East Lyme ― The businesswoman whose name is behind a controversial development in the north end of town is floating a plan for a 55 and older project near Flanders Four Corners.

The proposal for 91 Boston Post Road includes 25 units spread out across six duplexes, two apartment buildings and one existing house on 11.4 acres.

It was submitted as a “conceptual site plan” through a provision in the state’s affordable housing statute that allows developers to get preliminary approval based only on the broad strokes of the project and its impact on the surrounding area.

The proposal will get a public hearing on March 7 despite resistance from New London-based Attorney Paul Geraghty, who is representing Kristen Clarke of English Harbour Capital Partners LLC.

Clarke is the daughter of Jeff Torrance, a developer prohibited from doing business in the town under the terms of a 2015 settlement agreement. The agreement, which came with a $650,000 payoff by the town to Torrance and his partners, was a move to end more than a decade of litigation over development around Darrow Pond.

Clarke is specifically allowed under the terms of the agreement to be involved in the kind of dealings her father is barred from.

Geraghty in a January letter to the Zoning Department described the conceptual site plan as an exploratory framework so developers can obtain input from town staff members into the final design of the project.

According to Geraghty, this is not the time for a public hearing on the matter. He said that time would come once a final site plan is submitted.

He pointed to language in the Affordable Housing District zoning regulations that requires public hearings on preliminary and final site plans, but does not specifically discuss conceptual site plans.

The state’s affordable housing statute, known in statutory parlance as 8-30g, was enacted in 1989 to encourage the construction and renovation of places where people at all income levels can comfortably live.

But some members of the public during a previous public hearing on another conceptual site plan submitted by Clarke wondered if the streamlined process would actually be used to build affordable housing. They suggested an approved site plan, conceptual or not, could be used to drive up profits because land authorized for a large development is worth more than land limited to a small number of single-family homes.

The conceptual site plan provision in the law calls on developers to provide information related to environmental concerns, the process for ensuring at least 30% of the units are sold or rented at affordable rates, and a list of permits and approvals that will be needed – but it does not require those permits and approvals up front.

Geraghty in a phone interview Wednesday said he was informed in an email that the public hearing would be held despite his objections.

“We’ll be there,” he said. “We’ll put on our presentation and, depending on the outcome, it may be a basis for appeal or not.”

The 8-30g statute makes it easier and faster for developers to appeal to the state Superior Court if their applications are rejected. The law specifies zoning appeals must be heard by the court as soon “as is practicable.”

Geraghty, as Clarke’s lawyer, is currently involved in an appeal to the state Superior Court involving the commission’s denial of the conceptual site plan for 19 houses and 24 townhouse units on Holmes Road at the Montville border, which went to public hearing last spring.

The commission’s six-page denial resolution argued the application didn’t include enough information to ensure public health and safety would be safeguarded amid concerns about increased traffic, a lack of public water and sewer service, and limitations on the ability of firefighters to respond to emergencies.

Geraghty then and now emphasized that approval of a conceptual site plan does not mean developers are automatically entitled to approval if they come back with a final site plan.

He said requirements in areas such as septic service, erosion control, traffic will all come into play – “but not at this stage of the game.”

Geraghty has pointed to legal precedent set right here in town by developer Glenn Russo’s plan to build more than 800 apartments in the Oswegatchie Hills. The decision affirmed the validity of conceptual site plans as a preliminary approval, not a final one.

A judge in 2021 sent Russo’s case back to the Zoning Commission so the developer could go through the final site plan process. He has not yet filed an application.

e.regan@theday.com