Date: Fri 13-Feb-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Homestead-Hawleyville

Full Text:

Hearing On Hawleyville Zone Change Postponed To March 5

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

At the request of the applicant, a Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) public

hearing on a zone change sought for a proposed 300-unit age-restricted housing

complex in Hawleyville has been postponed from February 19 to March 5.

The P&Z granted the postponement at the request of attorney William Denlinger,

who represents Morton H. Silberstein, MD, of The Homesteads of Connecticut,

LLC, of Guilford.

The public hearing has been rescheduled for 8 pm, Thursday, March 5, at

Newtown Middle School auditorium, 11 Queen Street.

Dr Silberstein wants a zone change as the first step toward construction of

The Homesteads at Newtown, off Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville.

The doctor wants the P&Z to convert about 60 acres of property with

residential and business zoning to Elderly Housing-10 (EH-10) zoning. Most of

the land is a vacant former gravel mine. The property is north of Mt Pleasant

Road, south of Old Hawleyville Road and Interstate 84, east of the Bethel town

line, and west of Pocono Road. The site has road frontages at 166 Mt Pleasant

Road and 12-16 Pocono Road. Most of the site lies to the north, northeast, and

northwest of Grace Christian Fellowship and the Newtown Professional Building.

If the P&Z grants the zone change to EH-10, the applicant would then submit

site development plans for the complex to the P&Z in seeking a special

exception to the zoning regulations to build the project. Such a site

development plan application would be the subject of public hearings.

Wetlands

While the zone change application is pending before the P&Z, the applicant

also will have a wetlands construction permit application pending

simultaneously before the Conservation Commission. The developer wants

permission to place clean earthen fill along the edge of some wetlands,

install two stormwater culverts, build a stormwater detention basin, and

stabilize four areas along a streambank to accommodate the grading associated

with the construction of roadways on the site. The Conservation Commission is

expected to act on the wetlands construction application by April 17.

Of the overall 61.3-acre site, the applicant wants the P&Z to convert 59.7

acres to EH-10 zoning. Some 1.6 acres on Mt Pleasant Road would retain its

current Professional-1 zoning designation.

In 1995, the P&Z faced a request to rezone land in Hawleyville from

residential to industrial as a first step toward construction of a

100,000-square-foot exposition center off Hawleyville Road. In October 1995,

following heated public protests over that proposal, P&Z members turned down

Joy Brewster's zone change request for the Connecticut Exposition and

Performing Events Center (CEPEC).

Hawleyville: A Focus

For Development

Hawleyville has long been discussed as a place for future local economic

development. A recent economic development study on Hawleyville prepared for

the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO) suggests the site

as a potential location for age-restricted housing. The P&Z has yet to act on

that economic development study.

The Homesteads at Newtown would include 160 congregate, 40 independent, and

100 assisted-living housing units. Of the 160 congregate housing units, 94

would have one bedroom, 58 would have two bedrooms, and eight would be studio

apartments. There would be 273 parking spaces at the site.

Access to the property would be provided by a driveway on Mt Pleasant Road,

lying approximately 650 feet east of Mt Pleasant Road's intersection with

Violette Road.

A traffic report prepared by Milone and MacBroom, Inc, of Cheshire states,

"There is adequate reserve capacity to safely accommodate the existing

on-street (Mt Pleasant Road) traffic volumes, as well as the anticipated

site-generated traffic volumes."

Dr Silberstein holds an option to buy the site from John Sedor, Jr; Lillian S.

Emmons; and The Estate of Lillian Hazel Sedor, of which Lillian S. Emmons is

the executrix.

Property owners with holdings within 500 feet of the edge of the proposed

development will be notified by mail of the March 5 public hearing on the

requested zone change. There are 39 properties which are completely or

partially within that 500-foot zone.