Controversial Development Application Returns To Ansonia

FILEThe owner of a 14-acre property off Ansonia’s Castle Lane has filed an application with the city to build 10 homes there.

The application represents a significant reduction in scope from a 2011 application in which the owner, Mark Romano of Shelton, sought to build a 23-home subdivision on the land.

City planners rejected that application, which was met with stiff opposition from neighbors, and a judge sided with the city on appeal.

Plans Rejected

A limited liability company controlled by Romano bought the land for $250,000 in November 2010, according to city land records.

The development was originally proposed to the planning and zoning commission in August 2011.

The next month, about 50 residents of the neighborhood showed up at a public hearing on the proposal to raise worries about increased traffic, possible water table depletion, and safety concerns about developing the land, which features steep slopes at several places.

In November 2011, the commission voted to deny the application.

The developer appealed the decision, which resulted in a court case.

A judge at Milford Superior Court upheld the commission’s decision in May 2013.

Plans Revived

In January 2014, Romano returned to the commission for an informal discussion” of the property, during which an engineer he hired went over two options” for development — a 10-home subdivision and a 15-home subdivision.

An application for a 10-home subdivision was filed with the city last month.

The commission was scheduled to accept the application and schedule a public hearing on it Monday, but could not muster a quorum of members.

The commission will take up the application at its regular monthly meeting scheduled for June 29 at 7:30 p.m., and likely schedule a public hearing sometime in August.

According to an engineering report in the application from Milone and MacBroom, a Cheshire-based consultancy, each of the 10 new homes would be serviced by new, individual wells.

The homes would be accessed by extending Castle Lane, which would terminate in a cul-de-sac.

A sewer line already extends through the property that would be connected to the new houses, according to the report, which also lists several best management practices” to control stormwater runoff and drainage there.

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