Close to 200 People Attend P&Z Hearings on Golf District Proposals

Close to 200 people crammed into a Town Hall meeting room Thursday night to hear plans to make changes in the golf course district near the Oxford Greens golf course.

They watched two public hearings held in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission about plans to build multifamily housing units at the Village at Oxford Greens, and a separate plan to build 100 non age-restricted housing units just outside of the 55 and older housing community at Oxford Greens. 

The commission made no decisions Thursday night during the hearings, which took more than three hours. Commissioners decided to continue the public hearings to June 2. 

Oxford Patch was at the meeting; we will bring you much more, including what residents are saying about the proposal.

The information below, from a previous Oxford Patch story, explains the proposals.

The Oxford Planning and Zoning Commission will hear a proposal from a Fairfield-based company that wants to build non-age restricted housing units within the residential golf community district near the Oxford Greens golf course.

The commission has set a public hearing date for next month to discuss the plan, proposed by Peter Gelderman of Quatrella and Rizio, LLC, that calls for no more than 100 non-age restricted, market-rate dwellings.

The homes currently within the residential golf community district are in a 55 and older community. The Village at Oxford Greens has sold 320 single family homes - most of which have fetched at least $350,000 - and has land use approval for almost 600 more. The town has welcomed the development, mostly because it has brought more than $2 million a year in annual tax revenue and little cost for services since Village residents pay for most of them through common fees and most of the residents do not have school-aged children who cost the town money to educate.

Removing the age-restriction on new homes likely bring more children into the community's schools, including those at the elementary and middle school levels that school officials say are already crowded.

The application on file in the town's land use office states that the non-age restricted units cannot exceed 100 homes, and must satisfy the following conditions, which have been taken verbatim from the application: 

• Density within the area designated for unrestricted units shall not exceed 80 percent of the density otherwise permitted in the residential golf community district, or RGCD;
• Any area within a RGCD that is designated to permit unrestricted dwelling units shall be identified on the zoning map of the RGCD and shall contain a minimum of 50 acres. No more than one unrestricted area shall be permitted in any RGCD. All such unrestricted dwelling units shall be located in the designated area, and the designated area shall be used exclusively for unrestricted units.
• Any designated unrestricted area within a RGCD shall include an area designated for passive recreation, such as open space, water body or other natural resource. Such passive recreation area, regardless of the total acreage of the unrestricted area or the number of unrestricted dwelling units shall contain at least 15 acres and shall not be restricted to use by residents within the RGCD.
• Any designated unrestricted area within a RGCD shall have a minimum of 750 feet of frontage on an existing public road and shall have access from such public road which access shall not be shared with any development or area within the RGCD, not part of the designated unrestricted area.
• No attached dwelling units shall be permitted within the designated unrestricted area of a RGCD.

In a separate application, the Planning and Zoning Commission will hear a proposal to allow multi-family housing units within the residential golf community district.

The language of the proposal calls for "attached, single-family dwellings not to exceed four units per buildings on land only in common interest ownership. The number of such units shall not exceed 50 percent of the maximum number of dwelling units allowed under the density calculation (that is currently allowed)."

Zoning Enforcement Officer Anna M. Silva Rycenga said current regulations only allow for single-family dwellings in the residential golfing community district.