Public Hearing on Apartments in Easton-tonight, Thurs. Nov. 20 @ 7 PM @ Staples School

Apartments in Easton?
Hearing tonight 11/20, 7pm Staples

Tonight at 7 pm at Staples School, there will be a Conservation Commission Public Hearing on a proposal by Easton resident and developer Steve Shapiro to build a three-story building with sixty-plus units on the Plum Tree Lane properties in Easton and Trumbull. The meeting is in-person only, the applicant is expected to make a presentation, and the public will be allowed to speak.

Agenda:

https://www.eastonct.gov/conservation-commissioninland-wetlands-agency/events/131461

Here is a clip of Easton resident and developer Steve Shapiro berating Easton’s Conservation Commission at the October hearing on his apartment proposal, which was continued to tonight.

https://vimeo.com/1138741576?fl=ip&fe=ec

(To unmute the video, click the microphone icon on the lower right corner)

Shapiro claimed the Conservation Commission’s unit count of 70 was wrong, even though the Commission said that was the number Shapiro's lawyer had given them in July. Shapiro said the right number was 60 apartments and 9 townhouses. He held up a map and argued that development, which is within 200 feet of the Mill River, did not encroach on the watershed or wetlands.

Shapiro felt that an apartment building with 60 units should pay only one fee, as if it were a single unit, and that the nine townhouses should be treated as a single residential unit and pay one application fee. The Commission asked for a fee for each separate unit of housing in which a person could live. Shapiro wound up paying the fee per unit as requested by the Commission under protest, and in so doing, he completed the application.

Since the application is now complete, we expect the applicant to give a presentation at the hearing, and the public will be allowed to comment.