Condo Complex Details Sought On

Traffic And Wastewater

By Andrew Gorosko

A Danbury developer’s controversial proposal to build a 23-unit mixed-income condominium complex in Sandy Hook Center has prompted requests from two town agencies for more information about the traffic and the wastewater disposal aspects of the project.

The Police Commission, serving as the town’s traffic authority, is reviewing the traffic flow and site-access issues of Edona Commons, as proposed by Dauti Construction, LLC.

The Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) is considering the developer’s request to have the condo complex’s wastewater discharged into the municipal sewer system.

Developer Guri Dauti proposes Edona Commons for a 4.04-acre site at 95-99 Church Hill Road, a steep, rugged property that lies to the west of Dayton Street. Seven of the 23 dwellings would be reserved for moderate-income families. The five-building complex would contain 58 bedrooms and would take 18 months to construct. The Edona Commons site abuts the 52-acre site of the 189-unit age-restricted Walnut Tree Village condo complex.

The Edona Commons proposal drew heavy opposition from nearby residents at an April 6 Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing. Opponents’ objections concern heavy traffic, school bus safety, emergency access to the site, the historic character of the neighborhood, the removal of trees, and general aesthetics. That P&Z hearing is slated to resume on May 18.

On May 2, traffic engineer Don Tone, representing the developer, presented various traffic-flow statistics for Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center to Police Commission members. Church Hill Road in that area carries approximately 13,000 vehicles daily, he said.

Based on a town request, the developer is formulating a revised traffic study for Edona Commons, which will provide more details than were initially presented, Mr Tone said.

Mr Tone said he would count traffic flow at the congested nearby intersection of Church Hill Road and Walnut Tree Hill Road, as part of that traffic study. 

Mr Tone said the revised traffic report would be presented to commission members before a future commission session for their review. That session may be held in June or July.

Commission member Richard Simon said he wants to study the traffic details of the project. “This is a major issue for us, a major traffic change. We need time,” he said.

Considering that children of various ages would live at Edona Commons, multiple school buses would need to pick up and drop off children there, Mr Simon said. It is important to know how additional school bus traffic in the area would affect Sandy Hook Center traffic flow, he said.

Resident Megan Williams of 82 Church Hill Road, which is across the street from the development site, told police Commission members that the average speeds that vehicles travel on Church Hill Road are faster than those stated by the developer. “There’s a lot of speeding,” she said.

The developer will review vehicle speeds in the area, Mr Tone said.

The Police Commission also has been considering how the developer would provide adequate emergency access to the site for police, fire, and ambulance vehicles. 

The commission makes traffic and vehicle access recommendations to the P&Z.

Sewering Request

Dauti Construction is seeking permission from the WSA to connect the proposed condo complex to the municipal sanitary sewer system. High-density multifamily construction projects such as Edona Commons typically are connected to sanitary sewer systems for wastewater disposal.

On March 9, the WSA had told the developer to perform various tests on the site as part of its application for sewer service, with the expectation that the developer would return to the WSA on April 27 with the results.

At the April 27 WSA session, Public Works Director Fred Hurley told WSA members that he had received a call late that afternoon informing him that the developer would not be at the WSA meeting that night because the engineering work was not complete. The developer is expected to attend the WSA’s May 11 session.

In a March 24 letter to Mr Hurley, engineer Steven Trinkaus, representing Dauti Construction, wrote that the proposed 23 units would generate an estimated maximum 17,400 gallons of wastewater daily, based on a formula in which each bedroom represents 300 gallons of sewage.

Mr Trinkaus describes the type of large-scale septic system that would need to be built on the site, if the wastewater generated by the condos were to be disposed of on the site, instead of discharged into a sewer system. The WSA had requested such information.

In an April 18 letter to Mr Trinkaus, Mr Hurley describes the kinds of soil testing information the WSA wants for the site. Mr Hurley asks that mathematical calculations for the engineering results be presented to the WSA. Mr Hurley asks that the developer submit site plans. Also, the developer must map the municipal sewer service area and the Aquifer Protection District (APD) boundaries in relation to the 4.04-acre site.

The Inland Wetlands Commission is considering the developer’s request for a wetlands permit for the site.

That panel is expected to conduct a second aquifer protection review for the property. The developer failed to gain the commission’s aquifer protection endorsement in an initial application.