Nearly two years after winning a lawsuit against the town, Garden Homes Management Corp. has submitted two new housing proposals for “mobile manufactured communities.”
The developer, Garden Homes Management Corp., has filed applications with the Planning and Zoning Commission for separate projects.
The first project calls for 99 manufactured double-wide homes on 32 acres at Hurley, Donovan and Oxford Airport roads. It will be called “Oxford Commons.”
The second project — 14 age-restricted manufactured units on 8.5 acres at Hurley and Donovan roads, called “Donovan Meadows.” They would also be double-wide homes.
Garden Homes is the company that built the 150-unit Woodland development on Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton.
All the units would be priced in the neighborhood of $140,000. However, a portion of the 99 double-wides will be priced as “affordable” under state guidelines. Those units will probably sell for around $125,000.
The Planning and Zoning Commission expects to set a public hearing for the new application at its next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 4.
There will be two-and-three-bedroom units in the project.
Richard Freedman, president of the Stamford-based company, said he decided to go with two projects because it will be easier to market. The two projects will have separate entrances and will be divided by wetland that runs through the property.
The town rejected an earlier Garden Homes application, but the developer had the decision overturned in court.
The latest submissions are seen as a “compromise” application, according to a letter to town officials from Timothy S. Hollister, Freedman’s attorney.
Freedman said the court ruling could have allowed up to 142 units for the project. The current proposals call for 113 units total.
The entire project has been moved away from the wetland, as per the desire of the town’s Inland Wetlands agency, Freedman said.
“We reduced the amount of pavement and pulled the development back from the wetlands,” Freedman said.
Oxford’s P&Z has just begun its review of the proposals.
“I hope to have an approval within the next few months but that’s up to the town. We’ll start construction in the spring,” Freedman said.
Asked whether the distressed housing market could support the project, Freedman said there is always a housing market for “value-priced housing.”
Tanya Carver, president of Keep Oxford Green, which opposes high-density housing, said Tuesday she could not comment because she is not familiar with the new applications.
Several members of the Planning and Zoning Commission also could not comment because they were not yet familiar with the application.
