Controversial Overlay Proposal Comes to a Crossroads at Public Hearing in Old Lyme Wednesday

OLD LYME – A long-awaited hearing is scheduled for Wednesday as residents remain enmeshed in a fractious debate over the meaning of progress on a short span of road stuck between two interchanges of the state’s busiest highway. 

The Old Lyme Zoning Commission on Wednesday is slated to invite public opinion on a controversial proposal to reenvision Halls Road as a mixed-use town center with businesses on the ground level and apartments above. The plan involves the creation of an overlay district that gives business owners and developers in the commercial zone more ways to use their property than are currently allowed. 

Opposition to the plan is evident in “Overlay? No Way!” signs all over town and a petition that has amassed 1,204 signatures at the time of writing. 

Critics say the plan has the potential to create more than 1,000 apartments on 40 acres if it goes through. Proponents argue topography and regulatory realities would effectively limit development to less than 400.

The proposal was developed by the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) and submitted to the Zoning Commission in November by First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker after approval by the Board of Selectmen. The public hearing, which began in January, was continued to the end of February. But the meeting was postponed at the request of Shoemaker and the HRIC, who informed residents the move was prompted by “strong interest” in the topic that required a larger venue and more time for the commission to review communications from residents. 

Deadlines contained in state statute require the public hearing to be closed no later than the end of next week, according to Old Lyme Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp. The commission then has 65 days to make a decision on the proposal. 

The discussion on how best to guide development in one of the town’s main commercial districts has been ongoing for over a decade. Proponents of the latest iteration of the plan are pitching it as a way to entice developers to build a livable, shoppable, walkable hub over time, while those opposed decry its potential to drive out existing small businesses and bring in enough new residents to decimate the small town’s “character.”

The petition on change.org says the signers strongly oppose development of Halls Road as submitted by the HRIC. 

“While we understand the need for thoughtful progress and economic growth, we believe this specific project will negatively impact the character, environment, and quality of life in our cherished community,” the petition says. 

But HRIC chairwoman Edie Twining describes the proposal as a positive change that would benefit businesses through increased foot traffic while providing more diverse housing options in a town dominated by single-family homes. 

“We have people every day trying to find a place to live, to downsize to, and it’s not available,” she said in a phone interview Monday. 

The three-quarter-mile-long thoroughfare currently is lined with strip malls and parking lots that hark back to the mid-20th century rise of suburbanization. Back then, developers sought to capitalize on the distance between where Americans lived and where they worked by creating commercial zones in between. 

Now, the mixed-use philosophy of development seeks to close the gap with the goal of creating more vibrant, self-sufficient communities. 

At the crux of the proposal is an amendment to zoning regulations that would create the overlay district as an alternative set of guidelines and design specifications that property owners can choose to follow if they wish to undertake certain projects currently prohibited in the zone, namely residential construction. 

Overlay zoning is an increasingly popular municipal planning mechanism to address specific community goals in sections of town that would otherwise be limited to one type of use.

The overlay district would require at least 10% of the apartments or condominiums to be set aside at rates affordable to lower-income households. That means up to 90% could be rented at market rates attractive to developers in a landscape dominated by a shortage of housing. 

‘Out of Scale’

Sloan Danenhower, a former alternate member of the Zoning Commission and vocal opponent of the overlay proposal, said the problem can be boiled down to the sheer size of the buildings that would be allowed in the overlay district. 

“If (a building) is 200 feet long, and it’s 100 feet deep, that’s 20,000 square feet of a footprint. You take that and you multiply it by three because you can go three stories up. Now you’re talking about a 60,000 square foot building,” he said in a phone interview Monday. “It’s just out of scale.”

The overlay district proposal was approved by the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen in a 2-1 vote in November. The overlay concept that month earned a letter of support from the Economic Development Commission, and the proposal was endorsed 5-0 by the Planning Commission in January. 

Republican Selectwoman Jude Read in her dissenting vote argued that the swell of support from municipal leaders and data points from outdated, selective community survey results did not tell the whole story. Read, who is married to Danenhower, said voices from residents opposed to the change were not being heard. 

Now, residents are speaking out through petitions and a steady stream of social media posts dissecting the motivations behind the move to alter Halls Road. They object to the scope of the proposed changes and the effect of new construction on the Lieutenant River’s delicate ecosystem. 

The petition calls on residents to attend Wednesday’s public hearing. 

“We are not opposed to change – but we must find a better solution than this developer-driven urbanization of our charming, rural town,” the petition states.  

According to the proposed regulation, the overlay district would allow developers to build up to 40 apartments or condominiums per acre as long as they follow specific guidelines and design standards. It also includes allowances for parking garages and drive-through establishments. 

But possible modifications to the proposal submitted in February by Attorney William Sweeney, who represents the applicant, reduced the density from 40 units per acre to 30 units per acre. 

Opponents like Danenhower multiply 30 units per acre by the roughly 40-acre footprint to estimate the proposal could bring up to 1,200 units to Halls Road. 

Marketability

Twining contends the simple math used by critics to predict the impact of the zoning proposal does not take into account numerous factors laid out in the 12-page text amendment that can limit the number of units allowed on any given property. Factors such as building size, lot coverage and parking requirements combine to allow for far fewer units.

Twining and her partner, Mark Terwilliger, calculated a maximum of about 400 units could be built once all factors are analyzed. 

Terwilliger said the conservative figures don’t take into account the issue of septic or sewer availability, which would further limit the number of units. 

