East Lyme — A developer who for a quarter-century has battled the town over his attempts to build housing in the Oswegatchie Hills area plans to begin another fight.

Tim Hollister, attorney for developer Glenn Russo, who has a controversial plan to build 840 units of housing on about 40 of 240 acres, said Tuesday he is in the process of appealing the town’s recent moratorium that forbids larger housing projects connecting to its sewers.

This effectively blocks developments with 20 or more multifamily or single-family units, or which would produce more than 5,000 gallons of sewage daily.

Town officials have said the moratorium gives them time to determine what capacity it truly has, and to create a plan to expand. Town officials have also said there is a risk the town will send more sewage to

the treatment plant in New London than its contract allows.

Hollister, speaking to the Water and Sewer Commission on Tuesday, called the regulation “plainly illegal." It was passed by the Board of Selectmen on Sept. 3 at the commission’s recommendation.

“I’m going to say some things you’re not going to like," Hollister said. “We seem to be entering a new phase of contention, and that’s regrettable."

In 2018, a judge ordered the town to give Russo’s company, Landmark Development, a 118,000-gallon-a-day sewer allotment after saying the town improperly denied the request. Russo is now requesting 123,000 more gallons. The commission continued discussion of the request to its next meeting.

Russo is also embroiled in a legal dispute with the town over a 2019 sewer regulation he said is impossible to comply with. Among other things, its deadlines for filing permits with all the state and local agencies a developer must go through is far too short. The deadline is a year after a the project’s sewer capacity is approved.

The project, which calls for building 840 units in 24 buildings, has drawn the ire of local environmental groups and advocates.

Hollister told the commission he has made Freedom of Information Act requests to the town about the new sewer moratorium and about the town’s effort to ask the state for an exemption to regulations that allow affordable housing developments to bypass local zoning. He said he has received no response. He said he also asked about sewer allocations for other developments in town and has heard nothing,

Russo and Hollister have both previously accused the town of weaponizing sewer allocations to block affordable housing, saying the town somehow manages to find capacity for projects it favors, like luxury and market-rate developments.

“Sewers are a public utility, just like public streets," Hollister told commissioners, also saying state law dictates that if the town has sufficient capacity and no insurmountable issue impeding it, properties have a right to connect to municipal sewers.

“That is the law of the state of Connecticut," he added.

Ben North, who heads the town’s water and sewer department, said the town’s regulations are not meant to impede development but to allow the town to “move forward deliberately” as it tries to find more capacity.

The town has offered the idea of expanding the sewage treatment plant in New London, which serves that city, East Lyme and Waterford, a lengthy project that could cost up to $100 million, North said.

“It’s not gonna come cheap," North said Wednesday.