A Farmington-based developer is seeking approval to build an 83-unit, predominantly affordable apartment community on 21.9 acres carved out of Wallingford’s Campus at Greenhill office complex.
The proposal would add a residential component to a property its current owner has been working to reposition following years of high vacancy.
Metro Realty Management Corp. submitted a site plan application on Aug. 6 to the Wallingford Planning & Zoning Commission for the development, which would consist of seven two-story buildings on an undeveloped parcel at 110 Leigus Road.
The commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.
Metro does not own the property, but is under contract to purchase the site from KSCGH Partners LLC, which has authorized Metro to act as its agent. The parcel, known as Lot C, was created in May when the Planning & Zoning Commission approved subdividing the Campus at Greenhill office complex into four lots.
Massachusetts-based office landlord KS Partners acquired the nearly 300,000-square-foot building in February for $9.1 million.
Metro’s proposed residential community would include 37 one-bedroom and 46 two-bedroom apartments. According to the application, 66 units, or nearly 80%, would be designated as affordable housing; the remaining 17 units would be rented at market rates.
In addition, 18 of the affordable apartments would be reserved as supportive housing for people with intellectual disabilities through a partnership with Meriden-based MidState ARC. The nonprofit would maintain an office at the development and have staff available around the clock to support those residents, the application states.
It also states that multifamily residential development is not a permitted use in the property’s Watershed Interchange zoning district. Metro, though, is seeking site plan approval under Connecticut’s 8-30g affordable housing law rather than seeking a zone change or a special use permit.
In making its case, Metro argues that 8-30g allows the commission to approve an affordable housing development even when it does not comply with the property’s underlying zoning. The application also notes that large hotels are permitted in the district and says the proposed apartment development’s layout and dimensions comply with most of the district’s zoning standards.
Two hotels — Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott and Homewood Suites by Hilton — are located nearby on Miles Drive.
The application also states that 5.15% of Wallingford’s housing stock qualifies as affordable under the state’s calculation, well below the 10% threshold established under 8-30g. In municipalities below that threshold, local land-use commissions have more limited grounds for rejecting qualifying affordable housing developments.
The application argues the commission could deny the proposal only if it identifies public health or safety concerns that clearly outweigh the need for affordable housing and that cannot be addressed through reasonable changes to the plan.
Metro states it anticipates financing the project in part through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and funding administered through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority or state Department of Housing.
If tax-credit financing is used, Metro said, it expects the affordable apartments to be reserved for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income. The application lists the current area median income for a four-person household in Greater New Haven at $123,200.
The apartments would range from about 856 to 936 square feet for one-bedroom units and 1,171 to 1,259 square feet for two-bedroom units. Each would have a private exterior entrance.
The plans also call for a community room, walking trails, bicycle racks, electric-vehicle charging stations and 138 parking spaces. The buildings would incorporate energy-efficiency measures, and Metro said it plans rooftop solar systems that would feed electricity to the grid through a Connecticut Green Bank program.
Despite the property’s Leigus Road address, the proposed development would have no frontage on nor access to Leigus Road. Vehicles would enter from Miles Drive, which connects with Barnes Road, also known as Route 68.
A July traffic study prepared by Fuss & O’Neill estimates the development would generate 34 new vehicle trips during the weekday morning peak hour and 43 during the afternoon peak. The study concluded that traffic conditions at the intersections it examined would remain largely unchanged, except for a small increase in delay at the Interstate 91 northbound area.
A watercourse and about 6.6 acres of wetlands are located on the western portion of the property, but the application states the project would not disturb them.
Metro also notes in its application that it has developed more than 2,000 apartments in eight central Connecticut municipalities since 1990. Its recent projects include developments with supportive-housing components in Farmington and Cheshire, with another under construction in South Windsor.
