Representatives for a local church were scheduled to meet with town land use officials on July 9 at a “pre-application meeting” to discuss aspects of the church’s major mixed-use proposal to construct a new church, a large multifamily housing complex, and some commercial space on acreage in Hawleyville. The site is located west of Hawleyville Road (Route 25) and south of the Exit 9 off-ramp for eastbound Interstate 84.

George Benson, town director of planning, said July 7 that representatives of Grace Family Church, formerly known as Grace Christian Fellowship, were scheduled to meet with land use officials to discuss the project.

On June 24, the church had submitted two development applications for the church-owned site, but those plans only described the construction of a church. Those plans were submitted for review by the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). 

The church formally withdrew those plans from consideration on June 25, after learning that land use officials want the church to include all three components of the development project in a single application — the church, the multifamily housing complex, and commercial space.

Specifications for the development project were not available on July 9 because the revised land use applications have not yet been submitted for town review.

Attorney Peter Scalzo, who represents the church, said June 30 that he could not comment at that time on the church’s development proposal, at the church’s request.

Town officials have made passing references to the proposed mixed-use project at public meetings during the past several months.

Incentive Housing

Plans for the multifamily complex, reportedly proposed as containing approximately 180 dwellings, would be submitted for land use review under the terms of the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations, a set of land use rules that were created by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) in January to replace the town’s Affordable Housing Development (AHD) zoning regulations.

Members of the town’s Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) discussed the church’s development proposal at their June 11 meeting, in terms of the project’s need to connect to the planned expansion of the Hawleyville sanitary sewer system. That expanded sewer system is planned for completion by the end of this year, Fred Hurley, town director of public works, said July 8.

The IH-10 zoning regulations require that multifamily complexes have access to public sanitary sewers, a public water supply, and be situated near a major roadway. The IH-10 rules allow much higher construction densities than the AHD zoning rules.

The IH-10 zoning regulations allow commercial land uses as part of a multifamily complex, which are either in that housing complex or are detached from it.

The IH-10 rules require that at least 20 percent of the dwellings in a complex be designated for low- and moderate-income families. If 180 dwellings were to be built, then at least 36 of them would have to be designated for occupancy by such residents.

Also, the IH-10 zoning rules require that low- and moderate-income units be deed-restricted for such a use for at least 30 years. The regulations also require a similar external appearance for market-rate units and for low- and moderate-income units.

The proposed commercial building, which would have frontage on Hawleyville Road, would contain roughly 5,000 square feet of floor area.

Grace Family Church currently occupies a 13,500-square-foot church about one mile away from the development site at 174 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6). The group wants to build a much larger new church to meet the needs of its expanding congregation. The church started in Newtown in 1984.

In 2006 and 2007, the church pursued town land use approvals for a new church at the development site, but that project never materialized.

 More than 11 years ago, the church purchased 42 acres bounded by Hawleyville Road, I-84 and Covered Bridge Road for $3.1 million.

The planned extension of sanitary sewers in Hawleyville also apparently has sparked other developers’ interest in constructing  other high-density projects.

Those projects reportedly would include another multifamily housing complex and a project involving a large amount of medical office space. Such construction would occur on a tract lying in the general vicinity of eastbound I-84’s Exit 9 on-ramp. Development applications for such projects have yet to materialize.