North Branford will continue a public hearing on plans to build 25 age-restricted houses on six acres in the town's Northford section. The hearing will continue during the North Branford Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) meeting Thursday, Feb. 2, 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

If successful, owner/applicant 24-30 Clintonville Road Associates will be the first to use a new "floating zone" text amendment allowing for denser, age 55-and-over housing as a transition between industrial and residential zones.

Proposed to be built on a 6.39 acre parcel at 50 Clintonville Road, the complex would be accessed via Fire Lite Place, a street which also provides access to manufacturer Honeywell Life Safety (producer of Fire Lite alarms) and Northford Ice Pavilion.  The complex would include a looped private road and have no more than four single-dwelling housing units per acre. The floating zone allows up to five units per acre. Typically, single dwelling homes in the area are built on one-acre lots. 

The concept for the development anticipates building 25 single-family houses. Using three or four different styles, each home would be two stories, with 1400 to 1700 square feet of interior space. The property would be maintained by the owner/applicant until enough units are sold to create a homeowner's association.

Attorney Diane Whitney (Pullman & Comely LLC, Hartford) represented the owner/applicant at the opening of the public hearing on January 5.  Whitney said the details provided in the application comply with the requirements of the floating zone; including paying a fee in lieu of required open space.

Commissioner Ron Siena questioned the fee, which would total $4,917.66. Town Planner Carey Duques said the amendment does provide for a fee if open space is not achievable. In this case, the property requires 1.2 acres of open space. Duques said the fee was calculated based on 10 percent of the property's fair market value of $245,900 divided by 6 acres, with .2 acres added back in.

The PZC also received results of the applicant's traffic study, conducted by a traffic engineer, showing vehicle loads created by the complex's additional residents won't negatively impact the area's traffic flow.

Commissioner Siena also questioned that conclusion, saying, "You have a major factory and an ice pavilion with three rinks. There's a lot of traffic being funneled out to Clintonville Road."

The PZC directed Duques to refer the application to the police department and Fire Marshal for feedback on traffic and other safety impacts.

The PZC hearing on Jan. 5 drew about a dozen residents with five coming forward to speak.  Northford resident Scott Small said while he liked the floating zone concept and felt the town is "on the right track" with the idea, the 50 Clintonville Road development would be "too compact."

"This is for an aging community. I would think you would have areas for people to walk and enjoy. I think it's too dense," said Small. "One of the first requirements is open space. In my opinion, do less units and nicer units, and give a little more back to the land."

Nancy Warfield said she lives in the residential area right next to the property. Warfield has concerns about the development's proximity, traffic impacts, potential encroachments on wetlands and types of buffers to be installed. She added she was there to "...express my hope that this doesn't go through."

"So even though I love the idea, I don't love it there," said Warfield. "I moved there 22 years ago to be surrounded by woods, and shortly after that, they put in the ice rink. And now, they're going to put in houses. It will effect traffic, just like the skating rink did; and also emergency traffic."

Northford resident Donna Pursley pointed out the floating zone was adopted after the applicant brought a request for the text amendment to the PZC. The amendment became effective in January 2016.

"They were the applicant for the text amendment," said Pursley. "This is an ongoing thing, where the text amendment is being written by the applicant, basically. It kind of bothers me that people who want to change the character of the town are writing the rules."

"I just want to clarify it was not written by the applicants," responded Duques, adding several PZC meetings took place, with a public hearing as part of the process, in the course of drafting and adopting the amendment.

"Do they propose it? Absolutely, because that's their idea to bring changes to the town," Duques continued. "But by no means do I feel like the applicant wrote this text amendment. The commission was very involved."

The PZC also heard from resident Kathy Rejuans, who owns one of 13 condominium units in a complex built on approximately 7.5 acres at 60 Clintonville Road.

"There are 13 townhouses and they're very close together. We sit in approximately the first third of acreage of land (and) I think that's an appropriate use of that land. Everything else around us is one-acre lots," said Rejuans.

Rejuans bought her home thinking the space around the condominiums would always hold one-acre building lots.

"The (proposed complex's) parcel of land was also one-acre lots, so you could probably put in four to five homes, and that was what I was anticipating. Not 25 more homes," said Rejuans, later adding, "...I know you worked as a whole and came up with the new zoning; but you did it in unity with the owners. I watched the meetings; you had many (and) I think premise of age restricted housing is a good one (but) I don't think it's good here. These people (in the complex) will be surrounded on three sides by Fire Lite and the Ice Pavilion.  I hear the sirens all the time – there's accidents there (and) it's very difficult to get out on that road. It's going to make an impact; a very major impact."

The PZC was also asked how the owner/applicant qualified its claim, provided in a November 2016 press release, that the complex will provide the town with an annual estimated real estate tax revenue of over $200,000.

Following the public comments on Jan. 5, Whitney gave some feedback to the PZC.

"It's always difficult for people who are living next to open space to see it be developed. Everybody always wants to be the last house in their neighborhood, and that's not always possible when an application comes forward with a plan that meets all the regulations for that particular land. And a lot of what you're hearing tonight is the very understandable; the feeling of neighbors that they would prefer this land not be developed," said Whitney. "But if in fact the plan meets your regulations, then it has a right to be developed. The details will be coming forth so people can have a better understanding of what this will look like and feel like."

Whitney said she looks forward to hearing comments from the town's emergency officials on Feb. 2.

Speaking to Zip06/The Sound following the meeting, Duques said the Fire Marshal's review will include looking at the minimum distance proposed between the homes, which needs to be 20 feet for single units such as those in the conceptual plan.