{"id":325671,"date":"2026-08-20T09:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325671\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:46:10","slug":"village-in-the-woods-battle-rural-ct-town-balks-at-condo-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325671\/","title":{"rendered":"Village in the Woods’ battle: Rural CT town balks at condo plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A developer\u2019s plan for 40 market-rate condos<\/a> in the middle of a woodland in rural Brooklyn<\/a> is drawing fire from residents who say they don\u2019t want their quiet, sparsely developed town built up.<\/p>\n

The proposal for the bucolic-sounding Village in the Woods has brought out a series of longtime property owners complaining that it would create traffic<\/a> and burden the school system while generating nothing that current residents want.<\/p>\n

But developer Meehan Builders Inc.<\/a> argues it would give an opportunity to first-time homebuyers as well as older couples who want to downsize. The two-bedroom units would be priced at about $400,000.<\/p>\n

In a small eastern Connecticut town that prides itself on being part of the Quiet Corner, even a relatively modest-size project like Meehan\u2019s is drawing more controversy than usual.<\/p>\n

Major industrial and commercial developments have been appearing across Windham County communities in the past few years, and the pushback is growing as homeowners in sparsely developed villages complain they don\u2019t want to become more of built-up suburbia.<\/p>\n

Numerous residents spoke against the Village in the Woods proposal at a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing in July, and even more complained last year when a development was planned at nearby Tatnic Hill Road. An online petition got more than 100 signatures<\/a> from residents last year calling on town leaders to stop allowing so much construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value the rural tranquility of our area. We chose to live here for the space and acreage it offers, the rarity of such spaces in New England, and the balance it strikes between the serenity of the country and proximity to our places of work,\u201d the petition said. \u201cToday, this balance is threatened by increasing development, particularly on Tatnic Hill Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implications of these developments are far-reaching, affecting not just the immediate neighborhood, but the overall health of our town,\u201d it said. \u201cThere appears to be no plan in place for the handling of our one-lane road conditions, or for the care of the existing roads leading to the development. These roads are already in a state of disrepair, and more traffic will worsen their condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, residents are raising some of the same concerns about Meehan\u2019s plan along with the warning that bringing in more children will ultimately force a costly expansion of the school system.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe “Village in the Woods” proposal in Brooklyn, Conn. (Courtesy of Town of Brooklyn)<\/p>\n

Not everyone in town is opposed, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing is needed,\u201d one resident wrote in a Facebook discussion about Meehan\u2019s project. \u201cPrices don\u2019t come down when there are less places to live. The same people that complain rents are high will complain when a solution is offered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour taxes will go up when they have to build a high school to accommodate everyone,\u201d another responded, but a third disagreed.
\u00b7
\u201cMost of these new home buyers aren\u2019t bringing in children. Check the statistics. Times have changed,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Meehan now wants to build two rows of 1,200-square-foot condominiums on 32 acres along Old Tatnic Hill Road, and local officials are looking into questions about traffic safety, sewage-handling ability with septic systems, and emergency vehicle access along the narrow street.<\/p>\n

The wetlands commission could decide on the application as soon as this week.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn has tried to focus retail and service businesses along its Route 6 corridor, but the appeal for new market-rate housing is often strongest in outlying areas of fields, woods or former farmland. That was the plan behind a 73-home subdivision that was approved for the Village in the Woods site more than 15 years ago; construction never went forward though.<\/p>\n

Zillow lists the average home value in Brooklyn at just under $420,000 as of the end of June, up about 8% from a year earlier. Six years earlier, that was a shade above $242,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A developer\u2019s plan for 40 market-rate condos in the middle of a woodland in rural Brooklyn is drawing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[122590,98,100,99,8964,2499,2222,1527,28775,2184,122592,28777,2907,22023,267,39356,9,24,63,20120,122586,28302,122589,122591,122588,122593,122587,6764],"class_list":["post-325671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-agricultural-heritage","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-condominiums","tag-condos","tag-connecticut","tag-construction","tag-ct-news","tag-development","tag-eastern-connecticut","tag-hartford-courant","tag-housing","tag-housing-prices","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-project","tag-quiet-corner","tag-residential","tag-rural-village","tag-starter-homes","tag-village-in-the-woods","tag-windham-county","tag-woodlands","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325671","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=325671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}