The Bloomfield Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission will hold a public hearing June 15 on a permit application tied to First Cathedral’s proposed affordable housing development on its 40-acre campus at 1151 Blue Hills Ave.
The application marks another step in a project that has been working its way through town reviews since last summer.
Community Development Properties Bloomfield Inc., an affiliate of New York-based nonprofit developer Grow America, is seeking permits to remove an existing parking lot and construct two four-story residential buildings with a combined 92 units on a 14.72-acre portion of the church’s property.
That marks a design change from the plan filed last October, which called for three five-story buildings on the site.
First Baptist Church of Hartford, the legal name of First Cathedral, owns the property.
According to the application, the housing development would not directly disturb any wetlands or watercourses on the site. It would, however, affect about 3.05 acres of upland review areas and 1.10 acres of vegetated buffer zones. The property contains 8.06 acres of regulated wetlands and 131 linear feet of watercourses.
Proposed activities include excavation, filling, grading, subdivision and utility construction.
First Cathedral has occupied the Bloomfield property since 1999. Senior Pastor LeRoy Bailey III has said the church spent five years studying how to develop underutilized portions of its land before partnering with Grow America.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the number of units being proposed is now 92, across two four-story buildings. The project has been scaled back since the original proposal.
