Developer outlines plans for housing

Stonington - The attorney for the developer of a proposed 40-unit affordable senior housing project behind Mystic Middle School told residents Wednesday night that if they reject the land swap at the Aug. 19 referendum it would kill the project.

James Broder, who spoke on behalf of the Elderly Housing Development & Operations Corp. of Florida, said that is because the firm would not have control of the property in time to file for federal funding of construction.

In addition, First Selectmen Ed Haberek said no decisions have been made about whether the town would lease, sell or give town-owned land for the project to the developer. Whatever the decision, residents would have to approve any transfer of property to Elderly Housing Development at a town meeting.

The nonprofit firm already operates 50 elderly projects, including Stonington Arms in Pawcatuck, and Broder said there are other communities across the country that want the company to build.

"We are not here to force anyone to do anything. We'll present our project and let the people of the town decide. If you don't want us to do it, we'll do it somewhere else," he said.

After listening to critics of the project and the land swap make comments during a Board of Selectmen meeting at the school, Connecticut AFL-CIO president John Olsen, who is on the Elderly Housing Development board, said he was frustrated by what he heard.

"I feel like I've been invited to a dinner party and then been kicked in the shins," he said.

Broder showed site plans and an artist's rendering of a 40-unit, one-story project that he said would look much like Stonington Arms on Route 1 and be open to those 62 and older.

Supporters of the project point out it is badly needed in town and point to the 62 people who are on a waiting list at Stonington Arms.

Voters at a town meeting last month narrowly approved the land swap. At the time, residents were unaware of the developer's interest in the site. The swap calls for Joseph and Mary Putnam to give the town one acre of land they own behind the school in exchange for one acre the town owns to the west. The Putnams would use the land they would receive to build a new access road to their home so they would no longer have to use the school driveway. In addition, the road could provide access to a larger piece of land they own that Joseph Putnam said could be used to build up to 12 homes.

Meanwhile, Elderly Housing Development has said it would like to build the senior housing project on the acre the town would receive combined with an adjacent 1.6-acre parcel already owned by the town.

Opponents of the swap, who questioned what value the town would get from the swap, collected enough signatures to force a referendum vote on the issue on Aug. 19.

The project would generate an estimated $40,000 a year in tax revenue for the town while Putnam has said that gravel located on the land the town would receive has an estimated value of $150,000.

Approval of the swap does not automatically mean housing would be built on the site. Some have suggested the land be used for playing fields, a school addition or some other future purpose.

j.wojtas@theday.com