120-Unit Affordable Housing Complex Planned For Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — A developer whose proposal to build an 80-unit residential complex was denied by Fairfield officials earlier this year has returned to the town’s zoning commission, this time with a plan to construct 120 apartments at the same site.

Representatives of Primrose Development LLC argued during a hearing Tuesday that the project would help meet the town’s need for affordable housing, while residents insisted that if the location wasn’t right for 80 units, it isn’t right for 120 apartments either.

“How do they have the nerve to come back for 120 units?” asked Marshall Weiss, who lives near the 2.4-acre property at 5545 Park Ave., which is currently occupied by a single-family house. “It doesn’t belong. Why can’t they just build five or 10 units of affordable housing that would fit there?”

Attorney Ray Rizio, who represented the developer, had a different perspective, noting the site shared its border with only one single-family home. The land’s other neighbors include Notre Dame High School and the Merritt Parkway.

“The affordable housing is a perfect site here,” Rizio said, describing a complex where educators, nurses and graduate students would live close to the nearby medical center and Sacred Heart University.

Of the 120 apartments, 36 would qualify as affordable housing. Half of the total units would be one-bedrooms and the other 60 would have two bedrooms. The building would be 82 feet tall, with six stories and an underground parking garage. The complex would have 191 parking spaces, with an average of 1.6 spaces per apartment.

When Primrose sought approval for the 80 units late last year, it did so with a zoning amendment application, which the commission voted down. Its new application was made under state law Section 8-30g, which dictates the only way the commission could deny the plan is to prove it poses a threat to public health, welfare and safety that outweighs Fairfield's need for affordable housing. Section 8-30g applies to towns where less than 10 percent of housing stock meets state criteria to be recognized as affordable.

“The town of Fairfield desperately needs affordable housing,” Rizio said. “The demand is there.”

Neighbors, however, expressed concerns about parking, traffic, water and property values.

“This application is disingenuously being presented as affordable housing,” resident Marc Anthony Gallucci said, questioning the project’s lack of handicapped-accessible units, its traffic analysis and its potential effect on the aesthetic of the Merritt Parkway.

Architect John Guedes said the building would have a contemporary design similar to some of the nearby structures on the Sacred Heart campus.

An existing traffic signal would be modified to control the development’s only driveway on Park Avenue, according to traffic engineer Michael Galante, who said traffic at the intersection is expected to increase between 0.9 percent and 2.8 percent in the mornings and 1.4 percent to 3.8 percent in the afternoons.

“The increase in delay is very, very minimal,” Galante said, although Gallucci complained the study used data from 2018.

The hearing will continue at a future commission meeting, when attorney Joel Green is expected to speak on behalf of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy.