A New York-based development firm’s revised application for a multifamily development in West Hartford submitted under the state’s affordable housing law has been rejected by the town.
In response to the rejection, a representative of the developers, Vessel RE Holdings LLC and Vessel Technologies Inc., said they are disappointed but plan to resubmit a revised application.
Town Planner Todd Dumais issued the 10-page “denial letter” late Friday for the project, which sought 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 did not include a seek to change the zone.
The application was submitted Nov. 4, after Vessel voluntarily withdrew an earlier application submitted in April.
It was the fifth different proposal submitted by Vessel, which at one point agreed to reduce the number of units. 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.
In the denial letter, Dumais stated the application does not qualify as an “affordable housing development” under 8-30g, noting that a “set-aside development” under the law requires not less than 30% of the dwelling units “will be conveyed by deeds containing covenants or restrictions [restricting them as affordable].”
According to the application, 36 of the 120 units, or 30%, would be “deed restricted to residents earning no more than 80% of the applicable median income.”
Dumais states, however, that the application does not “demonstrate the existence” of dwelling units, because it omitted detailed floor plans that identify bedroom, bathroom and kitchen facilities and failed to demonstrate sanitary sewer adequacy and capacity.
In addition, he states the application was denied because it is ineligible for site plan approval because it does not comply with zoning ordinances, and that denial was necessary to “protect substantial public interests in health, safety or other matters.”
Dumais noted that a previous application had been withdrawn in part due to “substantial concerns regarding fire safety, life safety and constructability,” and that such concerns “are not theoretical. They are borne out of the applicant’s ongoing project in the Town of Cheshire … .”
Josh Levy, executive vice president for Vessel Technologies, said in an emailed statement that the denial was disappointing “in two key respects.”
“It strangely speculates that the design of a 2021 project in Cheshire would be the design of a 2026 building in West Hartford,” Levy stated, “and it was dropped on us at 5 p.m. Friday, giving us no opportunity to correct his misimpression.”
He continued, “Had the town planner or town attorney thought to ask us any of these questions during their more than two-month review of our application, we’d have gladly responded to and resolved them, since most are based on other designs submitted in other towns in recent years.”
Levy added that Vessel was “pleased” to read in the denial letter that Dumais “deems the site appropriate and desirable for multifamily development,” and states that a “forthcoming resubmission” will confirm that the West Hartford project will be “of a new design and will meet or exceed all applicable life safety codes.”