NORWICH – The city’s Common Council met briefly Tuesday to declare three city-owned properties on State Street as surplus and begin negotiations to sell the properties to the Chenango ARC.

Chenango ARC intends to demolish the vacant, dilapidated properties at 5, 5A and 7 State Street and clean up the wreckage before signing the property titles over to a private Syracuse based developer, Two Plus Four Management Inc., to utilize the property to construct four, two-bedroom town houses on the site. The townhouses are part of a larger project proposed by Two Plus Four Management to build an affordable housing complex in the neighborhood of State and Mitchell streets.

The ARC is relying on certain forms of state grant assistance to help with the costs of demolition and clean-up work.

In another recent meeting, the council approved a zoning change in the State Street neighborhood from an IN (industry) zone to R-2 (residential) to allow the proposed $7 million construction project to move forward. The development agency hopes to begin construction by April, 2013.