Developer seeks to change EL zoning laws

Landmark attempting to build homes within Oswegatchie Hills

East Lyme — A developer who has been proposing to build housing in the Oswegatchie Hills since 2001 submitted an application to the Zoning Commission this past week, asking it to amend parts of its affordable housing regulations to allow any future development applications to more easily move forward, as well as other changes.

Developer Glenn Russo of Landmark Development and his attorney, Tim Hollister, proposed the Zoning Commission change its regulations to allow developers of affordable housing to deviate from a “preliminary site plan/final site plan” procedure now in place and instead abide by a proposed “master plan” procedure.

Attorney Hollister also proposed a 50-foot height restriction on multifamily dwelling units that are part of affordable housing districts — 20 feet more than what is currently outlined — as well as various exceptions to the town’s current rules dictating setbacks and buffers.

Hollister said the changes are warranted after he contended that the commission improperly ruled on two preliminary site plan applications Russo submitted to the town in 2015 to build 840 units within 24 buildings and to rezone 123 acres of his 236-acre parcel to an affordable housing zone.

According to Day archives, the commission conditionally approved Russo’s application and ruled that only areas within the town’s sewer service district could be rezoned.

Hollister also contends the commission incorrectly “demand(ed)” Russo submit fully engineered site plans, as well as a “high-intensity wetlands soil survey and other detailed ‘environmental data,’” as part of the preliminary site plan application.

Russo and Hollister are appealing the commission’s 2015 decision in court.

“To address and avoid in the future the distortions that occurred in the 2015 process, Landmark now proposes an amendment” to the regulations, Hollister wrote.

Under the town’s current procedures, developers proposing affordable housing projects may submit an application for “preliminary site plan” approval to the Zoning Commission before later seeking final site plan approval by way of a required and highly detailed “final site plan” application.

As part of their proposed “master plan” procedure, however, Hollister suggests developers should be allowed to submit a “master plan” instead of a “preliminary site plan,” and proposes that the “master plan” not require detailed engineering studies.

Hollister adds in his proposed amendments that a developer still would need to later obtain “final site plan” approval that would require engineering studies, as is the case now.

“We are trying to clarify the procedure,” Hollister said by phone Thursday. “We are saying we are going to map out the macro elements of the development, and if acceptable, we will then come back with more detailed engineering.”

Russo has been seeking to develop hundreds of housing units on the 236 acres he owns in the Oswegatchie Hills since 2001, prompting much local opposition, as well as a medley of environmental concerns from two local groups: Friends of Oswegatchie Hills and Save the River-Save the Hills. Russo’s property directly abuts the 457-acre Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve.

Hollister also argued that because the town accepted in the early 2000s a “master plan” from the Gateway Commons developers Simon Konover Co. of West Hartford and KGI Properties of Providence, who built a Costco in town, as part of a process to rezone various parcels of land into what’s now known as the

“Gateway plan district zone,” Russo, too, should be able to submit his own “master plan.”

Zoning Official Bill Mulholland explained that the Gateway Commons developers submitted a master plan to the town as part of a process to establish a “Gateway plan district zone.” That master plan was submitted alongside a very specific set of zoning regulations that are now applied within the zone, he said.

Mulholland said Russo’s proposed regulation changes will be referred to other town agencies, such as the town’s Planning Commission, and the regional Council of Governments for their review.

The Zoning Commission accepted the application for the changes at its meeting Thursday night and is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter Oct. 1. Commission members did not discuss the application at the meeting.