{"id":244950,"date":"2026-05-27T10:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/244950\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:11:12","slug":"newtown-signs-ny-builders-deal-for-120-apartments-350k-payment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/244950\/","title":{"rendered":"Newtown signs NY builder\u2019s deal for 120 apartments, $350K payment"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWTOWN \u2013 A New York developer<\/a> has the green light to build 120 apartments with affordable units near the high school in Sandy Hook and the town<\/a> will receive a $350,000 check to pay for sidewalks under a settlement that ends a 14-month legal battle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased that the Planning and Zoning Commission has been able to negotiate what appears to be an agreement with Vessel regarding its 8-30g application,\u201d said Newtown\u2019s top elected leader, Bruce Walczak, referring to the section of a state law<\/a> that gives developers broad protections against routine denial when they set aside 30 percent of a project as affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaching an agreement is almost always a better outcome than pursuing legal action,\u201d Walczak told Hearst Connecticut Media on Monday. \u201cWhile this development is not universally popular, having a meaningful role in shaping its design features has hopefully made the project more acceptable to the residents who live closest to the site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newtown\u2019s settlement with Vessel Technologies<\/a>, which is yet to be formalized in state Superior Court, shaves 16 apartments off the developer\u2019s original 136-unit plan for a 5-acre property at Berkshire and Oakview roads that Newtown denied in February 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that 8-30g applications put towns in a very awkward position where we don\u2019t have the normal give-and-take or local control that we would in normal applications for housing of this type. And as such I think one of the primary duties of a commission is to try to get the best deal and the most benefit for the public through a negotiation process before the development inevitably comes to be,\u201d said Peter Schwarz, a member of Newtown\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission who voted in the 4-to-1 majority to approve the settlement on May 21. \u201cI think is a good benefit for the community \u2013 something we can point to that may balance out a little bit of the reluctance we would otherwise have to approve a development like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney representing the Manhattan developer agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201c(O)nce we sign this \u2026 this is it,\u201d said Meaghan Miles. \u201cWe\u2019re moving on from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vessel\u2019s settlement with Newtown is similar to a Vessel settlement over a contested apartment house project in Bethel, which a state judge approved in January<\/a>. Just like the\u00a0Newtown case, Vessel appealed Bethel\u2019s denial of a 75-unit building with affordable apartments. Just like the Newtown case, Vessel offered to shave a few units off and pay Bethel $350,000 to use for sidewalk improvements. Just like the Newtown case, Bethel Planning and Zoning Commission members said Bethel was better off having negotiated concessions from Vessel.<\/p>\n

Newtown\u2019s settlement with Vessel comes at a time when developers and residents are appealing housing decisions by Newtown\u2019s land use commissions in five cases in state court \u2013 including an appeal by developer Stephen Shapiro<\/a> over Newtown\u2019s denial of a 300-apartment development with affordable units.<\/p>\n

Not all Newtown commissioners were on board with the Vessel settlement.<\/p>\n

Commission member Roy Meadows said he opposed signing the agreement with Vessel because the deal didn\u2019t go far enough to protect public safety. Meadows said there needed to be a sidewalk to connect the two apartment buildings, even if the grade was steep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a huge safety issue,\u201d Meadows said during the May 21 meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy recollection is that the walkway, due to changes in the grade between the north building and the south building, it is not safe to put a sidewalk, especially for [federal handicap accessibility law] purposes,\u201d said Miles, the developer\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s what was initially said but then we talked about that,\u201d Meadows argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe we came to an agreement on the walkway,\u201d the attorney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m going to have trouble with this \u2026 until we resolve the sidewalk,\u201d Meadows said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe if it wasn\u2019t on this plan the walkway was not feasible,\u201d said Miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN \u2013 A New York developer has the green light to build 120 apartments with affordable units near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,28584,56],"class_list":["post-244950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news-times","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}