Terwilliger guessed that incorporating septic requirements into the equation would likely bring the allowable number of units down to around 200. 

Asked to respond to the suggestion by some opponents to reduce the allowable number of units if it’s impossible to build that many anyway, he said each parcel is different. 

Some properties are better suited for more apartments and others can accommodate far fewer, he said. 

“To be honest, I couldn’t figure out how to get more than 22 units per acre on even the best site,” he said, based on a typical apartment size just under 1,000 square feet. 

But that could change over time, according to Terwilliger. 

“The average apartment size that we’re talking about is what’s marketable now,” he said. “Who knows, in 25 years people may be renting apartments that are 400 square feet.” 

A Long Road

The effort to re-envision Halls Road has spanned multiple first selectmen. The Halls Road Improvements Committee was introduced by Democrat Bonnie Reemsnyder in 2015 with the goal of advising the Board of Selectmen on how best to develop a master plan for the area. The discussion grew from initial calls for sidewalks to include the possibility of village-like storefronts and apartments, a pedestrian bridge and more greenspace. 

But Reemsnyder successor Tim Griswold, a Republican, called the vision too grandiose. He said at the time that he preferred to focus on building sidewalks one segment at a time before considering such broad plans. 

Twining since then has led the group through grant applications, multiple proposals for zoning changes, numerous vacancies and the election of a new first selectwoman, Democrat Martha Shoemaker.

A previous HRIC proposal, which was pulled by Griswold in 2021, would have imposed building specifications and design standards that anyone developing on the street would have to follow. The overlay concept emerged in a follow-up application as a voluntary way to bring change to Halls Road, but was rejected by the Zoning Commission in 2023 after a negative referral from the Old Lyme Planning Commission.

The Halls Road committee in the current proposal addressed some concerns about its predecessor by specifying a 35-ft. height restriction. But opponents say some other changes – including increasing the maximum building footprint 10,000 sq. ft. to 20,000 sq. ft., and a maximum length from 125 ft. to 200 ft. – make the pending application even worse than the previous one. 

Danenhower last month filed a petition with the town to require a two-thirds voting majority on the application rather than a simple majority, according to commission documents. State statute allows property owners to petition for a more stringent voting threshold if those owners represent at least 20% of the area within 500 feet of the proposed overlay zone. 

“If it takes four out of five instead of three out of five, it’s a higher bar for them to get to in order to pass this,” Danenhower said. 

Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp in a March 25 memo said the property owners, who signed the petition, represented 25.8% of the affected area. He advised the commission to discuss the petition and how to address it after the public hearing is closed. 

Danenhower, who is unaffiliated, served as an alternate member on the Old Lyme Zoning Commission until the board of selectmen made its yearly appointments of local non-elected positions in February. Meeting minutes show a motion by Read to reappoint three standing alternate members – including her husband – was not seconded. Read was the lone nay vote when Shoemaker and Selectman Jim Lampos (D) reappointed standing alternate members Michael Barnes (U) and Michael Fogliano (U) but did not return Danenhower to his position. Instead, they chose Mary-Gardner Coppola (D).

The Overhaul

Both Read and Danenhower have stated publicly that the town should not vote on changes to the zoning regulations on Halls Road while there is an comprehensive $129,776 overhaul of the current regulations being conducted currently by the Hartford-based FHI Studio. 

The planning and design firm was hired late last year to embark on a year-and-a-half-long project to clean up existing language in the regulations and then engage the public in discussion about potential changes to what can be built in town and where. 

“What they should do is withdraw this proposal and roll it into that plan to revisit and rewrite the zoning regulations,” Danenhower said. 

Knapp, the land use coordinator, said the firm is on track to conclude the clean-up phase by the fall. That’s when the “heavier lifting” on a resident-informed review of the town’s zoning philosophy will begin.

Twining said waiting for the completion of the overhaul project would needlessly prolong a process that’s already been delayed many times. 

She noted the Big Y plaza and Old Lyme Marketplace across the street are currently for sale. The only options currently available to a developer are commercial ones. 

“We could end up with a major medical center right in the middle of our commercial center. We could end up with gas stations or convenience stores to serve the highway,” she said. “In the meantime, we could have had the opportunity to bring in some housing that we desperately need.”

Extremes

Terwilliger lamented that the divisive and oftentimes vitriolic debate leading up to Wednesday’s public hearing relies on what he described as an inaccurate and incomplete reading of the proposed regulation by opponents. 

He said the actual number of units that could be accommodated on Halls Road is “miles away” from the 1,200 to 1,600 figure cited by critics. 

“It’s too bad that we didn’t have the opportunity to have a conversation about whether or not it is a good idea to have a couple hundred apartments in a mixed-use neighborhood that’s walkable, which is all we were really trying to do,” he said. 

Danenhower, for his part, said the current proposal is far removed from the committee’s original charge of addressing pedestrian safety through measures like the installation of sidewalks, lighting and signage. 

“Nobody disagrees that Halls Road needs improvement,” he said. 

Twining said the public hearing will be an opportunity to speak with the Zoning Commission about changes they want to make to the proposal. 

“They have every right to make as many changes as they want,” she said. “The hope is they don’t make it so extreme that no developer wants to be involved with the project.”

Editor’s Notes: i)The public hearing will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium at 69 Lyme St., Old Lyme.
ii) A reminder of Our Policy on Comments.

This article was updated to correct information about the petition calling for a two-thirds voting majority by the Zoning Commission and to clarify the Economic Development Commission’s letter of support for the overlay concept.