A well on John Carr's 24-acre property, off Route 133 in Bridgewater, Conn.
A well on John Carr's 24-acre property, off Route 133 in Bridgewater, Conn.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll / Autumn DriscollBridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read meets with The News-Times editorial board Wed. Nov. 1, 2017.
Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read meets with The News-Times editorial board Wed. Nov. 1, 2017.
Photo: Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut MediaBRIDGEWATER — A plan to build affordable housing on Main Street North — in the works for the last 20 years —hit another roadblock this month when a state judge declined to enforce his own 2003 ruling.
In an eight-page decision, Judge Trial Referee William Mottolese agreed with the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission that the project, which started out as a 35-unit development and would now have 100 apartments instead, had changed too much to be considered the same one he ordered the town to accept 15 years ago.
Mottolese ordered in 2003 that the town had to allow developer John Carr to build the Joshua Heights affordable housing development on a rocky patch of land on Main Street North if the developer met “reasonable conditions” and obtained approval from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
That decision was upheld in the state Supreme Court two years later.
But, last year, the town denied Carr’s plans, despite the fact that he had received DEEP permits for an underground waste water treatment system in the spring. In October, Carr filed a motion for the court to find Bridgewater in contempt.
The zoning commission argued that it denied a vastly larger project, not the one Mottolese said they must accept. Mottolese agreed in his Jan. 10 decision, pointing out that his order was for a 35-unit project with 172 bedrooms on 16 acres of land.
Carr now plans a 100-unit, 260-bedroom design on 24 acres.
First Selectman Curtis Read, who has cited environmental concerns for his opposition to the project, said he was happy with the judge’s “definitive decision.”
Carr, in an interview, said he was disappointed with the ruling and wished the judge had considered the reasons the project was bigger, instead of ruling that its scale made it a different project entirely.
Carr contends that the project is only larger because more units are necessary to pay for the waste-treatment system DEEP approved.
“It is different, but it’s different because of what (Mottolese) ordered,” he said. “I didn’t choose this. In my mind, I just complied with what the judge wanted.”
Carr said he still sees avenues to get the project built, although he’s uncertain about his legal options. “It’s far from dead,” he said. “It’s a matter of how we move forward.”
Read estimates that legal fights with Carr for the past two years have cost the town between $15,000 and $20,000.
“It has taken a lot of resources and time to see if the judge agreed with us,” he said.
blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Judge-sides-with-Bridgewater-on-Joshua-Heights-12511137.php