhouse; it will have a fire pit and seating. The pool deck will have seating, a grilling station, outdoor showers, and bathrooms.

Every floor except the ground floors will have balconies. The design plan for the driveway between the 3- and 4-story buildings shows that it would be constructed to resemble a main street with lighting, landscaping, and a mural on the concrete below-grade parking wall section.

Teton Capital founder and managing partner William Donahue said mostly the corners of the buildings will be wrapped in vegetation walls. Around 250-280 people will reside in the development, which will be age restricted to 55+.

After the successful completion of the neighboring 66,000-square-foot Church Hill Village senior community in the Borough of Newtown, this would mark the second local venture for the Greenwich-based developer.

The open space section of the property is a pollinator meadow and part of Al’s Trail crosses it. The space is also utilized by the high school’s cross country team.

The proposed design came under some criticism from Design Advisory Board members, who said it was “too urban,” had too small of a buffer between it and the wildlife sanctuary, and it was suggested the style didn’t match the “agrarian, rural character” of the land. The developer is expected to come back before the Design Advisory Board at a future meeting.

Concerning the look of the proposed development, Jenny Hubbard of the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary released the following statement: “The Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary is committed to the highest levels of stewardship responsibility in order to protect the native wildlife, habitat and property deemed one of ‘Newtown’s Hidden Treasures.’

“It is for that reason we find the aggressive urban development proposed for the adjacent property uncomplimentary to the integrity of the land and are concerned of the negative environmental impact to the existing meadows, sanctuary and surrounding properties,” Hubbard’s statement continues. “Newtown as a town and community has gone to great lengths to preserve the beauty of its natural landscape and we hope this will continue now and into the future.”

Former ‘Tech Park’

Land Use Director Rob Sibley told The Bee March 13 that this application is of public interest less because of what it is, and more because we already saw an application for this property 11 years ago, with the applicant being the town’s Economic and Community Development Department.

Sibley said that original plan, referred to then as a “tech park” long before the purchase by Teton, would have had 10 buildings, from 14,000 to 60,000 square feet, all slated for industrial use.

The land use official recalled there was “huge pushback” from the then-Conservation Commission, concerning its distance from Deep Brook. There was also pushback from some who wanted to see commercial or industrial development on the parcel.

An eventual agreement involved a large buffer area away from the stream and the wetlands, averaging 600 feet between proposed construction and the brook. The property was put on the market and “that’s the way it lived for five to six years,” said Sibley.

Another issue with the property was a lack of access.

According to Sibley, previous Land Use Director George Benson “spent ten years figuring out where to put the access road.” The town got Department of Energy and Environmental Protection permits for the access road in 2019, as there were wetlands to traverse. Getting access to the property was the catalyst that sparked the interest of Teton Capital.

Teton approached the town, looking to build housing for active adults. An agreement for $3.1 million for the property was agreed upon, with the agreement not being finalized until Teton had all its necessary approvals from Land Use. Teton applied for a text amendment to the regulations to allow housing on the property, and proposed six buildings on a relatively small footprint within the property — with the rest to be open space.

The property then languished again until Teton came to the Board of Selectmen earlier this year asking for a second extension to the agreement, to which First Selectman Dan Rosenthal responded he was not inclined to sign unless a site plan came before Planning & Zoning. Site plans were filed in mid-February.

Sibley said there are five current applications with land use. The first is a wetlands permit for the current site plan.

Then there are four with P&Z, the first being a proposal dividing the parcel into two; a text amendment application changing some of the language of the previous text amendment allowing residential use concerning setbacks; an aquifer protection permit; and the site plan permit.

The Newtown Bee will provide coverage of the Inland Wetlands and Planning & Zoning public hearings in future publications.

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.