Central water will play key role in LaGrange housing plan's size

By John Davis Poughkeepsie Journal Wednesday, February 23, 2005

MANCHESTER BRIDGE -- A Connecticut developer's plan to build a senior housing complex on the Cornell Farm hinges on LaGrange providing central water and sewer.

Developer Steven Perrone of Morgan Manor LLC in Coventry, Conn., intends to purchase the 178-acre farm straddling Titusville Road and build as many as 245 units.

The homes would be clustered, but Perrone has yet to say how many will be single-family, townhouses or apartments.

''We're ... defining those plans,'' Perrone said Friday.

The senior housing would be clustered on the east side of Titusville Road, while farmland on the west side -- about half the acreage -- would be preserved.

The number of homes proposed on the Cornell site would require central water and sewer. Town board members support the project, since the senior housing will require less governmental services than if a single-family subdivision were built on the farmland.

''It's great,'' town Supervisor George Wade III said. ''You don't have a lot of traffic or a lot of kids going to schools.''

The Cornell Farm was included in the initial draft to rezone land along Titusville Road to a planned office district. But once farm-owner Peter Sammis informed the town of his deal with Perrone, the board agreed to maintain his land's residential zoning.

The town board, Wade said, must determine the best method and the cost of running sewer and water pipes.

Land study needed

The planning board must next determine how much of the Cornell land -- zoned for one-acre lots -- is suitable for building on. This ''as of right'' determination is a legal requirement when clustering is proposed.

Because of some wetland and lowland areas, Town Engineer Jon Andrews estimates 115 acres are buildable. Robert Gray, the developer's engineer, sees 123 acres as suitable for construction.

Once the planning board rules on how much of the farmland is buildable, the developer plans to appear before the town board and request a planned development district designation.

Clustering the senior homes in such a district could permit up to twice the number of dwellings as would be possible on the buildable single-family lots.

Board meets

The LaGrange planning board will hold a workshop meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in town hall on Stringham Road. The board could discuss the plan to build senior housing on the Cornell Farm. The workshop is open to the public.

Copyright © 2005, Poughkeepsie Journal .

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