KENT, Conn.—The Planning and Zoning Commission has officially received an application to build 80 units of housing on land between Kent Barns and the town hall. It set a hearing date for Thursday, Dec. 11.
If approved as presented, the development would provide at least 16 affordable housing units and perhaps more. The eighty-unit proposal includes four more dwelling units than a previously discussed plan and James Millstein, head of Kent Development Housing Associates, explained that a proposed recreation center was removed and replaced with another housing block.
Millstein and his planners came before the PZC to request amendments to the housing incentive overlay zone regulations. The amendments would not affect zoning other than for that limited area, and PZC Chairman Wesley Wyrick observed, “The only exposure we would have is if we approved the amendments, and then you decided not to go ahead with the plan, we would still have the amendments attached to the zone.”
Millstein suggested a brief “walk through” of the proposed amendments to see how they are tailored to his proposal.
Engineer Jeremy Lake outlined the challenges imposed by the drainage ditch that bisects the 12.5-acre parcel and said that water flowing through it often spills over at the southern border to create wetlands conditions. Because of this, the development will be clustered at the northern end of the property.
The overlay zone currently allows four single dwelling units per acre, but the developers’ plans call for a mixture of buildings, some with four units and some with 12. This allows for a higher density of population while preserving green space. They ask for a text amendment to allow seven units per acre, which translates to a maximum of 88 homes.
The developers further asked for a reduction in setback requirements. They asked that the setback from the Kent Green Boulevard be narrowed to 15 feet and that open-air porches, stoops and the like be allowed to project into that space. That, Lake argued, would facilitate creating a “walkable village” appearance and provide architectural variety in keeping with the existing village center.
“When porches are not allowed in setbacks, it disincentivizes developers from building them because they want to increase the amount of usable living space in their buildings,” he said.
They also asked that the current 30-foot maximum height for buildings be nudged up a few feet to allow for even more architectural variety.
“When we did the regulations, we didn’t have a plan before us, so we put in those restrictions on density,” observed Wyrick. “Now we have a plan to deal with, there could be a new outlook on the requirements.”
He suggested a joint meeting with the town’s planner, Glenn Chalder, who will be contacted to determine his availability.
First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer discussed the possibility that the road through the development might become public and require town maintenance. Kent Green Boulevard is currently a private road. The developers are open to it becoming public but do not want the issue to complicate their proposal.
