🔒Vessel submits new, larger plan for West Hartford multifamily development

More than six months after withdrawing its application for a multifamily development project in West Hartford, a New York-based development firm has submitted a new application under the state’s affordable housing law. The site application was submitted earlier this month by Vessel RE Holdings LLC and Vessel Technologies Inc. to West Hartford Town Planner Todd Dumais, Vessel officials confirmed Wednesday. According to a letter to Dumais written by Jason Klein, a partner with the Stamford law firm Carmody Torrance Sandak and Hennessey, the application seeks to construct two five-story buildings with a combined 120 units on approximately 2.3 acres at 29 Highland St. The property is the former home of Hughes Health and Rehabilitation and is currently zoned for single-family development. The site plan application does not include a request to change the zone. This is the fifth different proposal submitted by Vessel, which at one point agreed to reduce the number of units, before it formally withdrew the application at the end of April. Previous applications also utilized the Section 8-30g of the state’s General Statutes, which promotes the development of low-cost housing with long-term affordability protections. The state law includes an appeals process to override denials of affordable housing proposals by local zoning boards without just cause. It ensures that municipalities cannot deny an affordable housing proposal unless there is a specific significant health or safety concern. Vessel initially proposed creating 112 multifamily units, but after a request from the council during a public hearing on Feb. 25, it agreed to combine some single-bedroom units to create additional two-bedroom apartments. That reduced the overall number of units to 108. The new application increases the total number of apartment units to 120. Of those, 36, or 30%, would be “deed restricted to residents earning no more than 80% of the applicable median income.” In a statement emailed to Hartford Business Journal, Vessel officials said they withdrew their application earlier this year “in the interest of revisiting it, top to bottom, in light of community concerns that were raised at the time.” Some town residents had objected to Vessel’s redevelopment plans, including whether enough on-site parking would be included and the overall effect of the project on a nearby middle school and residential neighborhood. The newly revised plan it submitted this week, the company said, “balances the totality of feedback we received, with the acknowledgment that no one plan could address all of the viewpoints expressed.” The statement adds that Vessel looks forward to collaborating with the town’s planning staff, adding that it expects to complete the project by “the holidays of 2026.” Under West Hartford planning and zoning regulations, site plans can be reviewed and approved administratively by the town planner and his staff. Vessel also has proposed developing a 75-unit, five-story apartment building in Bethel that will offer affordable housing.