Green Haven Opponents Pack Planning & Zoning Hearing

Hundreds of Bethany residents filled the town hall auditorium Tuesday to voice their disapproval of a controversial cluster housing proposal.

The applicant, the Green Haven group, tried to meet community objections by revising its proposal to limit it just to the Halter property, a former farm, but that didn’t satisfy the opponents, who continued to warn that the proposed amendment to the zoning regulations would destroy the rural character of Bethany.

After nearly three hours, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to close the public hearing. Chairman Melissa Spear said the next step is to discuss the matter at the commission’s next regular meeting on May 1, but she doubted the commission would vote on it that night.

That left some opponents unhappy that the decision would not be made until after the May 6 town election. One resident urged voters to replace the entire commission with new members who would turn down the proposal.

The session Wednesday was the continuation of the public hearing that first convened for three hours on April 3. After hearing a 1½ hour presentation by Green Haven followed by more than an hour of questions from commission members, the hearing was continued until this week to allow enough time for the numerous opponents to have their say.

Before that could happen, however, several members of the audience raised a series of objections, including that the commission was allowing the substitution of a revised proposal instead of requiring a new application, and that commissioner Patsy Winer, who owns land next door to the Halter property, had not recused herself.

Town Attorney Kevin McSherry said it was the commission’s discretion to allow consideration of the revised plan.

Late in the hearing, Winer said she chose not to recuse herself for the zoning regulation amendment because it would affect the entire town, although if it were approved she would recuse herself when the applicant returned for site plan approval.

But after hearing an explanation of the revision, Winer said she would reconsider her involvement at the earlier stage.

That’s because the revised amendment, as described by Green Haven lawyer John Parese, would create a so-called “overlay” that could only be applied over an existing Housing Opportunity District, or HOD. And the only HOD in town was created by the state affordable housing court in 2007 on the Halter property for a 48-unit affordable housing development.

Parese, members of the Green Haven group, and a few supporters said the amendment would create a new Open Space Housing District (OSHD) where only 35 units would be allowed on the Halter property, and the new overlay revision would prevent Green Haven-type cluster housing developments from sprouting all over town as opponents feared.

The first opponent to speak was Anthony Esposito of Meyers Road who presented petitions signed by 1,375 Bethany residents opposed to the OSHD proposal. He also displayed a map of Bethany identifying 2,000 acres scattered all over town that he said might be developed for cluster housing if the amendment is approved.

“If the commission votes for this proposal it will be challenged in court,” said Esposito, and he received loud applause.

The next speaker was , who predicted that the election in May might become “a referendum on Green Haven.”

A lifelong liberal Democrat, Pattis said he might even vote Republican himself if it seemed the only way to stop the amendment.

Not everyone was opposed to the Green Haven plan. Carol Lambiase of Carrington Road said she thought the plan, which clustered the 35 housing units together to leave a maximum amount of the property undeveloped and available for growing vegetables, was a way to preserve farmland in Bethany.

Another resident said she didn’t see how the alternative development plan, 48 single family homes on 1½-acre lots, would better preserve the farmland or rural character of Bethany than the 35-unit Green Haven plan did.

But most of the comments opposed the plan. “The density is just too great,” said Ruth Beardsley of Litchfield Turnpike. “I’m just not convinced that they need this density.”

“If I wanted to move to Hamden, I’d live in Hamden,” said another Carrington Road resident, one of several who pointed to Bethany’s eastern neighbor as an example of what Bethany might become if the zoning amendment is approved.