New Haven Independent

The latest plan eliminates construction of three box-type housing structures that the builder, Alex Vigliotti wanted to put on a steep hillside in the heart of town. This construction presented enormous topography problems and had been rejected by town planning and inland wetlands commissions.

Instead the new plan would enable Vigliotti to expand the Rose Hill apartment complex he currently owns and that borders on the Founders Village property. Two new buildings would be built as an extension above the current Rose Hill apartments, putting most parking underground. The buildings will sit on the rise below the hillside.

Under the plan 120 new apartments, like the Rose Hill apartments, would be rented exclusively to seniors 55 and older. They would be apartments, not condos so that if a senior moved out, a new senior would move in.

Vigliotti plans to donate the steep hillside to the town for a park, First Selectman Unk DaRos said in an interview. Traffic would be rerouted away from Cedar Street to Hillside Avenue, a narrow, steep street with eight single family houses on either side. Hillside would be expanded but DaRos did not say how this would be accomplished.

For years Vigliotti, the owner of the 12-acre site, has been engaged in a long and bitter fight to construct housing on the site. He lost three times before Planning and Zoning. Inland Wetlands rejected his plans as well. In its previous forms, DaRos and former First Selectmen John Opie and eventually Cheryl Morris all opposed Vigliotti’s plans.

The expensive and contentious project has generated voluminous applications; countless hours for town commissions and ongoing litigation that has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for both sides. Several neighbors who abut the proposed projects filed lawsuits as well. The neighbors have been well-organized, artistic and vocal.

The case is now in New Britain Superior Court because Vigliotti’s most recent lawsuit centers on the state’s affordable housing statute and these cases are heard there. He is appealing the town’s Inland Wetlands and P& Z Commissions findings rejecting his applications. The commissions cited a variety of reasons: density, safety, traffic and health factors.

Final briefs in the Founders case have been submitted. It is against this backdrop that the case took a turn.

One morning about two weeks ago, at 7 a.m. in fact, Vigliotti walked into First Selectman Unk DaRos’s office in Town Hall. They began to talk. They had been brought together by “an envoy,” DaRos said, someone DaRos did not name.

“We talked about the strain on him and the town to be doing these lawsuits,” DaRos told the Eagle. “Our conversation was very cordial.”

The two discussed the idea of extending the Rose Hill Apartments on Rose Street that Vigliotti owns.

“The idea was to create the same type of housing on the site right behind the present Rose Hill buildings, make a larger complex of the same type of buildings to be used by the same senior population,” DaRos said.

DaRos said he was excited by the concept. “It was the exact place for that exact population for the seniors. These are rentals, not condos. That is fine with me.” He said there was a real need for senior housing rentals, noting that more than 300 applications were recently received for 17 senior units at the Rosenthal Gardens project on Kirkham St.

This plan, unlike all the previous ones, acts on the town’s concerns. It eliminates building along and atop the hillside, it takes the hill out of play and instead creates a park, and it changes the entrance to the project from the difficult traffic artery on Cedar Street to a brand new road: Hillside Avenue. In fact, Vigliotti has already purchased one single family house along Hillside Avenue.

Not all the home owners on Hillside were thrilled by this development, though the residents living on Cedar and Ivy Streets now seemed satisfied, DaRos said.

In order to bring P&Z and Wetlands into the loop, DaRos called a meeting last Wednesday night. As the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) gathered in a room at the Canoebrook Center the same night, DaRos met with the P&Z and Inland Wetlands in another room up the corridor. Town Attorney William H. Clendenden, Jr.and Town Engineer Janice Plaziak were also present. Clendenen briefed the group on the court case.

The 90-minute meeting was held in executive session because the case is in litigation. At the end, each Commission gave DaRos the go-ahead to continue discussions with Vigliotti and his architects. In fact Wetlands might not even be involved in subsequent talks because once the hillside is eliminated, there may not be any other wetlands on the site.

In its detailed rejection, Inland Wetlands said the impact of blasting half a major ledge filled hill in order to create a steep road could have a serious impact on the Wetlands and the hillside itself. The P&Z has rejected the project three times, but Vigliotti’s most recent application added a legal hitch: an affordable housing component that permits a small percentage of market value housing to be offered as affordable housing.

This designation shifts the burden to the town to show why the project should not be built and changes the case law that applies. Vigliotti’s attorney, Tim Hollister, of Shipman & Goodwin in Hartford, is considered one of the top experts in affordable housing law and represented developers in the Tabor land case as well.

If the parties agree to the new plan and the judge approves, the litigation will end.

DaRos cautioned that talks were at a very early stage. At the same time, a tentative site plan has been drawn up and shown to all the parties.

One big question yet to be resolved is the sewer capacity on Rose St. Last November, the Water Pollution Control Authority, (WPCA) formerly known as the Sewer Authority, imposed restrictions on additional sewer use at Rose Street in order to conduct further studies.

An eight month moratorium was put into effect. It ended in mid- July, about the time that DaRos and Vigliotti met to talk. At the WPCA’s July 8 meeting, the Rose Street moratorium was extended for another year, to July, 2009. There is also a pending sewer application from Founders Village before the Authority.

So unless it is changed, no sewer expansion on Rose Street is permitted at this point in time. But if the moratorium is eventually lifted, the question remains: Who will pay for the sewer expansion? Vigliotti? The town of Branford?

DaRos acknowledged there was a sewer issue, presumably an expensive one. “We are trying to work on that,” he said.

###