East Lyme – The developer of a proposal for 19 houses and 24 townhouse units in the woods on the Montville border is pitching a “conceptual” plan based on a state law created to promote affordable housing.

The law has been interpreted through the court decision to allow developers to submit a concept outlining the broad strokes of the project and its impact on the surrounding area.

At a public hearing of the Zoning Commission Thursday, New London-based attorney Paul Geraghty, representing the applicant, said the intent of a conceptual site plan is to gauge whether or not a project like this could get a favorable review from the commission. That way a developer won’t spend significant amounts of money “only to get denied.”

But critics, like nearby resident and horse farm owner Mark Butterfield, argue the “conceptual” route can be used as a way to drive up profits because land approved for a large development is worth more than land limited to half a dozen houses.

“The more I read about this, the more I question whether the application is really a developer who’s going to develop this property or a speculator who really is just looking to change the zoning for an increased property value,” Butterfield said.

The commission voted unanimously to both close the public hearing and to hold off on further discussion while they familiarized themselves with the material presented that night.

The 12.67-acre site is owned by South Carolina-based Duval Partners LLC, with the application submitted by professional engineer Kristin Clarke of New Hampshire.

Duval Partners held the mortgage for a prior owner of the property before taking it over in 2015 foreclosure proceedings.

Duval last year sold most of the land ― about 300 acres ― to the East Lyme Land Trust based on a $1.6 million appraisal. The property had been approved under a previous owner for a golf course and country club with adjacent senior housing before the project stalled.

Duval is seeking to use Connecticut’s affordable housing law, known in statutory parlance as 8-30g, which applies to towns with less than 10% of their housing stock designated as affordable.

Commissions in those towns can only reject an affordable housing proposal if they can prove in the state Superior Court it presents a threat to public health and safety that can’t be fixed by “reasonable changes.”

Geraghty told the commission approval of the conceptual site plan will allow Duval Partners and their project engineer to “dig down” into details like water and sewer systems, traffic impacts and fire protection. Until then, he said calls for additional information from those like planning director Gary Goeschel and acting town engineer Bill Scheer aren’t relevant.

He pointed to case law – including precedent set over the past 20 years in East Lyme with developer Glenn Russo’s plan to build more than 800 apartments in the Oswegatchie Hills – affirming the validity of conceptual site plans.

“If any town town should know, it should be this town, because Mr. Russo’s been at it with you guys for 20-plus years and he has been pretty successful at getting the courts to say the town can’t do what it’s been doing,” Geraghty said.

Multiple commissions have denied Russo’s proposal. Judges have forced the commissions to take up the application again on multiple occasions. Litigation remains ongoing.

“I’m not saying we want to go there,” Geraghty said of legal action. “We don’t want to go there. We have an application that we think meets the requirements for conceptual approval and we would then proceed to take those steps necessary to develop the detail that both Mr. Scheer and Mr. Goeschel want.”

e.regan@theday.com