Ludlowe Center Nursing Home Revives Abandoned Expansion Plan From 2007

Ludlowe Center for Health & Rehabilitation is reviving an expansion plan it didn't pursue in 2007 as the Jewish Home for the Elderly, a nursing home across the street, tries to win approval of regulation changes that would permit an expansion of its facility.

Little information is available about Ludlowe's proposed expansion on its 4-acre property at 118 Jefferson Street. The application filed in the town's Conservation Department says the nursing home wants to build a four-story addition onto the northeast side of its facility, demolish a house and garage on the west side and create parking spaces in that location.

The size of its facility, according to zoning information included with the application, would increase from 57,404 square feet to 80,752 square feet.

The plans don't state why Ludlowe Center wants to build its addition or what it would house, but it's unlikely the nursing home is trying to add beds to its 144-bed facility. Austin K. Wolf, an attorney for the Jewish Home for the Elderly, said several weeks ago that state law doesn't permit additional nursing home beds and the law, which has been renewed several times, doesn't expire until June 30, 2012.

Ludlowe Center's expansion needs approval from the Conservation Department because its property is within a 144-foot setback to wetlands. No wetlands are on the property, and the department, unless it receives a petition requesting a public hearing, plans to issue a "certificate of wetlands conformance," or over-the-counter permit. The expansion would require approval from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission and possibly the town's Zoning Board of Appeals.

The number of parking spaces on the property would drop from 138 to 101. Only 72 parking spaces are required, according to the plans.

Calls to Ludlowe Center for Health & Rehabilitation and Montagno Construction in Waterbury, the applicant, weren't returned Wednesday afternoon. Ludlowe Center filed plans for a similar expansion in 2007 but never moved forward with the project, town officials said.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Home for the Elderly's proposal to change town zoning regulations so it can demolish and rebuild its facility with rooms that are more residential, and less institutional, in appearance calls for the new regulations to permit the Town Plan and Zoning Commission to allow chronic convalescent and nursing homes to have a lot coverage of 20 percent, instead of 15 percent, and a square footage, excluding basements, that's 50 percent of the property's size, instead of 30 percent, as long as the property is at least 15 acres. The JHE's property at 175 Jefferson St. is 15.6 acres.

The JHE's proposed regulation changes require approval from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission.