110 Condos Proposed For Mt Pleasant Site

By Andrew Gorosko

A development firm is proposing construction of a 110-unit townhouse condominium complex for people over 55 on a 36-acre site extending from Mt Pleasant Road to Taunton Pond.

Ginsburg Development Connecticut, LLC, is formulating plans for an “active adult community” with townhouses and amenities, including walking trails and a recreation center, on the hilly site. The site, comprised of several parcels, has frontage on the south side of Mt Pleasant Road, just west of the Taunton Lake Drive neighborhood.

The property extends down a hillside to Taunton Pond where it has about 425 feet of pond frontage.

In a letter to the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), Thomas Gissen, Ginsburg’s development director, requests that the WPCA expand the town’s sewer district to provide sanitary sewer service for the envisioned complex. The municipal sewer district is directly east of the site.

The site has soil conditions which would allow septic system waste disposal from 110 dwelling units, according to Mr Gissen.

“While this development could be constructed utilizing subsurface disposal areas, [the developer] believes it would be mutually beneficial for the proposed active adult community to utilize WPCA facilities,” Mr Gissen writes.

Mr Gissen attended a February 24 WPCA meeting to explain Ginsburg’s request for municipal sewer service, according to WPCA records.

WPCA Chairman Richard Zang told the developers the WPCA’s planning model for sewer system expansion currently lists new development lying outside the existing sewer district as a low priority for sewer line extensions, with no treatment capacity allocated for such development.

WPCA member Timothy Lachapelle said that the developer’s estimated requirement of 12,250 gallons of daily sewage treatment capacity represents a significant amount of the town’s remaining treatment capacity, adding that the number of units proposed for the site could be an issue.

“Significant portions of usable land would be required [for septic systems] to treat the estimated sewage flow from this site. The applicant would be able to reconfigure the site plan to provide a better overall design if sewers were made available to this site. [Septic system] treatment would cluster the units, thus creating a denser and less pleasing development,” stated the applicant.

Ginsburg will provide a more detailed development proposal for the site for WPCA review. WPCA members took no action on the developer’s sewer extension request.

Review Process

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said he expects it would be several months before WPCA members decide whether to endorse extending sewers to the site. Such a decision is based on environmental and sewage treatment capacity factors, he said.

Most of the development site lies in the Borough of Newtown. The northwest corner of the site is in the Town of Newtown. The property lies in borough and in town residential zones. The developer would require multiple borough and town approvals for a townhouse complex.

Mr Gissen said Wednesday the average age of residents in such complexes is 62. The developer proposes constructing 20 to 30 buildings on the site. Some buildings would have four dwelling units and others would have two units. The two-story townhouses would have basements, some of which would be walkout basements, depending on topography, he said. The units would range in size from 1,400 to 2,400 square feet. Sale prices for the units were not available.

Mr Gissen said the developer hopes to receive all needed approvals and have construction underway by the end of this year. The developer has an option to buy the site from the Grossman family, Mr Gissen said.

“We’re a very professional, dedicated and hardworking firm,” Mr Gissen said, noting that the company has built several thousand homes in Westchester County since the 1960s.

The developer currently is building a 23-house condominium complex on Route 107 in Redding, known as Redding Woods.

In Danbury, the firm is in the city land use review process for Woodcrest, a proposed 282-unit condo complex on Shelter Rock Road.

Ginsburg Development Corporation of Hawthorne, NY has done extensive development in Westchester County, including condominiums, cooperative apartments, single family homes, apartments and commercial development. Martin and Samuel Ginsburg are co-principals in the firm.