Economic Development Committee Recommends Land Swap Near Lawrence School

Lawrence School is at the top.

The Economic Development Committee unanimously approved a proposal for the city to trade 4.7 acres
of city-owned school near Lawrence School for over 20 acres of nearby wetlands. The land swap expands the city's open space, and provides street frontage for a new development.

The recommendation now goes before the Common Council, which will consider it at its March 7th meeting.

The developer, Dominick DeMartino, proposes to build two 4-story multi-family buildings, with 76 units each. He told the EDC that the target market is young professionals, with most occupied by single or young married couples. He said it would be a perfect setting for work at home environment, for people who want to look up from their computer to see woods out the window. He said both buildings would be developed at the same time. 

DeMartino told the Commission that the nature of the buildings would be similar to those he had built in Wallingford.

DeMartino said they had done preliminary traffic studies and concluded that there would be no impact on school traffic. He said the traffic study concluded, "The development of this apartment complex will not affect traffic or safety of Lawrence School traffic. ... we do not anticipate any traffic problems whatsoever."

Wallingford buildings

The Director of Community and Economic Development, Joe Samolis said that the development would require a zoning change by the Planning and Zoning Commission, either by changing the zoning map so that this land would become residential instead of Industrial, or dropping a floating zone for multifamily onto this area.