The proposed 23,610 square foot, 18-unit housing development on Cottage Road that has come up against opposition from neighbors as the proposal winds its way through the Inland Wetlands Agency (IWA) has had its public hearing extended to the agency’s Monday, Feb. 7 meeting.

Because the application is being submitted under the auspices of Connecticut State statute 8-30g, which constrains municipalities in denying approval of developments if the project conforms to affordable housing criteria, town agencies can deny a project only for public health or public safety issues.

The site, which is located at 35 Cottage Road, has drawn opposition from neighboring residents, who say the building would harm the wildlife in a pond on the site, which may not be a qualifying criterion for denial, according to specific reading of the statute. According to town records, the developers tried in 2020 to have the property rezoned from residential to “transition district” that they claimed would permit development farther from the pond.

However, the Planning & Zoning Commission rejected that proposal in November 2020. The current plan is for the building to be sited within 100 feet of the pond on the property, which will require approval from the Madison Inland Wetland Agency (IWA), which determines whether projects have significant detrimental impacts on water bodies.

The current debate appears to be focusing on whether the IWA has the authority to deny approvals such as this when filed under the auspices of the 8-30g statute. Opponents claim it does, and lawyers for the developer claim the agency does not have safety and health oversight of this kind.

However, it is clear, according to officials, that the project the developers are proposing, which would have a septic system designed to handle 2,700 gallons a day, would be large enough to require approval from the State Department of Public Health.

Opponents have questioned how many multifamily housing developments that area of Cottage Road can support, citing the two other complexes already within a few hundred yards of the proposed site.

The neighboring Seabreeze Condominium Association, hired an inland wetlands scientist, George Logan, to survey the site and his conclusions, which were presented to the PZC and the IWA in December and again to the IWA at a public hearing in January, were that the proposal doesn’t include enough measures to prevent stormwater runoff and discharge from nearby septic systems from polluting the pond, but whether this is enough to deny approval remains unclear.

The applicant requested and received an extension to the public hearing to rebut those claims and answer further questions raised by IWA members.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story erroneously described the proposal size as 7,800 square feet; it is for a 23,610 square foot structure.