In the midst of an uncommonly contentious lawsuit over a senior housing plan in Bristol, a developer is asking Bristol for permission to build a modified version that would create 84 apartments near ESPN.
Joseph Naples’ Laurel Meadows LLC wants to build two apartment buildings on about 10 acres along the southern side of Redstone Hill Road.
The project would be built just east of Redstone Commons, and would consist of 19 one-bedroom apartments and 65 two-bedroom units, according to plans that Laurel Meadows submitted to the city.
One building would be three stories and hold 48 apartments; the other would be just two floors with 36 units.
It is the third project that Naples has proposed for the site over the past five years.
He initially wanted to erect about 100 luxury apartments, but encountered stiff neighborhood opposition.
Many neighbors argued the building would be too big in the midst of a single-family neighborhood, and more than 230 nearby homeowners and tenants signed a petition against it. About 130 people wrote letters opposing the project, though another 100 or more wrote in support.
Naples was seeking a zone change, which zoning commissions have very wide latitude to reject. In January of 2020, following a heavily attended and boisterous public hearing packed with opponents, Furey announced that Naples was withdrawing his proposal.
Two years ago he put forward a new plan. This one called for senior housing, with 85 units spread between a dozen building clusters across the property. Public opposition was vastly less this time. Naples needed only a special permit and site plan approval with no zone change: As senior housing, the project fit within the surrounding residential zone.
The zoning commission approved the plan in 2022, but Laurel Meadows never began construction because the wetlands commission would not authorize it.
The company sued, but this winter also put forward the third proposal. Like the 2022 plan, the newest version would be restricted to 55-and-older tenants. But there is a potentially major change: It consolidates the construction area, possibly taking the matter out of the jurisdiction of the wetlands commission.
That decision will be made by the wetlands commission, which is scheduled to meet next on April 1.
The 2022 wetlands review went badly for Laurel Meadows, with one commissioner saying that information from Laurel Meadows’ hired engineers should be ignored. The commission voted 4-3 against a wetlands permit.
Laurel Meadows sued in New Britain Superior Court, claiming the rejection was groundless and against the evidence.
“Commissioner Michael Robinson impugned the reputations of the experts and the applicant for being unreliable because they are paid and for working collaboratively with the commission’s experts,” according to a court document filed by Timothy Furey, Laurel Meadows’s attorney.
“He said ‘I think, you know, we have to understand the engineers are there but the engineers I think have a mild case of monetary myopia because they’re very well-paid to come in and make these assessments and everything and they’re not just going to walk away. They’re going to get something out of it,’ ” according to the court filing.
At one point, Furey told the zoning commission that the applicant and its engineers had been insulted by the remarks.
That lawsuit has been pending ever since, and Judge Matthew Budzik has scheduled a status conference for April 1 — the same day as the wetlands board’s next meeting.
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