From amusement park to peaceful, waterfront community, the Pawson Park area has seen a lot of changes over the years. But one recent proposal, a plan to develop a small, waterfront lot into either a single-family home or a six-unit, two-building affordable housing development, has neighbors in an uproar.

Residents, many from the Pawson Park Association, turned up in droves at a recent Planning & Zoning Commission public hearing to discuss the proposed development at 239 Pawson Road. The problem? The property doesn’t meet town zoning regulations, and it’s potentially a valuable habitat for protected species. However, state statute 8-30g encourages the development of affordable housing, and places the burden of proof on the town to show why any one site is unsuitable.

The applicant, Arsalan Altaf, is using an appeal to the affordable housing statute to try and obtain a variance for his proposed development. Altaf purchased the 0.23-acre vacant lot for $35,000 last September.

“The applicant can appeal to court and the commission would need to prove that denial was necessary to protect substantial public interest in health, safety, and other matters, that such public interest clearly outweighs the need for affordable housing, and such public interests cannot be protected by reasonable changes to the housing plan,” said Branford Town Planner Harry Smith.

The property does not meet several requirements of town zoning regulations. Once un-buildable land and tidal marsh are subtracted, the area totals less than the requisite number of square feet required by bfd’s zoning regulations for a buildable lot.

“It’s too small in the sense that the property itself is about 18,000 square feet, but if you subtract out un-buildable land, tidal marsh, you get much less than the required 15,000 feet,” said Smith.

It also lacks sufficient frontage on town road.

“It has 30 [feet] and it needs 90 feet,” Smith said.

Beyond size limitations, the property is also part wetlands. This fact may afford it protection under the Connecticut Coastal Management Act.

“The area both on the property and adjacent to the property is listed in the Natural Diversity Database,” Smith said. “There’s potential there are protected species habitats located on the property or adjacent to it.”

Altaf has two applications out: one seeking a variance that would allow him to construct a single-family home through the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the other an application to build the six-unit housing development through the affordable housing appeals statute. Two of the unit’s six developments would qualify as affordable housing—enough to meet the statute’s required 30 percent.

This isn’t the first time someone has sought a variance on this particular property.

“The previous property owner did seek a variance for these requirements and was turned down,” Smith said.

The public hearing last week focused only on the affordable housing application. Residents from waterfront neighborhood associations throughout town and from the immediate neighborhood showed up, filling the meeting room at the Canoe Brook Senior Center. Posters and a petition are in circulation, with most, if not all, of the response opposed to the development. One neighbor even hired a coastal engineer to provide testimony against the development at the public hearing.

“I don’t know if anybody spoke in favor outside of the applicant,” said Smith.

No decision was reached, and the hearing will continue on Thursday, Sept. 1.

“I can’t say what the commission might decide,” Smith said. “It’s an interesting statute; it has noble purpose, but the devil’s in the details.”