Developer Kevin J. Casey looks out over some of the 120-acre site in Exeter, which will feature 100 age-restricted units. A horse barn with 30 acres for grazing is planned for the area in the background.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

It took them four years, but two Connecticut developers recently obtained preliminary approval from the Town of Exeter, R.I., to build 100 units of age-qualified housing on a 120-acre site.

Kevin J. Casey and his business partner, Daniel Bassichis, bought the land for $2.2 million. The previous owners had started to develop a golf course on the site but abandoned the project.

Casey said that under their plan, about 70 percent of the parcel, off Victory Highway, across from the Blue Berry Hill Country Store, will remain as open space. Fifteen of the units will meet affordable guidelines, but no one under 18 will be allowed to live there. At least 80 percent of the units must have one resident who is 55 or older.

Exeter, which recently banned big-box retail stores, is not generally welcoming to developers. Casey said the Town Council passed a special zoning ordinance allowing the age-restricted development, then repealed it after an election brought in new council members.

Casey and Bassichis appealed the matter to the Zoning Board of Appeals, eventually winning the right to proceed with their project, according to town planner David W. Schweid. But Schweid said no other high-density age-restricted projects will be allowed in Exeter in the foreseeable future, because the ordinance remains repealed.

“The town really put us through our paces,” Casey said. In Exeter, people “are protective of their rural lifestyle.”

In 1995, Congress passed the Housing for Older Persons Act, an amendment of the Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, which prevents discrimination in the housing market based on race, color, religion or national origin. The law allows two types of age-restricted communities: in the first, at least 80 percent of the units must be occupied by at least one person 55 or older; the second requires 100 percent of the units to be occupied by people who are 62 and older.

As baby boomers have grayed, age-restricted housing developments have proliferated in other parts of the country, and in the neighboring states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The most successful of these developments generally offer one-level living and upscale amenities such as designer kitchens, bathrooms, and master bedroom suites, all in an association setting that takes care of a lot of building maintenance and landscaping, according to consultant Jane M. O’Connor, who specializes in the 50-plus housing market. O’Connor, past chairwoman of the 50 Plus New England Housing Council, is also the publisher of Mature Living Choices New England.

Despite the downturn in the housing market, the Exeter project, Cobblestone Village, is one of three age-qualified developments on the drawing board in Rhode Island:

•In March, the West Greenwich Town Council approved a zoning change to allow that town’s first age-restricted development, Cedar Ridge. Developer Nicholas E. Cambio plans to build 130 single-family and duplex buildings on 24 acres off Division Road.

The zone change, from highway business to mixed use, had been unanimously endorsed by the town’s Planning Board. Restrictions included limits on density — one building per 8,000 square feet — and height (35 feet). Cambio also agreed to build 17 affordable units either as part of Cedar Ridge or at another Cambio-owned site, the Centre of New England retail/apartment development.

•Richmond planner Denise Stetson said 399 units of age-restricted housing are still in the plans for a proposed mixed-use development called Richmond Commons. The master plan was approved in 2003, and the Town Council, not the developer, John Aiello, of Richmond Realty, imposed the age restriction on the project, Stetson said.

For municipalities, the chance to gain additional tax revenue without the added education costs associated with traditional housing developments can be attractive in a time of rising costs and declining state aid. Casey said Cobblestone Village will provide Exeter with a net increase of $450,000 in annual revenue.

But not every community welcomes them with open arms. Schweid noted that the Town of Berlin, Conn., recently passed a moratorium on senior housing “because they were concerned about market saturation.”

And in Hudson, Mass., developers of the Esplanade age-restricted housing development, citing economic distress brought on by the market downturn, petitioned the town to lift the age restriction so they could sell to anyone. O’Connor said the Esplanade project, which offered “stacked flats,” was a “misfit” for the location and market, an example that builders “have to do their homework” before embarking on any new housing project.

Many builders don’t invest in market research “because they’ve never had to,” she said.

Casey said the age-restricted housing market is still relatively untapped in Rhode Island. No one keeps track of how much of this housing is already in place in the Ocean State, but The Villages on Mount Hope Bay, a 55-plus, 290-unit luxury waterfront complex on 97 acres in Tiverton, which opened in 2003, is one of the better-known age-qualified developments here.

But O’Connor and Casey agreed that selling age-qualified housing is difficult now, particularly for buyers who must sell one house before they can buy another, because of the troubled market. O’Connor said that 90 percent of buyers in these communities want or need to sell their existing home to buy. And only 15 percent of the 55-plus market wants to live in an age-qualified development, O’Connor said.

Boomers are more likely to retire later, or change careers to follow a dream of a less lucrative but more personally fulfilling path, and many want to be within a 60-minute drive to the homes of their aged parents and their young-adult children, she said. This is why boomers are less likely than their parents to relocate to the Sunbelt to retire. “We’re very connected to our families,” she said.

Once the housing market recovers, sales in age-qualified developments are once again expected to surge, according to Casey. “The demand is there,” he said. “The demographic numbers are so huge, even in a small state like this.”

“Even though we sort of missed the market, we know that the underlying demand for this kind of product is really strong,” he said.

Casey said the units at Cobblestone Village will be 2,000 to 2,200 square feet in size, and will be priced around $500,000 — what he called “luxury empty-nester homes with first-floor master suites.” The development will include a 5-acre hillside apple orchard, a community garden for residents and a small equestrian facility, including a horse barn and about 30 acres of grazing pastures. Plans also call for around 2 miles of walking trails looping around the property, tennis courts and a community meeting house.

Stetson, who began working as Richmond’s planner after the age-restricted housing was approved there, said these developments may have their place, but communities need overall balance and diversity to remain vibrant.

“I look at it from an ecological point of view,” Stetson said. “Diversity is good … and I think that an age diversity in a town is good thing.”

cdunn@projo.com