EASTON — A proposal for a 33-unit housing development at the site of the former Safeway in downtown Easton was unanimously approved by the Easton Town Council on Monday evening.
The proposal came from Lane Engineering on behalf of NAI Saturn Eastern and Safeway, along with Miller Development Corporation, the potential developers of the project. It includes 24 partially-connected townhomes and nine standalone units. The property, which has been vacant since 2017, sits at 139 N. Washington St.
The town’s planning and historic district commissions reviewed the proposal before it landed on the Town Council’s agenda this summer. On Monday, council members gave the green light to the project, which fell under the town’s planned unit development infill subdistrict.
“I can assure you that we all thought long and hard about this,” Ward 2 Councilmember Don Abbatiello said before the vote. “This was not a quick decision. … This is going to be a decision that is going to outlive our tenures on the council.”
Town Attorney Sharon VanEmburgh discussed three conditions included in a findings of fact for the application prior to the vote.
The first condition requires developers to contribute $10,000 per unit to the town’s affordable housing fund, with $5,000 due when the unit’s building permit is issued and the other $5,000 due when the unit becomes occupied.
The second condition indicates the units “shall be privately maintained by a homeowners’ association established for the community, which shall also provide private trash collection for all residences of the PUD District.”
“They have to include that in their covenants,” VanEmburgh said, “so there is notice to everyone who buys a piece of property there that it will be private trash pickup.”
The final condition states if developers stray too much from the approved architecture of the homes, the project will have to return to the town’s planning and historic district commissions for review.
While an Aug. 5 public hearing went by without resident input, many concerns were brought to the council at the project’s previous public hearings in June and July. Abbatiello directly addressed those concerns prior to the vote Monday, including traffic, parking and the prospect of building a grocery store at the site.
“Traffic was another concern that was raised by many of my constituents,” Abbatiello said, “and while the 33 units will add some traffic to the area, it will be significantly less than what was there when Safeway was open.”
Abbatiello added that after following up on Town Council discussions about parking, he learned there are “over 550 parking spots, not including on-street parking, in the downtown area.” Some residents’ wishes that a grocery store replace Safeway “comes down to the fact that the current owner of the property is not going to sell it with the idea of developing another grocery store in that spot,” he said.
Abbatiello’s most difficult hurdle in fully supporting the project was the affordability aspect, he said.
“None of these units are going to be affordable,” Abbatiello said. “We need housing for seniors, which was mentioned a lot. We need apartments that don’t charge $1,600 for a one-bedroom. We do need those things. But when you look at the sale price for this property, there’s no way a developer could purchase that and turn it into an affordable housing project.”
Abbatiello thanked Robert Miller, the founder of Miller Development Corporation, for listening to council concerns and agreeing to “financially support an infrastructure project that’s going to provide necessary workforce housing to town employees.”
Ward 1 Council Member Maureen Curry echoed Abbatiello’s statements and thanked developers.
”I could not have said it any better and I thank you for all the same reasons,” Curry said. “And I appreciate the Miller (Development Corporation) stepping up and donating $10,000 per unit to our affordable housing fund.”
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