By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — A week after a developer’s representative met with people living in the Hiawatha Lane neighborhood, work has started to remove old infrastructure.

Excavated septic tanks sit above ground at most of the seven houses to be demolished in the coming weeks to make way for the 157-unit Saugatuck Village apartment complex.

Old heating oil tanks also have been disconnected, and water lines also appear to have been excavated.

Just beyond the temporary chain-link fencing at the bottom of last leg of Hiawatha Lane Extension, a flatbed trailer is parked with large precast concrete drainage system components.

Earlier, asbestos abatement had been done in the houses.

Coming after the demolitions, clearing of trees and regrading the land is planned.

Summit Saugatuck plans to build the three-building apartment complex at the western end of the neighborhood of small, middle-class homes, not far from the Norwalk city line.

Save Old Saugatuck, a neighborhood group, has fought the plan to build the apartment complex for 19 years. It has filed an appeal in Superior Court alleging many of the properties in the neighborhood were deed-restricted as single-family.

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Learn more about us here.