ANSONIA – A public hearing over a proposed 91-unit, age-restricted housing complex on Ford Street was postponed from Dec. 29 to Jan. 26.
The new hearing will be held 6 p.m. Jan. 26 in the Ansonia High School auditorium (20 Pulaski Highway).
The proposal, from New Haven developer Adam Haston, seeks a special exception to convert the 47,187-square foot former Hilltop Health Center nursing home at 126 Ford St. into 91 age-restricted, studio apartments. There will be 115 parking spaces, according to plans.
The building has been vacant since 2013, when the nursing home closed.
According to documents submitted by Haston and presented by attorney Dominick Thomas, the proposal would bring in $150,000 to $200,000 of new tax revenue each year. Haston said his proposal is the most productive and least intrusive use to breathe new life into a property that has sat empty for 12 years.
During a previous public hearing, held Dec. 8, eleven speakers, mostly from the surrounding hilltop neighborhood, asked a series of questions to the developer and brought up concerns regarding density and parking on the site.
Other potential uses for the site have been discussed in the past, but the housing proposal is the first one to be formally submitted in years. A resident raised the idea of a committee to discuss the property’s future in 2021, and the planned PROUD Academy charter school said last year it was considering the site as a potential location for the school.
The planning & zoning commission received a report from city engineer Fred D’Amico Dec. 29, according to meeting minutes. In the report, D’Amico asked for revised calculations on a detention pond on the site and recommended asking for a cash bond for maintenance from the developer.