Milford PZB to Consider Tonight 3 Affordable Housing Applications Totaling Nearly 300 Housing Units

Tonight (April 7) at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, the Milford Planning and Zoning Board will consider three separate affordable housing applications, which if they are all approved could lead to nearly 300 additional housing units in the city.

The big vote centers on Garden Homes Management Corporation’s bid to construct 257 units of affordable housing on Bic Drive. Read the most recent story here.

The PZB is poised to reject that application based on comments made at a meeting last month by board members, but the issue is likely headed to litigation. Courts often side with affordable housing developers because of the state’s affordable housing statute.

Because it’s an affordable housing application the burden of proof is on Milford to prove why the complex would adversely impact residents health and safety.

Other affordable housing applications on the zoning agenda include a proposed settlement between a developer and the city over eight units at 1556 New Haven Avenue in Woodmont.

More than 50 Woodmont residents packed City Hall last spring to oppose that project, which the board denied at that time. At a public forum, speakers cited a host of concerns including safety, flooding, traffic and density issues.

The applicant’s attorney Kevin Curseaden, of Milford, previously told Planning and Zoning Board members that the proposal includes reconfiguring an existing two-family house on the site.

Additionally, two new buildings would be constructed, which would add three units in each facility. There would be a total of eight units combined on the 0.63-acre parcel and three units would be designated as affordable.

And another developer is seeking a 15-unit affordable housing complex on Gulf Street.

Read below for more information from tonight’s zoning agenda.

1556 NEW HAVEN AVENUE (ZONE R-7.5) Petition for Special Permit and Coastal Management Site Plan Review approval of 8 residential units on Map 82, Block 787,

Parcel 3 pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Section 8-30g of which Bella

Properties Milford, LLC is the owner:

Action on proposed settlement for BELLA PROPERTIES MILFORD, LLC v. PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD OF THE CITY OF MILFORD, Docket #HHD-CV14-6051876-S. If settlement is approved there will be a C.G.S. Section 8-8(n) hearing for the court to decide on the proposed settlement on Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 10 AM, at the Superior Court for the Judicial District of Hartford, Land Use Litigation Docket, 95 Washington Street, Hartford, Connecticut.

D. PUBLIC HEARING – CLOSE BY 5/11/2015; EXPIRES ON 7/15/2015

2. 14 GULF STREET (ZONE SFA-10) Petition of Thomas B. Lynch, Esq.,

for Special Permit and Site Plan Review approval to construct 15 residential units under CGS 8-30(g) Affordable Housing Act, on Map 66, Block 813, Parcel 14, of which Two-Ninety Six LLC is the owner.

E. OLD BUSINESS

3. 460 BIC DRIVE (ZONE OD) - Petition of Garden Homes Management Corporation

for Special Permit and Site Plan Review approval to construct a 257 unit, residential development, under CGS Section 8-(30g), on Map 41, Block 301, Parcel 29, of which Garden Homes Residential, LP is the owner.