Dec. 1--HAMDEN -- A 90-room hotel is being proposed for 55 West Woods Road by the same developer who was turned down by the Inland Wetlands Commission and is challenging that decision in court. The new proposal by Westwoods Properties of Stratford calls for a 1,500-square-foot conference center and a 500-squarefoot restaurant on 5.8 acres, the same property as the previous proposal. There would be parking outdoors and under the hotel. The mostly forested acreage is on the north side of West Woods Road, west of Whitney Avenue. It abuts a residential area on the west and the Farmington Canal Trail on the east. The wetlands commission will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers in Memorial Town Hall to review a request by 33 residents to hold a public hearing on the proposal. Ordinarily, applications before the wetlands agency are not public hearings but, because a petition has been submitted, the commission will have to consider that request, Town Planner Leslie Creane said. Commission Chairman Steven Sosensky said the commission will designate the project for a public hearing or go ahead with a presentation from the developer. The commission also has the right to set a public hearing if it feels a project has significant impact or public interest, he said. "If the past is any indication of what will happen here, it's a distinct possibility the matter will be subject to a public hearing," Sosensky said. Commission members and the public did a site inspection with the project engineer and one of the owners Nov. 18. "We examined the property with the plans in mind. We crossed the property where the detention basins will be and the building is proposed to be located. It does appear the public is interested in the proposal," Sosensky said. Gail Traester, one of the people who circulated the petition, said she hasn't thoroughly studied the proposal but at this point thinks "it's the wrong project for this end of town." On March 1, the IWC denied a 101-room hotel proposal, and the developer filed an appeal in Superior Court. The commission listed several reasons for the denial, including a lack of alternatives and that it was too intense for the site. Officials at Westwoods Properties could not be reached after repeated phone calls but an employee said the owners are "very enthusiastic about the plans" and that research shows the need for the hotel. The lawyer affiliated with the previous plan, Dana Friedman of Milford, could not be reached Thursday to explain why the developer has resubmitted a plan when the appeal on the previous plan is pending. Creane and Sosensky also didn't know why.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, New Haven Register, Conn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.