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EAST LYME — A developer is asking the town for sewage capacity for a large senior assisted living and medical development slated for a 37-acre parcel at 200 Pennsylvania Ave. in Niantic near Dodge Pond.
The project is seeking “a conservative estimate calculation of 110,000 gallons per day usage,” according to attorney William Sweeney, who represented the applicant, Pelletier-Niantic, LLC of Huntington, N.Y., at the Jan. 24 meeting of the Water and Sewer Commission.
“[It is] to be known as Niantic Village at Dodge Pond [and] would include 304 units, 125 assisted living care units and 35 special care units plus a medical care building that would also be open to the general public for seniors – all providing for a continuum of care so that they can stay in the same place,” said Sweeney, according to the meeting minutes.
Sweeney said that the adult units contain two bedrooms, which are counted as inhabited space in the calculations, but “in reality that would not happen except for visitors,” making the expected usage “much lower” than the requested 110,000 gallons of daily capacity.
Bob Pfanner Sr., of J. Robert Pfanner Civil Engineers in Niantic, told the commission that two buildings up front would be for assisted care and that the urgent care and radiology buildings would be open to the public.
“The property has two hills on it and a bridge would span the two hills. There would also be a community center with a meeting hall, shops, therapy center, movie theater and the general administration offices. The senior housing units are in the back and they would also have family units,” said Pfanner, according to the minutes.
Public Hearing March 2
First Selectman Kevin Seery told CT Examiner in a phone call that the town is currently calculating the amount of available sewer capacity for a public hearing by the Water and Sewer Commission on March 2.
“The meeting will detail facts of what the state’s capacity is and what ours is… It’ll be very detailed,” Seery said “But, are we going to approve the project? No, that is Zoning and a much different board. The Water and Sewer Commission’s only input is: do we have the capacity to support their request.”
Seery said the town must reserve capacity for “ticket holders,” or property owners with currently working septic systems who have been guaranteed the option to tie in to the town’s sewer system when they choose.
“We’re painstakingly going through… We want to be sure that everybody that would qualify for sewer capacity is accounted for before going forward. We have a rough idea, but we don’t want to come out with a wrong number right now. This is too important to come out with wrong information,” he said.
By statute, the applicant must respond to their request for capacity within 65 days, ending on March 30, according to town counsel Mark Zamarka in the Jan. 24 commission minutes.