Watertown townhouse project expires a second time
WATERTOWN — Plans to expand the Autumn Ridge townhouse complex on Route 202 are apparently not going forward — for the second time.
In September, the Watertown Town Planning Board approved site plans for the 357-unit complex, seven years after the project was first proposed.
The company owns a 394-unit townhouse complex across the street, which was completed in 2016, when the area needed housing for Fort Drum soldiers.
So it was a surprise last summer when Morgan Management came forward after many years to dust off the drawings and propose the same project it had proposed for military housing for Fort Drum.
But the site plans for the project expired last month, Town Clerk Pamela D. Desormo said Tuesday. A couple of months ago, the engineering firm called her to ask when the site plans would elapse.
That was the last time she heard anything about the project.
“They were in the same position a few years ago,” she said about getting approval for the project in 2014 and then not proceeding with it.
If the company wants to proceed, Morgan Management would have to go through the site plan process again, she said.
The news of the townhouse project comes as CEO Robert C. Morgan learned his fate in a U.S. District courtroom on Tuesday.
Mr. Morgan pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of wire fraud conspiracy before U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford in Rochester.
Mr. Morgan and six co-defendants had originally faced numerous felony bank and mortgage fraud charges before he accepted a plea bargain.
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