New Castle Lane Development Application Filed In Ansonia

An assessor’s map showing 26 Gardners Lane, a 14-acre property where an age-restricted multi-family housing development has been proposed.

A proposal to develop a 14-acre property off Ansonia’s Castle Lane is back on the table.

The property’s owner pulled a controversial application for a housing subdivision on the property in 2015 with a view to selling it to the city for use as open space.

But a deal was never reached, and the developer’s lawyer has filed a new application to put 20 units of age-restricted housing there.

On Monday the Planning & Zoning Commission scheduled a hearing on the proposal to change the zoning for the property — technically 26 Gardners Lane — at 7 p.m. July 23 in City Hall.

A site map filed with the zoning application shows a private road extending onto the property about 1,000 feet from where Castle Lane currently ends.

Each unit will be two bedrooms and have a two-car garage and driveway with parking for two additional cars.

A clubhouse would be situated on a turnaround at the end of the private road. The site map also shows emergency access to the property from Gardners Lane.

Development proposals have been on the drawing board in one form or another since 2011. 

Neighbors opposed them, citing worries about water use, the sloping topography of the land, and concerns about overdevelopment.

Click here for more background from a previous story.

In 2015, the property’s owner, Mark Romano, withdrew an application for a 10-lot subdivision for the property after reaching a deal to sell the land to the city for $525,000.

The city acquired a $112,500 grant for the purchase but never closed the deal.

The city’s corporation counsel, John Marini, said Tuesday (May 22) said the city would like to see the property kept as open space but couldn’t bridge the gap between the grant funding and the sale price.

They have their opportunity to present what they’re going to present to the board and we’re early in the process,” he said. I think we want to see what they’re going to propose, how they’ve modified their proposal from last time.”

Romano’s lawyer, Dominick Thomas, said that while any development on the property will probably cause some controversy, the new application will result in much less disturbance.”

He said the new development would be limited to people 62 and over similar to Oxford’s Meadow Brook Estates and Oxford Greens communities.

And instead of drilling new wells — one of the biggest concerns with prior development applications — the new plan calls for using public water. 

A letter from the Regional Water Authority accompanying the development application says the company’s system has adequate capacity to serve the property, though a private pump station may be necessary to provide adequate pressure to the development.

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org