100 Apartments Approved For Stratford; Historic Home Will Stand

STRATFORD, CT — The Lillie Devereux Blake house will continue to stand on Main Street, but it will share a site with nearly 100 apartments after a zoning commission meeting Wednesday.

The commission voted 4-1 to approve The Village — a rental complex planned for a 3-acre property once owned by Christ Episcopal Church — on the condition that the developer not demolish the 1856 home.

“They decided to listen to the community, maintain the architecture of that house on Main Street and create that as part of their development,” Commissioner Michael Henrick said of developer Kaali-Nagy Properties. “… I don’t know how we can deny it.”

The historical significance of the home arose as a topic of discussion during a previous commission meeting on the project and has been a source of public concern. More than 1,000 people signed an online petition seeking to save the house. According to the petition, Devereux Blake was a known suffragist and writer as well as a descendant of notable Stratford historical figures William Samuel Johnson and the Rev. Jonathan Edwards.

A letter from the State Historic Preservation Office also cited the structure’s Gothic Revival architecture and its placement within the Stratford Center Historic District, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

More than 40 personal letters and 20 form letters expressing apprehension or opposition regarding the developer's proposal are posted on Stratford's website.

“We understand and have great admiration for period and architectural identity,” Managing Partner Damien Kaali-Nagy said at Wednesday's meeting, held via GoToMeeting. “… We will preserve at least the primary and architecturally significant portion of the existing building.”

An earlier version of Kaali-Nagy’s plan called for a six-unit apartment building similar in appearance to the existing homes in the 2000 block of Main Street, which would have replaced the Devereux Blake house. Instead, the home will now be converted into apartments, with its exterior preserved.

In addition to the historic house, The Village will include 116 parking spots as well as a 93,000-square-foot structure containing 97 apartments and standing 50 feet tall. The units will rent at market rate and range from studios to two-bedrooms.

The Main Street site falls within Stratford's transit-oriented development overlay district, about a half-mile from the downtown train station. The district allows for larger scale projects than would typically be permitted, in order to encourage public transit use and mixed-use development.

Commissioner Dion Francis, who cast the lone dissenting vote, expressed reservations about the potential for the project to affect traffic as well as the lack of community support.

“The community were not really in agreeance with this project in the first place,” he said. “… Is it conducive to that area? You’ve got to think about that.”

In preparing to vote on the proposal, the commission added an amendment requiring that residents of The Village can only park on-site at the complex.

Henrick noted the developer agreed to install more parking than the town required. Commissioner Alec Voccola said the project was “one of the better designed buildings I’ve seen in a long time in this town,” adding he hoped The Village would attract new businesses downtown.