The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
East Haven zoning officials approve 55+ housing
EAST HAVEN — After years of arduous negotiations and frequent setbacks, a Branford developer has finally gotten the goahead for a 55-and-older housing project at the site of a former Girl Scout camp.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the application for a 378unit housing complex on Sperry Lane and Foxon Boulevard, ending a sevenyear saga over plans submitted by Bluffs LLC developer Mark DiLungo.
“It’s a good feeling,” DiLungo’s attorney, Bernard Pellegrino of the Pellegrino Law Firm, said Wednesday of the project’s approval. “I think our client is very happy — he’s worked long and hard to get a project approved there, and in this last version, we worked closely with town staff to come up with a project that both parties are satisfied with.”
Originally dubbed the Sperry Lane proposal, the restructured plans call for four residential buildings with 378 units at the site of the former Girl Scouts of Connecticut’s Camp Murray, decreased from the most recent proposal of 504 units and six buildings.
According to the plans,
three of the residential buildings would have a total of 258 units, and the fourth building would contain 120 assisted-living units. All of the proposed units would be age-restricted, and must have at least one tenant 55 or older, documents show. No resident may be younger than 18.
In addition to accommodating older residents, the project also will increase the town’s availability of affordable housing, as the developer has agreed that 39 of the 258 non-assisted units — or 15 percent — would be deemed “affordable
housing units” as defined by state law.
Mayor Joe Carfora, who initially campaigned against the Sperry Lane proposal, said the “recently approved site plan, including all the terms of the stipulated judgment that must be complied with, represents a better outcome.”
As part of its approval, the PZC specified about 15 relatively minor conditions that must be met for the complex’s development, Pellegrino said. Among those conditions were safeguards related to blasting work conducted
at the site, and settling design details for the final site plan, according to Pellegrino.
The applicant will now seek additional permits from the state Department of Transportation and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Pellegrino said. A construction timeline for the project has not been set.
Throughout the lengthy application process, rock blasting was a main concern for zoning officials and residents living near the project site. Some residents said they feared they would be held liable for any potential property damages caused by the vibrations from the blasting work, which is expected to take about five to six months over a three-year period.
Pellegrino had told the commission that the projected blasting timeframe was a “worst case scenario,” and that project officials hope to reduce the amount of blasting as the process moves forward. To ensure nearby residents are protected, project officials said they will issue pre-and post-blast surveys, and notify households in a timely manner before any blasting begins.
The project has gone through several iterations since DiLungo first proposed the project in 2016. The PZC denied the application multiple times, and DiLungo eventually appealed the board’s ruling in Superior Court. A stipulated agreement from a Superior Court judge laid the groundwork for the current version of the housing project.
Another embattled East Haven housing project also took a step forward last week, as PZC members approved a proposed stipulation for judgement stemming from an application submitted by Autumn View LLC. The plans now call for 69 standalone, market-rate apartments to be built on about 17 acres on Strong Street. The units will not have an age restriction or affordable component.
Pellegrino, who also represents Autumn View LLC, said that client was “happy to get the settlement agreement approved” by the PZC. The next step will be having a Superior Court judge approve the stipulation, he said. Once the judge signs off, the applicant will submit a site plan to the commission, and a public hearing will be held.
The Autumn View proposal, like the Bluffs application, has a long and complex history in East Haven, including multiple lawsuits over the years.
In 2007, the commission approved plans for 51 agerestricted units on 14 acres at the property. But five years later, Autumn View filed an application with the commission to rezone the project to be 17 acres with 105 units. The application removed the age restriction but included affordable housing units. Several denials and court appeals ensued, leading up to last week’s approval of the proposed stipulation.