Waterford — A housing development for residents age 55 and over, first proposed in 2014, will soon be under construction on an 11-acre lot adjacent to the Stop & Shop grocery store that used to house a drive-in theater.

The 90-unit Victoria Gardens complex on Boston Post Road is being developed by Berlin-based Waterford Development Associates LLC. The owners have pushed through the permitting process over the past three years, and began clearing trees and broke ground in mid-May.

Town officials told The Day in 2014 that the property had been vacant for more than three decades. At least four developments had been proposed there over the years.

Cheryl Daniw, a manager at Waterford Development, told The Day in 2014 that the location, close to the Crystal Mall and bus routes, was ideal for housing. She said the apartments would be marketed to people age 55 and older who meet certain income requirements, and the rent per apartment would be based on a sliding scale.

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority awarded low-income tax credits to Victoria Gardens among five other proposed affordable multifamily housing developments in 2016. The tax credits can be leveraged with existing funding and are distributed as a way to create more affordable rental housing in the state.

Daniw declined to comment on the project Tuesday. Jim La Rosa, the chief operating officer of Meriden-based La Rosa Building Group, said his company has a contract to build the facility and broke ground in mid-May.

“We’re looking at trying to get the building enclosed by the time winter hits,” La Rosa said.

The company cleared trees on the lot starting May 15 to make way for the three-story building and a parking lot, he said. The parking lot will take up about four acres of the 11-acre lot.

The lot has been the temporary home for people who have set up tents in the past several years, and sits beside an established encampment in the nearby woods.

Waterford Police Chief Brett Mahoney said Wednesday he had been notified that construction was going to start and officers asked two people staying in tents on the property to leave before May 15.

He said officers also returned a week later and found personal items on the site, which they later returned to their owner.

Several developers have proposed building projects on the former drive-in lot since the 1980s. Carl Sherman, who owned the land in the early 1980s when he was Waterford's second-largest taxpayer, sought to sell the property for development as elderly housing units.

A proposal to build 94 townhouses on the site was presented to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission in 1986 but was never built. Essex-based developer Henry Resnikoff proposed a 74-unit condominium complex on the site in 2004, and another Essex-based developer proposed an 80-unit condominium complex on the property in 2005.

m.shanahan@theday.com