Developer makes fifth pitch for Hunters Ridge project in Newtown

A developer has submitted its fifth proposal for Hunters Ridge, a housing project in Newtown that has repeatedly run into opposition from the Connecticut town”™s Water & Sewer Authority (WSA).

In its latest proposal, developer 79 Church Hill Road LLC seeks to build a single six-story building consisting of 141 rental apartments, 43 of which would be designated as affordable housing.

The developer has asked the WSA to confirm that 20,868 gallons of daily sewage treatment capacity for the proposed apartments on a 0.75-acre plot would be reserved at the town sewage treatment plant for the Hunters Ridge project. The town has approximately 33,000 gallons of unallocated sewage treatment capacity remaining at the plant.

Hunters Ridge was originally pitched as 224 rental apartments in several buildings, as well as over 55,000 square feet of commercial space on a 35-acre site. That proposal would have required Newtown to extend its sewer district to all 35 acres, something the WSA rejected.

The developer later proposed 141 dwellings be built in two buildings on 3.8 acres, under the belief that that acreage fell within the existing sewer district. But the WSA has told the developer that only 0.75 acres at the site are actually within the sewer district.

79 Church Hill Road is located near westbound I-84”™s Exit 10 interchange ramps.