The year 2019 saw a range of multifamily housing projects proposed, approved, and also under construction in the town and borough.

One of the most controversial proposals in years, largely due to its location in the historic Main Street corridor, is developer 19 Main Street LLC’s proposal to demolish the deteriorating, vacant, former Inn at Newtown at that address and replace it with a 40-unit market-rate rental apartment complex contained within three buildings.

At the end of 2019, the developer was awaiting a decision from the Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) on the developer’s two proposed regulatory mechanisms, which, if approved, would create Borough Residential Overlay District (BROD) zoning and also apply that zoning to the 3.002-acre site.

At two BZC public hearings, the redevelopment proposal drew stiff opposition from residents, many of whom live on Main Street and who charge that such development would adversely affect the character of the neighborhood and diminish its historic aspect. Several people also spoke in favor of the project.

In January, the BZC is slated to consider the developer’s application for the regulatory mechanisms.

Also in the borough, at a 29-acre site comprised of 41, 43, 45, and 47 Mt Pleasant Road, developer Toll Brothers Inc is building a 29-unit condominium complex that is now known as Enclave at Taunton Lake.

Following more than a decade of various litigation in the courts, a lawsuit that challenged the BZC’s February 2017 approval of the condo project was dismissed by a judge in December 2018, clearing the way for the 2019 start of construction. The project, which will be open to people of all ages, will consist of 29 individual closely-spaced buildings, each containing one condo.

Almost 70 percent of the site will remain undeveloped under the terms of the BZC’s Residential Open Space Development (ROSD) zoning regulations. The development is the largest residential project approved in the borough in decades.

In other housing news, in September, town Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) members approved the construction of a 74-unit rental apartment complex at an 11.8-acre site on the west side of Washington Avenue. That action marks the fifth approval for The Riverwalk at Sandy Hook Village for that location submitted by developer Michael Burton since 2008. None of the four previous projects were ever built.

The project is covered by the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations. The IH-10 rules allow the construction of a project with a high construction density, provided that 20 percent of the dwellings are rented out as “affordable housing” to people who qualify to occupy them based on regional income eligibility requirements.

Also, in 2019, construction continued on Covered Bridge Apartments, an IH-10 rental apartment complex on Covered Bridge Road in Hawleyville, which when completed will contain 210 dwellings within seven buildings. Of the 210 units, 168 dwellings will be market-rate units and 42 will be designated as affordable housing.

In July, at the developer’s request, P&Z members approved increasing the number of planned apartments there to 210 from 180, which was the number of dwellings the P&Z initially approved in 2015.

Other Land Use

In March, following their review of a Hawleyville proposal to construct what would be the largest industrial/office complex ever built locally, Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members unanimously rejected the project, turning down a requested wetlands/watercourses protection permit.

Development firm Hawleyville Properties LLC had proposed construction of a warehouse/medical office complex that would contain 583,500 square feet of enclosed space in the form of three warehouses and one medical office building at a 138-acre site near Exit 9 of Interstate 84.

The rejected project represented the proposed construction of nearly 20 percent more enclosed space at the site than the IWC had approved for that property in July 2018. The developer had never sought required P&Z approval for the 2018 project.

In February, P&Z members approved a project known as Hawleyville Station for a site at 26 Hawleyville Road (Route 25), immediately north of the grade crossing for the Housatonic Railroad’s rail freight line. The complex will include a 3,277-square-foot building to serve as a gas station, convenience store, and 20-seat cafe. The structure will be built in the style of the old Hawleyville train station. The site formerly held the building that housed Hawleyville Deli, among other businesses.

As the year ended, P&Z members were considering another gas station/convenience store proposal for a 3.7-acre site at 13 Hawleyville Road, which lies about 2,000 feet south of 26 Hawleyville Road. In November, P&Z members rejected a larger, earlier version of that proposal due to traffic concerns, after which the developer returned with a proposed smaller version of the project. A P&Z public hearing on the application is slated to resume in mid-January.

In September, local developer James F. Walsh received two requested changes of zone from the P&Z for a 10,150-square-foot retail center, which is proposed for a 32 Berkshire Road (Route 34) site, near Exit 11 of Interstate 84. The site currently holds a mulching operation.

The project, however, still requires a P&Z special zoning permit based on the specifics of an anticipated site development plan. Also, an aquifer protection plan and possibly an IWC wetlands/watercourses protection permit would be needed. The P&Z action changes the zoning designation on a 3.06-acre parcel at 32 Berkshire Road from M-5 (Industrial) to B-2 (General Business). It also conditionally changes the zoning designation on an adjacent landlocked 0.118-acre state-owned parcel from R-2 (Residential) to B-2.

In June, the developer had proposed that a retail center at 32 Berkshire Road contain a drive-through window at an eatery, but P&Z members rejected that development proposal.

In April, the P&Z approved a Naugatuck couple’s proposal to develop a winery/vineyard on a hillside along Pole Bridge Road in Sandy Hook. P&Z granted the applicants a special zoning permit and a site development plan approval. The land is in an R-2 (Residential) zone on the east side of Pole Bridge Road, just south of that street’s intersection with Bancroft Road.

The project would include the construction of an approximately 4,000-square-foot barn-like building to hold a winery/tasting room, a two-story house for the owners, an 800-foot-long paved driveway, parking spaces for 21 vehicles, and areas for the cultivation of wine grapes for wine-making.

Under the terms of the P&Z’s approval, winery/vineyard tours would be offered to the public. Wine also would be sold to customers in sealed bottles for consumption off the premises.