Norwich - A controversial plan for an active-adult community in Taftville between Hunters Road and Merchants Avenue has been abandoned, and this time it cannot be resurrected.

"It's zero chance," said one of the developers, Joseph McMahon, in a phone interview last week.

The 90-unit Ponemah Villa Estates project, approved in 2009 and then rekindled a year later after it appeared to be dead in the water, had caused a stir among neighbors because it employed an overlay zone allowing cluster housing that has since been rescinded.

Five years after the project was approved for a second time, McMahon submitted letters to the city indicating he had abandoned the project and was requesting the return of cash construction and demolition bonds of an unspecified amount related to the project. The letters also sought release of various easements related to the property.

McMahon said he abandoned the nearly 40-acre project because he couldn't find financing. McMahon and his brother, Kevin, partners in the project, are planning to sell 30 acres of land as two individual building lots, he said, but no buyers have been identified.

"We're just going to walk away," he said.

City Planning Director Peter Davis said approvals for the project aimed at residents age 55 and over have been surrendered "as if it never happened."

The City Council on Monday will be asked to direct acting City Manager John Bilda to execute a quit-claim deed ending the conservation easement because it will no longer be necessary to mitigate the impact of development.

The senior subdivision had been approved six years ago for a parcel between 154 Hunters Road and 115 Merchants Ave., but appeared to die when the developers couldn't obtain bond financing quickly enough. A technicality allowed the development to rise from the dead in 2010, and the project again won approval only to once again languish because of financing issues.

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow