A Guilford builder is proposing 100 apartments — with 30 of them set aside for affordable housing — along South Main Street in the heart of Suffield.
James McMahon’s plans show a pair of four-story buildings on part of the 10-acre tract where the St. Joseph Church operated for 65 years before shutting down in 2017.
McMahon’s plan, entitled Wolverine Apartments, was filed under Connecticut’s 8-30g affordable housing law, meaning that the municipal zoning board will be sharply limited in the scope of its review.
If it’s built, Wolverine would become Suffield’s largest 8-30g complex, behind the 84-unit Brook Hill Village on Emily Way off Route 159.
McMahon’s MI 22 LLC is officially proposing 100 units, but its application leaves open the possibility of future development of another 142 elsewhere the property — including conversion of the closed St Joseph building into 12 apartments.
The company wants to mix one- and two-bedroom apartments across the four-story buildings. That’s fairly similar to the design of the 100-unit apartment complex McMahon is building on Hubbard Road in Guilford; it, too, was proposed under 8-30g.
Wolverine would lease 70 apartments at market rates; its application doesn’t cite what that figure would be. But to comply with 8-30g, it pledges to lease 15 apartments to tenants making less than 60% of the median income in the area, and and other 15 to people making less than 80%.
In all, Wolverine would have 70 one-bedroom units; 22 would be restricted as affordable, and 54 would be leased at market rates. The 30 two-bedroom models would include eight rented at affordable prices and 16 at market rates.
In its zoning application, Wolverine said that based on 2026 figures the rent for a one-bedroom at the lowest affordable rate would be $1,304. The higher-tier affordable rent would be $1,638.
Two-bedroom units would be leased at $1,594 to tenants at the lowest income level, and $2,106 for those in the higher tier of affordable eligibility.
The 8-30g law reduces local zoning control in exchange for increasing availability of affordable housing; it applies only in communities where less than 10% of housing meets the state’s affordability criteria. Suffield’s level is approximately 6.5%.
Under 8-30g, developers are freed of most routine local regulations, and their plans can be rejected only if the local zoning authority proves a substantial health or safety risk that cannot be avoided. Nearby homeowners frequently object to such projects, but they cannot prevail with arguments that the building wouldn’t fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, is visually unappealing or might increase school enrollments.
A traffic study for Wolverine concluded it wouldn’t have a significant impact on nearby roads. The study considered the effect of 100 apartments, but also noted that as many as 242 units could be built on the site — the other 142 would have to be applied for separately.
“An existing church on the site will be converted to 12 residential units. An existing convent will be converted to two residential units. An existing rectory will be converted to four residential units,” the traffic study said.
“Five new buildings are proposed: a three-story building with 24 units and four four-story buildings with 50 units in each of them. The area near the development is primarily residential.”