Apr 25 – WATERFORD – A 47 unit mobile home community has been proposed for Clark Lane.
The city’s planning and zoning commission received the application Tuesday night, but will consider and respond to the proposal at a later meeting. The Commission has until June 29 to take action.
The development proposed by Scott Gladstone of Kingstown Properties, LLC will have 15 units, or 30% of the housing stock, affordable for 40 years at 109R and 131 Clark Lane, just down the street from the middle school.
The property is approximately 16 acres of which 38.3% is wetland.
The proposed development consists of 47 single-story, 28-foot by 48-foot single-family homes that will be factory built and assembled at each site and will include three bedrooms and two full baths and a sunroom.
The proposal is consistent with a state law promoting affordable housing by making it more difficult for a commission to reject the application. The law, known as 8-30g, applies to developments that make 15% of the housing stock affordable for 40 years for families earning 80% or less of the territory or state median income, whichever is lower, and 15% for families they earn 60% or less of regional or federal median income, whichever is lower.
The median income for the Norwich-New London area is $102,700, according to figures from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. A family of four earning $90,080, or 80% of median income, can’t spend more than $2,343 on a three-bedroom home for it to be considered affordable.
Families earning 60% of the median income of $67,560 can’t spend more than $1,757 a month on rent.
The plans show each pair of mobile homes will share an 8ft by 16ft shed with two doors and an internal partition, while each home will have its own post light that can be controlled from that home.
Plans call for private landscaping between homes when there is no shed. Trees will be planted along the private road and most homes will have beds of perennial flowers and ornamental grasses.
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Prospects looking to rent a home must complete an application that includes an interview and income verification to ensure the applicant meets the requirements. Applicants will be served on a first come, first serve basis.
Gladstone, who has lived in the city for more than 23 years, held a preliminary briefing on the proposed development with the commission last year. Gladstone and his team then invited residents to the city library to hear their initial thoughts and questions about the proposal before submitting an application.
The application was not submitted at the time because residents expressed concerns about the placement of the homes in their “backyards,” as well as the quality and affordability of the homes, the impact on wildlife, and the devaluation of existing homes.
