Date: Fri 27-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

affordable-housing-Sandy-Hook

Full Text:

100-Home Affordable Housing Project Sought In Sandy Hook

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Two firms are proposing the construction of Newtown Village, a development

consisting of 100 single-family houses on 32 acres in Sandy Hook, near Newtown

High School.

D&H Homes, LLC, and Fairfield 2000 Homes Corp have submitted basic plans for

the project to the Conservation Commission for review. The firms are seeking a

wetlands construction permit from the commission for the housing project. The

applicants list a New Milford mailing address under ACEB Corp.

Town Environmental Official David Thompson said the proposal submitted to the

Conservation Commission involves only a minimal amount of regulated

construction in wetland areas.

The project would involve construction work in 0.7 acres of wetlands as well

as the creation of 0.34 acres of new wetlands in the form of a pond.

Besides needing a wetlands construction license from the Conservation

Commission, the project would need a special exception to the zoning

regulations from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). The P&Z would

handle the application not as a conventional residential subdivision but as an

affordable housing project.

Town affordable housing rules require that at least 20 percent of the units in

an affordable housing complex be designated as "affordable." State affordable

housing rules put that figure at 25 percent. The applicants are expected to

seek at least 25 affordable houses in the complex.

The affordable housing rules allow higher construction densities than

permitted in conventional subdivisions.

The affordable houses reportedly would be sold in the range of $135,000 to

$145,000. The other homes would be priced below $200,000.

The 32-acre site eyed for construction is the old McCarthy gravel pit. The

land is located to the north of Berkshire Road, to the south of Philo Curtis

Road, and to the west of Bishop Circle.

To gain access to the site, a house on the north side of Berkshire Road, which

sits immediately to the east of the overpass that carries the Exit 11 on-ramp

of Interstate-84, would be demolished and an access road built there. Streets

on the site would be private roads.

The access road would extend into the property and loop around on itself. Six

cul de sacs would extend from the road.

The wetlands construction request involves building the access road and

installing public utilities across an intermittent watercourse and doing

filling and grading work on the fringe of a wetland.

One large community septic system would handle wastewater disposal. That

system is subject to approval by the state Department of Environmental

Protection (DEP).

Lots on the site would range in size from 6,000 to 9,000 square feet. Houses

would range from 1,800 to 2,000 square feet. The project would be similar to

the Sullivan Farm affordable housing complex in New Milford.

Construction would start after approvals are granted. Building the project

would take an estimated three to five years.

The developers are under contract to buy the two parcels which comprise the

site from William Kuban of Sandy Hook and the D'Addario Family Trust of

Bridgeport.

Stearns and Wheeler, LLC, an environmental engineering and science firm from

Darien, designed the Newtown Village project.

The Conservation Commission will consider the project at an upcoming session.

The commission has the data needed to review the proposal from a wetlands

construction standpoint.

More detailed information would be presented to the P&Z when a special

exception to the zoning regulations for affordable housing is requested.

The town has never reviewed an affordable housing project of this scale.