By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Another “affordable” 8-30g housing application has been proposed in the Hiawatha Lane neighborhood.

A five-story, 42-unit building is planned to replace 5 and 7 Hiawatha Lane. The towering structure would be elevated above a parking area for several dozen cars.

It’s the second such project floated in the neighborhood of modest homes nestled between Interstate 95, Saugatuck Avenue, the Metro-North tracks and the Norwalk city line.

In the new plan, the two properties are 0.73 acres together and are owned by Faustina Zucaro. On the land now is a five-apartment structure and a two-apartment structure, modest in comparison to what’s envisioned.

The application was filed with the Planning and Zoning Commission on Friday on behalf of the owner by Cathy Walsh, a former P&Z member.

Thirty percent of the units would be set aside as “affordable,” Walsh said in the application materials.

Patrizia Zucaro, who is not the applicant but a relative of the owner and lives at No. 7 Hiawatha, was recently re-elected on the Republican ticket to the Planning and Zoning Commission. She could not be reached for comment Sunday on whether she, as a P&Z commissioner, might have to recuse herself from the discussions and decisions.

The first Hiawatha affordable apartment complex — Summit Saugatuck’s plan for a three-building, 157-unit complex, also filed under the state’s 8-30g housing legislation — has been stalled while a challenge by the neighborhood is heard by the Connecticut Supreme Court. That proposal has provoked a two-decade-long battle between neighbors and the developer.

Several houses on Hiawatha Lane Extension have been demolished and the land cleared awaiting construction for that project, pending a court decision.

Also adding to pressure on the neighborhood is the state Department of Transportation’s Norwalk-Westport Interstate 95 Project. Trees along the interstate have been cleared, further exposing parts of the neighborhood to truck and car traffic, and a construction access area has been set up off Hiawatha Lane, roughly adjacent to the Summit project area.

Representative Town Meeting member Matthew Mandell, District 1, mentioned the application in his latest newsletter to constituents.

“This takes two 2-family homes and will turn them into a 5-story 42 unit apartment building towering over all the small homes that exist in this naturally affordable area of Westport,” he said.

“Yes, Hiawatha is in the gun sight again, even before the full impact of the Summit development has even broken ground. This project will destroy the “middle housing” that the state says is so important to communities in favor of this out of place monstrosity. And if you can count like I can, this is actually 7-stories with the garage and pitched roof, huge. This is way bigger than what is going up at the intersection of Wilton Rd and Kings Highway.”

He also mentioned Walsh’s role.

“Quite the turn,” Mandell wrote. “Cathy Walsh, while on the P&Z, was one of the more vocal commissioners against 8-30g and overdevelopment.”

Regarding Patrizia Zucaro, Mandell said he didn’t know her role.

“But it is her address, owned by her family and the project is called “Zucaro Apartments,” he wrote. “Clearly she can’t sit on this application.”

Mandell also asserted in his newsletter the state’s 8-30g law was never really about affordable housing, but “A blunt instrument under the guise of such to allow developers to bust zones and profiteer from the law.”

Walsh, reached Sunday, said she was away from home and that it was an inopportune time to comment.

Carolanne Curry of Save Old Saugatuck is not a fan of the proposal.

“First of all, I think this is ugly as hell, if that’s the rendition they’re going to do,” she said. “And because the property is too small they’re putting the parking underneath.”

“I’m surprised Cathy Walsh is proposing this given her defense of Save Old Saugatuck against Charney [the Summit Saugatuck developer],” Curry said. “And I’m wondering what kind of conversation she had with the Zucaro family to develop this idea.”

She said architectural renderings could have been made more in tune with the neighborhood.

“Not this box that’s being shown,” Curry said.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.