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    Tuesday, April 23, 2024

    Developers file application for two major projects in Mystic

    Stonington -- Developers have submitted plans for two projects in Mystic totaling an estimated $80 million or more, including one which would easily become the town’s largest taxpayer.

    As expected, David Lattizori has filed an application for a master plan to develop nearly half of 71 acres of the former Perkins Farm off Jerry Browne Road, into a medical and academic campus with apartments and condominiums.

    Meanwhile, Greylock Property Group has filed a master plan application to create 42 condominiums in seven buildings called Mystic Harbor Landing on the former Mystic Color Lab property.

    The Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission is slated to receive the applications on Tuesday night and set public hearing dates for early next year. If the master plans are approved, the developers would then have to submit detailed site plans for approval which would require another round of hearings.

    Lattizori’s master plan calls for developing 32 acres of the farm and preserving 39 acres, most of which would be along Jerry Browne Road and block a view of the buildings from the street and the Stone Ridge retirement community. Renderings show a view of meadows and stone walls from the street.

    The plan calls for 90,000 square feet of medical office space in five one- and two-story buildings. There would also be one 10,000-square-foot academic research building. The plan also calls for one apartment building with 121 units and 50 three-bedroom townhouses spread among 13 buildings.

    The application’s economic analysis states the project would produce $1.3 million in annual tax revenue for the town, about as much as the town’s two current biggest taxpayers, Stone Ridge and Connecticut Light & Power, pay combined. The project is also estimated to produce 360 permanent jobs in addition to hundred of constructions jobs. The town is not providing any tax incentives for the project.

    Over the past two decades, Lattizori’s family had made previous unsuccessful efforts to develop the site with a mix of commercial uses that were rejected by the town following opposition from some residents, including those from Stone Ridge.

    Several years ago he received approval for a 36-lot subdivision of single-family homes on the site but he did not build them as he continued to look for another use.

    Lattizori said it was a retired doctor who lives at Stone Ridge who suggested the idea of a project with a geriatric health component.

    He then began meeting with a committee of Stone Ridge residents to discuss the project with them and gain their support. At a public hearing earlier this year on a floating zone needed for the project, Stone Ridge residents spoke in support of it.

    The five-acre Mystic Harbor Landing project calls for three-story buildings placed around a central courtyard with a maximum height of 46 feet. The application states the proposal is of smaller scale and intensity than that of previous plans for the site which called for a large single structure. A deteriorated brick wall, which is the only structure remaining from the original mill, will be torn down and the brick used for a historical monument on the site and other purposes.

    “This new master plan, which was developed with input from your professional staff as well as project neighbors, entails a high-quality residential development consistent with the architecture of greater Mystic but without the density, height and massing of buildings that caused concern from the surrounding community in previous proposals,” states the application.

    Greylock has had a contractual agreement with the property owner, Edgewood Capital of Southport, to explore potential development possibilities for the property on the Mystic River next to the Ocean Community YMCA.

    In the fall of 2014, Edgewood had sought approval of modifications of a previously approved plan for 55 luxury condominiums that it said would make the project more attractive and marketable. But the commission rejected the application after a group of neighbors opposed the changes.

    Commission members cited the size and mass of the plan as well as their desire to maintain the character of the mill as reasons for their opposition. Edgewood then put the property up for sale.

    Another group had obtained the initial approval to develop the site in 2005.

    j.wojtas@theday.com

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