Town officials have spent months debating The Hamlet: a 5-story Saugatuck development with 57 residential units, 57 hotel rooms, plus retail, an event space, marina, and community gathering spots.
Soon, they may debate something else: an 8-30g proposal, with over 500 housing units. Thirty percent would be deemed affordable, under state standards.
The 70% that comprise market rate units would be a mix of condos and rentals.
Three massive buildings, 8 stories tall – 6 floors of housing, above 2 for parking – would be constructed on the Hamlet footprint.
And – because it’s an 8-30g development – the town would have virtually no say regarding parking, conservation or other issues.
ROAN Ventures – the developers who spent the past 4 years trying to build the Hamlet – surprised last night’s Planning & Zoning Commission meeting with a rough design of the plan.
The 8-30g would occupy 3 parcels of land: the Saugatuck River waterfront; the area bordered by Riverside Avenue, Railroad Place and Charles Street; and the site above Luciano Park, previously planned as the “Barn” event space.
An 8-30, with 500+ housing units in three 8-story buildings. The one on the left would be located at what is now the parking lot above Luciano Park. The middle building is in the area bordered by (from bottom, clockwise) Railroad Place, Charles Street and Riverside Avenue. The building on the right lies between Riverside Avenue and the Saugatuck River.
ROAN is still pushing the mixed-use Hamlet. Most of the P&Z’s time last night was spent discussing traffic and other issues related to that project.
Yet ROAN partner Dan Suozzi offered the 8-30g in the interest of “full transparency.” The last several months have been difficult for the developers, he said. Opponents of the Hamlet have called for a scaled-down version.
That’s not commercially viable, according to Suozzi. ROAN cannot decrease the height or size of various buildings, and deliver what it promised investors.
So, he said, they’ve been forced into exploring an 8-30g option. ROAN partner Martin Purcell told “06880” that they will file a pre-application soon with the Planning & Zoning Department.
In fact, Suozzi noted, the 8-30 would actually take less time to build — and be more financially viable — than the Hamlet. If they had wanted to do an 8-30g, he said, it could have already been completed.
Artists’ renderings of several Hamet buildings. The “Barn” — an event space overlooking Luciano Park — is at upper left.
Rumors have circulated for weeks that if the P&Z does not approve the Hamlet, a developer — not necessarily ROAN — would apply for an 8-30g. Some residents downplayed that concern. Others called it a negotiating tactic.
Suozzi reiterated that ROAN would vastly prefer the Hamlet, as proposed. He noted that those plans are in full compliance with the text amendment approved earlier by the P&Z.
But the developers also want officials and residents to know what the taller, denser option – an 8-30g, of 500-plus units – would look like.
This is not the first time an 8-30g has been planned, following long debate over plans for less intensive use. The town and neighbors spent many years fighting a proposed 47-unit development on Hiawatha Lane extension, not far from the Hamlet site. A 177-unit complex is now in the works.