A 20-unit affordable housing proposed at the corner Governor Street and Prospect Ridge Road had its public hearing continued until July 23 after very limited discussion.
The project, by developer Stephen Zemo, had been substantially reworked based on feedback from the commission’s “peer review” engineering consultants, and from commission members at a site walk. The new drawings were only available in a preliminary form.
Still, the hearing began on Tuesday night, June 18, and attorney Robert Jewell offered to at least start the presentation.
Commission Vice Chairman Patrick Walsh was very uncomfortable hearing a presentation without full, completed plans for commission members to look at.
A similar attempt to be accommodating and move procedures along had led to problems with the North Street affordable housing application that was denied and has now been appealed to court, he said.
The commission also declined Mr. Jewell’s offer to have the applicant’s traffic consultant make his presentation, since he will likely not be able to make the July 23 meeting and the traffic report would be minimally affected by the revisions to the plan.
Several neighbors turned out and two spoke.
“Traffic does change in town,” said George Dinisi of Governor Street, urging the commission not to short-change its own process by having the hearing before everything was ready.
Tom Montanari, who owns a nearby property but lives out of town, said he’d never received the required written notice of the hearing. The commission’s records showed it had been delivered to whoever rents the house.