The 10 acres the town wants changed to the MFDD zone common in the area near Schlumberger is the hour-glass or boot-shaped parcel north of Sunset Lane. That’s Quail Ridge at bottom right, and Casagmo at the far left and top.
Sympathetic but not swayed by neighbors’ objections, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted Tuesday to begin a two-step approval process on the town’s request for multifamily zoning on Schlumberger property.
“I think if we’re going to have some high density housing in town, that’s a very appropriate place to put it,” commissioner member Joe Fossi said.
The town’s proposal for a multifamily zone on 10 acres off Sunset Lane had been opposed by eight of nine speakers — most of them neighbors — at a public hearing last week.
“How is it in keeping with the neighborhood?” said JoAnn Motta, who owns two houses on Sunset Lane. “It’s a blue collar working-class neighborhood of very modest homes.”
Ed Tyrrell, who isn’t a neighbor but closely follows town politics, took the argument back to the debate leading up to voters’ decision in December 2011 to spend $7 million to acquire the 45-acre former research center.
“A year and half ago we purchased the Schlumberger property so that we would control our destiny. The fear was put in the people that high density developers were about to swoop in and ruin the town,” Mr. Tyrrell told the commission.
“If you approve this zone change the town itself will become the high density developer we were told to fear.”
But after a wide-ranging discussion Tuesday night, the commission voted to have a resolution of approval drawn up on the Board of Selectmen’s petition to rezone 10 acres off Sunset Lane from a B-2 non-retail business zone to a Multifamily Dwelling Development District or “MFDD zone.”
The zone allows six units an acre, and up to eight units if a portion of them meet “affordable” standards. The commission also backed amendments to the multifamily zone’s design standards. One change, slightly toned down by the commission, would allow buildings to be three and half stories and up to 45 feet high — rather than the current two and half stories and 35 feet — if half the site remains undeveloped and the commission is convinced the flexibility improves the design.
All the draft resolutions will be drawn up by Town Planner Betty Brosius and put before the commission again, for review and another vote.
“I believe the MFDD zone is certainly fitting there,” Commissioner Fossi said. “Certainly everything around it is high density, MFDD or B-2. It backs up to the Great Swamp, so the height’s not a problem.”
The vote was 6-to-1 with commissioners John Katz, Joe Fossi, Peter Chipouras, Nelson Gelfman, George Hanlon and Phil Mische in favor.
Patrick Walsh was opposed, Michael Autuori abstained, and Rebecca Mucchetti was absent.
“When I left the meeting last Tuesday I drove down Sunset Lane, and I was shocked at how quiet that street is,” Mr. Walsh said.
The multifamily zone the town is seeking would allow up to 60 units on 10 acres, or 80 under the affordable option, and the commission debate at some length the affect this might have on Sunset Lane.
But First Selectman Rudy Marconi said the selectmen intend limit development to less than the maximum allowable, using deed restrictions to enforce a limit after going through a marketing process designed to turn the property over to a buyer offering both a good price and a development plan that seems suitable for the neighborhood.
He said only about half the 10 acres well suited to development.
“To get 80 units would be putting a gallon into a quart,” Mr. Marconi said. “We’re looking at 40 units, plus or minus about five, in that area. We know that half the property under the new language will be open space…
“We don’t see ourselves pushing the envelope,” he said, “or allowing whoever buys the property to push the envelope.”
Mr. Marconi said some weeks ago that a seller of land should be able to get about $125,000 per residential unit, so the property with a development potential of 35 or 40 units could bring in $4 or $5 million.
That would take the town a long way toward recouping a sizable portion of the $7 million taxpayers invested in the property — an goal the selectmen had talked up before the referendum to buy the land.