Respler Homes redevelopment concept presented Nov. 7, 2019
June 26, 2021 UPDATE
The State of Connecticut has decided not to renew the lease of Respler Homes on 48 acres of the Mystic Oral School property. Nevertheless, developer Jeff Respler remains committed to fulfilling the requirements for the sale, but noted that the new zoning limitations would require “a totally different vision.”
Groton’s Planning and Zoning Commission decided at a special meeting on June 14 that zoning changes to the former Mystic Education Center property would not include a floating zone and would instead be limited to small or moderate density development consistent with the neighborhood and the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development. The decision essentially puts a halt to a controversial proposal to build a sprawling 931-unit complex on the site at 240 Oral School Road using a floating zone. Read more about the P&Z Commission decision.
Background Story
After years of GCA watchdogging to save the 66+ acres of DEEP forest land from development (more than half the Oral School property), the Mystic Education Center redevelopment plan was finally announced by Groton’s Economic and Community Development Manager, Paige Bronk, on Nov. 7th, 2019. The chosen developer, Respler Homes, said, "We want to keep this as green as possible." But by January 2021, Respler’s project looked a lot less green. Read Jim Furlong’s (GCA board member) Op-ed article in The Day published March 14, 2021.
The revised project covers 48 acres of “surplus” state land and at least 16 acres of nearby land acquired privately by Respler Homes. The developer’s original forecast for the size of his project was about 750 units, but he ended 2020 with a target of 931.
This sharp expansion caused one P&Z member at a meeting last month to quip that the panel might assemble one day and find the number had risen to 1,100.
The Respler project has aroused questions about its size and density. “Behemoth” and “Co-op City” were two terms heard at the meeting. Now named “Mystic River Bluffs,” it poses several challenges to the P&Z, which merged the then-separate Planning and Zoning commissions in 2019. The merger took place over objections of conservationists, who worried that zoning could get short shrift from overburdened commissioners. At present, there are five full commission members, of whom only one was a Zoning holdover.
The project is also complex and based on concepts unknown or at least unusual for Groton. It involves a “floating zone,” giving developers more leeway than conventional zoning allows. Commission members are wondering what limits if any will apply to Respler Homes’ ultimate size and whether adequate alternatives have been considered for redevelopment. Financing for the project will be provided partly by Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which involves public funds. Floating zones are controversial because it means citizens can no longer rely on the predictability of the zoning map and their use tends to favor private development over the public interest.
Suggestions for alternative uses of the scenic land include a public park. A number of residents have called for refurbishing an existing theater in the land’s central Pratt building for musical and theatrical purposes.
The prospect of an influx of 2,000 more residents has raised alarm about traffic, noise, light pollution, blasting damage, and sudden urbanization of a semi-rural area that once was home to a state school for the deaf. No firm answers exist about further expansion.
Read our Jan. 21 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission in response to Respler’s development update presented to the Town on January 20, 2021.