A developer seeks to add 17 apartments to a historic Victorian-style, four-building apartment complex in Norwalk that already houses 36 units, according to an application filed with the city.
Norwalk’s Workforce Partners LLC, doing business as 204 Flax Hill LLC, plans to raze a 2,700-square-foot building, at 204 Flax Hill Road, with four apartment units and replace it with a 19,380-square-foot building that will have 21 units.
The “Mansion,” a 7,500-square-foot building that contains six apartment units on-site, will be renovated, the application said. A 5,700-square-foot structure containing eight units and a 17,200-square-foot edifice housing 18 units will remain unchanged.
Five of the 53 units will be deemed affordable workforce housing under the city’s workforce housing regulations.
Workforce Partners also plans to improve the “aesthetic appeal” of the entire 1.4-acre property by, among other things, recreating a wraparound porch and replacing a dome on the “Mansion.”
The developer also plans to landscape the property with trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses and groundcovers of various types, the application stated.
The “Mansion,” built in 1890, is the former home of John J. Ferris, a local coal, lumber and mason’s supply merchant who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1886 and 1887, and then in the state Senate for the 13th District from 1893 through 1896.
He also served as the director of the City National Bank and manager of the South Norwalk Savings Bank.
